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From: dje@5941ux.UUCP (D.Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame
Subject: Re: Grenada: The Rolling Lies
Message-ID: <463@5941ux.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Nov-83 09:19:42 EST
Article-I.D.: 5941ux.463
Posted: Thu Nov  3 09:19:42 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Nov-83 14:39:50 EST
References: ittvax.1084
Lines: 26

There's been a very lively debate on Grenada lately.  Many of the informed
debaters, regardless of whether they're pro or con, have been saying that
they're lacking information on the invasion.  Myself, I'm still not sure
whether the invasion was warranted by the political and military situation
there.  What I *AM* sure of is that we've all been kept in the dark in a 
manner unprecedented in this age of modern communication.

I understand and appreciate the need to black out information so that a
military operation won't be jeopardized by some advance leak.  But reporters 
were still being denied access by the Reagan administration, preventing them
from getting the facts they needed to do their job, long after the Grenada 
invasion had proceeded beyond that sensitive point.

I can't think of another case where reporters have been blocked from getting 
to where the news is happening.  On the military front, they get their
stories often at the peril of their lives.  They've been there, from the 
Pacific Islands in World War II to Korea, Vietnam, the Sinai, Lebanon,
Afghanistan and wherever else the action is.  That is, until now, in Grenada.

What in blazes is happening there that calls for our government interfering
with the news?  Either something is damned fishy, or else Reagan is 
pulling the plug on the freedom of information.  From my point of view, the
invasion may very well have been justified, but something very rotten is
going on.

David Ellis / AT&T Bell Labs, Piscataway NJ / ihnp4!5941ux!dje