The World - News from July 13, 1986

A classified Defense Department assessment of the October, 1983, U.S. invasion of Grenada found that the mission was marred by confusion, hasty planning and lack of information, the New York Times reported. A CIA operative apparently refused to fly over the Caribbean island nation as crisis hit its radical government, causing a blackout of intelligence data, the assessment showed. The operation’s flaws also included mistaken information about the strength of the island’s defenses, a decision to land Army Rangers in daylight hours and a nearly crippling lack of communications among the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine units that took part in the invasion.