Gentlemen do steal each others mail--Grenada 17

(to view a scanned image of the document, click here)
  
 
The following is a reasonably faithful reproduction of a document originating in the FBI, released to me by the State Department, and received by me on August 28, 1998. The document is littered with "classified" and "unclassified" notations. The rendition below does not capture the flavor of the document, but is a close rendition of the text that remains: 
 
 

R251848Z MAR 86 
FM AMEMBASSY GRENADA 
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 6101 

 
Confidential Grenada 00768 
 
EO 12356 Decl Oadr 
Tags PROP GJ US 
Subject US support for Bishop murder trial defendants 
 
 

ref grenada 0335 

confidential entire text 

acting director of public prosecutions velma hylton gave the poloff (sic) march 20 a copy of a letter from an American supporter to Phyllis Coard, one of the 19 accused of murdering former prime minister Bishop and otheers (sic) . The letter, mailed Feb 24 from Boston, was intercepted by prison authorities and passed to Ms Hylton. A copy of the letter is being pouched to ara/car. 

The writer has known Bernard and Phyllis Coard since student days at Brandeis University in the 1960's. The letter, full of initials and cirrcumlocutions (sic), speaks of letters passed to and from the nineteen by defense lawyers Maurice Tenn and Ian Ramsey and complains of the non-receipt of several documents meant to be distributed to supporters in the US, Canada, 

Confidential---deletions---
 
1/3 page deleted
 

England. However the fact sheet regarding the "fair trial" etc, has been received and distributed. The writer promises to send "theoretical materials", USG materials, (unspecified), and information on media coverage for an unspecified 3 month period. 

The letter includes several names and initials of supporters in Boston, New York, and Puerto Rico. It discusses interviews and efforts to get the pro-coard viewpoint in the US media and specifically cites interviews with the author and other Coardites on Boston TV and newspapers. One for being "edited beautifully" and another since the reporter "meant well". 

Comment: the letters authorr (sic) distributed an "open letter to thee (sic) American left" in late 1984 trying to elicit financial support for the 19. In content, this letter dovetails with the defendant's letters of August 1985 (reftel) : the same efforts to get a sympathetic hearing in the US press, the use of Jamaican defense lawyers as intermediaries, and the concern with "theoretical works" and "Bernard's study project", this last point so evident in the published "Grenada Documents" as well. 

Comment Continued: The faithful remnant is still trying to drum(sic)-up support or at least interest in their cause. Several of the Coard's friends and at least one of his brothers live in Boston. The Poloff (sic) spoke in January with a reporter from the Boston Globe who was writing on the angle. With Confidental.... 

1/3 page deleted 

age 03 

grenad 00768 2520332 

Is large West Indian Community and what the letter writer called the "Brandeis Connection" there is probably relatively moree (sic) interest in the nineteen in boston than in any other US city 

Gary 
 
 
 
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