US Senators Call for Cuba's Immediate Release of Alan Gross

SenatorMikulski 

Capitol Hill Cubans

Senators Cardin, Moran and Mikulski Call for Cuba's Immediate Release of Alan Gross

Resolution introduced on 3rd Anniversary of Alan Gross’ arrest in Havana

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have introduced a resolution calling on Cuba to immediately and unconditionally release Marylander Alan Gross. The resolution, introduced on the 3rd Anniversary of Mr. Gross’ arrest in Havana, Cuba, is co-sponsored by 29 of their Senate colleagues including Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). It also urges the Cuban government to address Mr. Gross’ medical issues. When passed, it will mark the first time Congress has taken the step of passing a resolution condemning Mr. Gross’ arrest and calling for his release. Sens. Cardin, Moran and Mikulski held a joint press conference with Judy Gross, the wife of Alan Gross, this morning to discuss the resolution.

“Year after year, the Cuban Government continues to demonstrate why bilateral relations between our two countries remain frozen,” Sen. Cardin said. “Alan Gross should no longer be forced to suffer the consequences of political gamesmanship. Enough is enough. Alan should be immediately and unconditionally released so he can return home for medical treatment and to support his family. The health and humanitarian needs of he and his family are paramount,”

“The Senate’s passage of this resolution will send a loud and clear message to Cuba: it is past time for Alan Gross to come home,” Sen. Moran said. “For more than a decade, I have worked to open Cuban markets to American agriculture. This year, however, I stepped back from these efforts because the Cuban government has a responsibility to cooperate with the United States on the unjust detention of Alan Gross. The path to improved America-Cuba relations has always been difficult, but it is that much more difficult and unlikely until Cuba releases Alan Gross.”

“It’s long past time Alan Gross be immediately and unconditionally released from his imprisonment in Cuba,” Sen. Mikulski said. “For three years he and his family have suffered from these bogus charges and a sham trial. And for three years the Cuban government has ignored basic human rights and has shown they are not serious about building a relationship with the United States. I want Alan and Judy Gross to know that they are not in this fight alone. I will continue to do all I can so Alan can come home to Maryland and his family.”

Alan Gross was arrested on December 3, 2009, and after a two-day trial, was given a 15-year prison sentence by Cuban authorities for facilitating communications between Cuba’s Jewish community and the rest of the world. Mr. Gross was in Cuba working as a sub-contractor for the United States Agency for International Development, helping a small, peaceful, non-dissident community. He was doing the type of work he had done his whole career in international development – helping others in need.

A 63-year-old husband and father, Mr. Gross has lost more than 100 pounds since his arrest and suffers from severe degenerative arthritis that affects his mobility, as well as other health problems. The Cuban Government has denied requests by Mr. Gross for an independent medical examination by a doctor of his choosing. Members of his family have also faced serious illnesses during this time.

La "beligerancia" de Alan Gross y los comemierdas del Senado/ Katungo

Luis Alberto Ramirez

Castro Admits Alan Gross is a Hostage

Capitol Hill Cubans

The Castro regime has replied to a letter by over 40 U.S. Senators asking for the humanitarian release of American development worker, Alan Gross, held in a Cuban prison since December 2009.

In its response, the head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., Jose Ramon Cabanas, states:

To demand from and hope for the Cuban Government to take the unilateral decision of releasing Mr. Gross without giving any consideration whatsoever to the legitimate concerns of our country is not a realistic approach... 

And what are the regime's "legitimate" concerns?

...[E]nclosed is a summary information on the case of the Five Cubans who remain unjustly imprisoned or retained in the United States, in respect of whom Cuba has legitimate humanitarian concerns.

Alan Gross is the person seized or held as security.

The so-called Cuban Five are the condition for his release.

That is a hostage-taking.

Judy Gross, wife of the Castro regime's American hostage Alan Gross, National Press Club, 11/30/12

December 3rd, three days from now, marks the three year anniversary of Alan's wrongful imprisonment in Cuba. December 3rd, 2009 is when Alan was arrested in Cuba. He was then held in prison for 14 months without charges and then later convicted for undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cuba. December 3rd, 2009 was the day my family's world began to fall apart... As Alan's wife, I continue to fear that his life is in jeopardy. I plead with the Cuban government to allow his condition to be properly evaluated by an independent doctor of his choosing. I cannot and I will not allow my husband to die in a Cuban prison. I urge the government of Cuba to release Alan on humanitarian grounds.

Spy games: Is there a US-Cuban spy swap in the works?

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Wife of American detained in Cuba speaks out

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Cuba Plans 'Announcement' on Alan Gross

Forward
Cuban officials have put U.S. media on alert that an announcement is imminent on the plight of Alan Gross, a Jewish contractor held in a Cuban jail for almost three years. The announcement is expected to be made the morning of November 28.  More >>

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James L. Berenthal/Associated Press - In this photo provided by James L. Berenthal, jailed American Alan Gross poses for a photo during a visit by Rabbi Elie Abadie and U.S. lawyer James L. Berenthal at Finlay military hospital in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012. T

Cuba Hoping to Benefit From Possible Gross Release

by Chris Simmons

By Jaime Suchlicki, suchlicki@miami.edu

Gen. Raúl Castro’s regime is considering a pardon for Alan Gross, the American USAID subcontractor arrested in Cuba in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in jail for distributing computers to the Jewish community in the island. This calculated olive branch to the just-reelected Obama administration has two objectives. First, to obtain U.S. concessions in the area of travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba. Second, to obtain the release of four Cuban spies, serving sentences in U.S. jails for espionage activities on behalf of the Castro government.

Some within the Castro regime are arguing that the Obama administration will be pushed to offer major concessions if Cuba frees Gross. The reasons: there is a pent-up demand for travel to Cuba; American tourists will bring much needed dollars; and Cuba’s efficient security apparatus could control American tourists, primarily interested in visiting Cuban beaches and less concerned about subverting the Communist regime.

Most argue that American tourists will have little impact, other than economic. They point out that over the past several years hundreds of thousands of Canadian, Europeans and Latin American tourists have visited the island. There have been no major political changes. Money from tourists, furthermore, has been flowing into businesses owned by the Castro government and the Cuban military, thus strengthening state enterprises.

The recent migration law enacted by Cuba that eases travel for Cubans to visit the United States and other countries is also entering into Gen. Castro’s calculations. The liberalization of Cuban travel will put pressure on the Obama administration to allow Americans to travel to the island. From Cuba’s point of view it is a win/win situation. More Cubans will travel abroad, many staying in the host country or making their way to the U.S. More American tourists will travel to Cuba leaving their dollars in the island.

What should the United States do? Any major policy concession to Cuba will be out of proportion to the release of an unjustly imprisoned American. Gross is a hostage being used by the Cuban government to exact change from the U.S. The history of U.S-Cuba relations has been characterized by Cuba’s daring actions followed by major U.S. concessions (i.e. U.S.-Cuba migration accord allowing 20,000 Cubans to enter the United States following Mariel). The release of Gross should be seen as a humanitarian gesture requiring no action on the part of the United States. When Raúl Castro is willing to offer irreversible concessions, the administration should respond in kind. Ping-pong diplomacy worked with China. Tit for tat should with Cuba.

Jaime Suchlicki is director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami.

Alan Gross sues ex-employer BUT SHUT UP WITH CASTRO

WASHINGTON [AP]— An American imprisoned in Cuba for nearly three years is suing his former Maryland employer and the United States government for $60 million, saying they didn’t adequately train him or disclose risks he was undertaking by doing development work on the Communist island.

Alan Gross and his wife Judy sued Friday in federal court in Washington. The lawsuit alleges that the economic development company Gross was working for in Cuba and the U.S. government, with which the company had a contract, failed to provide Gross “with the education and training that was necessary to minimize the risk of harm to him.”

Gross, 63, was arrested in December 2009 while on his fifth trip to Cuba. The trip was part of a project to increase the availability of Internet access in the country, particularly to the island’s small Jewish community. Gross was working on the effort as a subcontractor for Development Alternatives Inc., an economic development company based in Bethesda, Md.

The company, known as DAI, was a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. government agency that provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. USAID has been criticized by Cuba for seeking to promote democratic change on the island, and Cuba says its programs are a veiled attempt by Washington to undermine the government.

The lawsuit alleges that Gross expressed concern about his project several times but was pressured by DAI to “finish the project or to find someone else who would.” When the U.S. government learned of Gross’ concerns, officials also did nothing, the lawsuit says.

DAI said in a statement Friday that the company had “numerous disagreements” with the lawsuit’s content. The statement did not specify those disagreements but said the company is confident it will “have a chance to tell DAI’s side of this story in due course.” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday she was not aware of the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

“This is very risky business in no uncertain terms,” Gross wrote in a report to DAI after a third trip to the island in 2009, the lawsuit says.

He repeated the same sentiment in a report after his fourth trip, writing essentially the same sentence in bold.

Gross’ wife Judy, who now lives in Washington, has previously said that her husband feels he was misled by DAI. Judy Gross said in a 2011 interview with The Associated Press that her husband wanted reassurance that what he was doing was legal, but the company refused to contact Cuban officials and refused to let him contact anyone either.

The Cuban government tightly controls access to the Internet in the country. Most access is dial-up and goes to an island intranet, rather than the full worldwide web. According to government statistics, only 2.9 percent of islanders had direct Internet access last year. The true figure is probably between 5 and 10 percent considering under-the-table sales of dial-up minutes.

Gross was tried in a Cuban court on charges of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011. In previously released testimony from the trial Gross called himself a “trusting fool.”

“I was duped. I was used. And my family and I have paid dearly for this,” he said.

Diplomatic efforts to win Gross’ release have so far failed.

“At this time, there are no indications that Mr. Gross will return to his family within the next decade,” the lawsuit says.

Gross’ health has also declined in prison. He has lost more than 100 pounds, and earlier this year he developed a mass behind his right shoulder that an American doctor has said should be assumed to be cancerous unless proven harmless.

Gross’ lead lawyer in the lawsuit, Scott Gilbert, said in a telephone interview that his client is a “well-intentioned, idealistic guy,” not a “trained covert operative.” Gross repeatedly noted risks, Gilbert said, but didn’t know what to do about them. Gilbert said the government and DAI had fundamental duties to Gross that they failed to fulfill including properly briefing and debriefing him. He said the work Gross was doing should have been done by someone fully aware of the risks, not someone like Gross, who didn’t even speak Spanish.

Also on Friday, Gross and his wife filed an approximately $10 million lawsuit in federal court in Maryland against the New Jersey-based Federal Insurance Company. DAI had purchased an insurance policy from the company that included a “wrongful detention policy” that covers Gross’ imprisonment in Cuba.

The lawsuit says the company breached its contract by failing to pay expenses of the Gross family that are covered by the policy including legal fees and medical expenses. The lawsuit also says the insurance company has paid $2.3 million of the $5 million policy limit, some of it to DAI.

Cuba Hints at Swapping US Contractor for Cuban Spies

Chris Simmons

By JUAN TAMAYO — The Miami Herald

One week after President Barack Obama won re-election, Havana offered a "draft agenda" for U.S.-Cuba negotiations that largely repeats its years-old positions but almost directly offers to swap American Alan Gross for five Cuban spies. The statement by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla Lopez to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday received little initial media attention. It was disseminated more broadly Wednesday by his ministry and Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington.

Obama has lifted nearly all limits on Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island, allowed educational visits by other U.S. residents, and restarted - and then stopped again - bilateral talks on migration issues. But his administration has repeatedly said that more significant improvements in bilateral relations can come only after Cuba frees Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor serving a 15-year prison sentence.

Wayne Smith, a former chief U.S. diplomat in Havana and now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, said Rodriguez laid out a list of issues that Havana has long said it wanted to discuss in any bilateral talks. "He simply reiterated their position. I don't see anything new there," Smith said. "This is a nonstarter. Same demands as in the past. No offers of major concessions on human rights, etc.," Jaime Suchlicki, head of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, wrote in an email.

Arturo Lopez-Levy, a former Cuban government analyst now lecturing at the University of Denver, called Rodriguez's speech "a list of maximum demands that shows the bilateral conflict can be handled better but not solved" during Obama's next term. But he added that the foreign minister's words evoked Obama's offer of a "new start" in relations with Cuba shortly after he won the White House in 2008. The U.S. State Department said it had no comment on the Rodriguez proposal.

"Today, here and now, I am again submitting to the U.S. government a draft agenda for a bilateral dialogue aimed at moving towards the normalization of relations," Rodriguez said. His agenda items included lifting all U.S. sanctions; removing Cuba from the U.S. list of countries with links to international terrorism; and ending the Cuban Adjustment Act and the wet-foot, dry-foot policies, which Havana complains unfairly lure Cuban migrants to the United States.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/11/15/2769003/cuba-hints-at-swapping-us-contractor.html#storylink=cpy

Wife of American jailed in Cuba pins hopes on Obama's re-election

By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) – The wife of Alan Gross, the U.S. contractor jailed in Cuba for crimes against the state, said she hopes President Barack Obama’s re-election will soon help lead to her ailing husband’s release from the communist-ruled country. More >>

Alan Gross podría tener cáncer, según su abogado ...

Reuters/EP/

   Alan Gross, el contratista estadounidense condenado a 15 años de prisión en Cuba por introducir equipos de comunicación por satélite en el país caribeño, podría tener cáncer y, en caso de que así fuera, no está recibiendo tratamiento médico, según ha informado este martes su abogado estadounidense, Jared Genser.

   Genser ha explicado que facultativos estadounidenses han hecho una valoración de las pruebas médicas a las que se ha sometido Gross en los últimos meses por la existencia de una "masa" en su hombro derecho, que su mujer, Judy, vio en la última visita.

   El radiólogo estadounidense Alan Cohen ha sostenido, en base a esta información, que "Gross tiene un problema médico potencialmente mortal que no está siendo evaluado conforme a los estándares de la medicina moderna".

   "Una masa blanda en un adulto que ha perdido mucho peso debe considerarse como un tumor maligno hasta que no se pruebe lo contrario", ha dicho, recordando que Gross ha adelgazado 47 kilogramos desde que fue encarcelado, en 2009.

   Así, Cohen ha indicado que el contratista norteamericano debería someterse a más pruebas médicas "inmediatamente", en concreto, a una biopsia para determinar la naturaleza de la "masa", y, "preferiblemente, en Estados Unidos".

   De acuerdo con Genser, los médicos cubanos detectaron la "masa" el pasado mes de mayo, pero le dijeron a Gross que era un hematoma y que, como tal, desaparecería con el paso del tiempo. El Gobierno, por su parte, insiste en que se encuentra en buenas condiciones de salud.

   Por ello, el letrado del contratista estadounidense ha apuntado que "o los médicos cubanos son responsables de una grave negligencia profesional o están ocultando intencionadamente lo que podría ser una enfermedad mortal".

   Por su parte, Judy ha instado al Gobierno cubano a permitir que su marido se someta a una revisión médica en Estados Unidos "antes de que sea demasiado tarde". "Presidente, (Raúl) Castro, te ruego que no dejes morir a mi marido ante tu mirada", ha solicitado.

   Además, ha criticado la actuación de los facultativos cubanos. "Tu país --le ha dicho a Castro-- presume de tener uno de los mejores sistemas médicos del mundo, entonces, ¿Por qué tus médicos han fallado en el diagnóstico y no han hecho las pruebas adecuadas?", ha cuestionado.  Mas >>

Carta de los senadores a Raul Castro [Alan Gross]

By Chris Simmons

September 24, 2012

President Raúl Castro

Republic of Cuba

c/o Cuban Interests Section

2630 16^th Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20009

Dear President Castro:

We are writing to express our serious and ongoing concern regarding the detention of Alan Gross, an American citizen, and to urge you to release him from prison on humanitarian grounds. As you are aware, Mr. Gross was a U.S.-government subcontractor who was arrested on December 3, 2009. He was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison for alleged “actions against the independence or territorial integrity of the state.”

Since his arrest, Mr. Gross has lost 105 pounds (47.63 kg). He has degenerative arthritis and a mass behind his shoulder, which he fears may become permanent. He also suffers from mental anguish because of separation from his family, several of whom have serious medical conditions. Specifically, his daughter has been diagnosed and is being treated for breast cancer. And his 90-year-old mother, to whom he is exceptionally close, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in February 2011. Her condition continues to deteriorate and they both fear they will be unable to see each other again.

Members of the Senate have traveled to your country, written to you and your dignitaries, and employed other creative means to encourage Mr. Gross’s release. Yet these attempts thus far have been futile, and Mr. Gross’s ongoing detention in your country presents a major obstacle to any further actions to improve our bilateral relations.

We very much hope that you will take our concerns seriously. As we approach the three-year anniversary of Alan’s imprisonment, we call on you to take action and grant him the belated release his situation warrants.

Sincerely,

Led by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS),  the letter was also signed by Richard Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Al Franken (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Begich (D-AK), Dean Heller (R-NV), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Robert P. Casey (D-PA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), John F. Kerry (D-MA), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mark Warner (D-VA), John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK), John Boozman (R-AR), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Dan Coats (R-IN), Mark L. Pryor (D-AR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

44 senadores de EEUU piden a Cuba que libere a Alan Gross

AP/
Un total de cuarenta y cuatro senadores demócratas y republicanos mandaron una carta al líder cubano Raúl Castro para que libere al subcontratista estadounidense Alan Gross, que cumple 15 años de condena en la isla, informó este martes la oficina de uno de los legisladores.
"Miembros del Senado han viajado a su país, le han escrito a Ud. como a sus dignatarios y han utilizado otros medios creativos para alentar la liberación del señor Gross. Pero hasta ahora todos esos intentos han sido fútiles", explicó la misiva, divulgada por el senador republicano Jerry Moran.
La detención de Gross, quien según su familia ha perdido más de 47 kgs y padece artritis degenerativa, "representa el principal obstáculo para poder mejorar nuestras relaciones bilaterales", añadió el texto.
Cerca de la mitad de los miembros del Senado (100 en total) firmaron la misiva. Los dos únicos senadores hispanos, el demócrata Bob Menéndez (Nueva Jersey) y el republicano Marco Rubio (Florida), ambos de origen cubano, no forman parte de la lista.
Cuba condenó a Gross por haber distribuido material de comunicaciones e informático a grupos judíos en la isla, una actividad considerada un "ataque a la integridad del Estado".
La Habana ha señalado en varias ocasiones que está dispuesta a conversar sobre esa liberación y niega que Gross se encuentre gravemente enfermo, pero los abogados del subcontratista aseguran que no ha habido contactos sustanciosos para lograrlo.

EEUU: Cuba miente sobre el caso de Alan Gross

By Chris Simmons

FOX5 Washington, Posted: Sep 18, 2012 7:31 AM EDT Updated: Sep 18, 2012 7:31 AM EDT 

Cuba Lying

The State Department says the Cuban government is lying about negotiating the release of a Maryland man.  Cuba says it is waiting to hear from the U.S. about exchanging Alan Gross for five Cuban men held in an American federal prison on espionage charges. Gross has been in a Cuban prison for almost three years on similar charges. Now he's reportedly very ill.

The State Department issued a statement saying in part, "We have repeatedly made clear to the Cuban government that we reject the notion of exchanging members of the so-called 'Cuban Five' for an American citizen who the Cuban government has imprisoned simply for trying to bring internet access to the Cuban people. But we have always been ready to hear from Cuba about a humanitarian gesture to release Mr. Gross."

Cuba Says its Ready to Negotiate Gross Fate

By Chris Simmons

By Paul Haven, Associated Press | September 12, 2012 01:57 PM EST  

HAVANA — A senior Cuban diplomat said Wednesday her country is prepared to negotiate a solution in the case of a jailed American contractor, but is awaiting a U.S. response.

Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal also rejected allegations by the wife of 63-year-old Maryland native Alan Gross that her husband's health is failing after more than 2 1/2 years in custody.  "Cuba reiterates its willingness to talk with the United States government to find a solution in the case of Mr. Gross and continues to await an answer," Vidal, who heads the ministry's Office of North American Affairs, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

She gave no details. It was the first time a Cuban official has hinted that a specific proposal has been made and indicated that the ball was in Washington's court.  Previously, senior officials in President Raul Castro's government have raised the case of five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States, though they have not spelled out publicly that they are seeking an exchange.  U.S. officials say privately, however, that Havana has made it increasingly clear they want a quid pro quo, something Washington has repeatedly rejected.

Gross's wife, Judy, traveled to Cuba and visited her husband in custody several times last week. She said upon her return to the United States that she feared he would not survive his ordeal.

Gross, who was obese when he was arrested in December 2009, has lost more than 100 pounds in custody. His wife and lawyer say he also suffers from arthritis and has developed a mass behind his right shoulder blade that is not believed to be cancerous. 

Vidal said the American's physical condition is fine.  "Mr. Gross's health continues to be normal and he exercises regularly," she said in the brief statement. 

Gross was working on a USAID-funded democracy building program when he was arrested at Havana's Jose Marti airport. He says he was only trying to provide internet service to the island's small Jewish community.  Cuba says the multimillion dollar programs are an effort by Washington to undermine the government, and has noted that Gross was carrying sophisticated communications equipment.  Gross was sentenced to 15 years, and has lost his final appeal, leaving him out of legal options.

Editor’s Note:  Josefina Vidal left the US in 2003 when her husband and 13 other spy-diplomats were thrown out of the United States.  Vidal and Maria Cristina Delgado Suarez (wife of expelled spy Raul Rodriguez Averhoff) both left the country voluntarily.  That said, both women were known to US authorities as Cuban intelligence officers and this fact played into the selection of their husbands for expulsion.

Carta a Alan Gross

dailycaller.com 
Editor’s Note: The author was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He was later awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal.

By Armando Valladares

Alan P. Gross
Havana, Cuba

Dear friend:

That is how I am compelled to address you, because even though we have never met, we share a common bond: I too lived behind the iron bars now surrounding you in Cuba — in my case for 22 years.

Like you, I was convicted by the Cuban authorities without a single shred of evidence against me.

I know the anguish of interminable days and endless nights, the feeling of helplessness when you know yourself to be innocent. I also know the painful sense of the lack of solidarity from outside the prison walls.

I have no doubt that your greatest pain right now must be the realization that the U.S. government has turned its back on you. There was a time when the words “I am an American citizen” meant something. They meant all the more when the individual declaring that was the target of abuse outside of the United States. It meant: “I have rights and they are recognized by the government of my country and they will ensure that you, too, respect my rights.”
It gives me great sadness to say that inside the Communist boot that now tramples upon your dignity is the foot of the American president, Barack Obama.
The more Castro’s thugs oppress you and make your family suffer, the more your jailers torture you, the harder things get for you — the more this administration seeks to reward them with new concessions. How is it that in 53 years of Cuba’s brutal dictatorship it was only months after Obama came to the presidency that the Castro brothers first decided to take an American citizen hostage?
How is it possible that the American administration has turned its back on you?
The pronouncements by the U.S. Department of State that U.S. officials are doing “everything they can” to secure your freedom are absolutely false. They are hypocritical statements not backed by any real action. Under any previous U.S. administration, Democrat or Republican, you would not still be in jail.
Your case has no precedent in the history of the United States. You are in prison because of the supreme cowardice of the American president and his secretary of state. Whether they know it or not, the key to your cell is inside President Obama’s pocket.
The White House has abandoned you. It does not matter to them that you may be very ill and slowly dying.
It does not matter to them that your daughter has cancer, or that your wife, too, is ill.
The American president, who has made a habit of publicly bowing to foreign powers, bows to your torturers and would-be executioners. Meanwhile, the adult daughter of Cuba’s dictator recently visited the U.S. to applaud and show her support for President Obama. She receives a visa to come to the United States and a Secret Service escort. And you? You suffer the torture of imprisonment.
The Obama administration must step up its efforts to press for your release through its diplomatic channels. Should those diplomatic efforts fail, then they must be followed by real action, including the suspension of flights and remittances to Cuba until such time as you are allowed to return to the United States. If the Obama administration even threatened to do this it is my considered judgment that you would be on the next flight back to your home in Washington, D.C.
Only with real action will your freedom be secured. Unfortunately, if past is prologue, such action is unlikely to ever happen with this administration.
After I was released from prison, President Ronald Reagan appointed me as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. During my tenure at the U.N., we managed to expose to the world, for the first time, Cuba’s systematic violations of fundamental rights and freedoms. You know these violations all too well. They are now marked on your own flesh. You will have your day in the international court, too. You will have the opportunity to expose your jailers and the suffering they have imposed on 11 million people for more than half a century.
Please do not lose faith. You are not alone in that cell. God is there with you, along with the love of your brave wife and the firm commitment of those of us who continue to fight for your freedom. Do not give in to despair or to the treachery of those who have abandoned you. I am convinced, from my own experience, that you will return home, against all hope …

You are always in my prayers.
Armando Valladares

Mahmoud Abbas asked Cuba to free Alan Gross

(MaanImages/Omar Rashidi, Pool)

Ma'an News Agency/ By George Hale

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- In early March, President Mahmoud Abbas approached Cuban leader Raul Castro with an unusual request.

According to the veteran Israeli negotiator who set up the call, Abbas wanted Castro to free Alan Gross, a Jewish American contractor jailed by Havana since late 2009.

The intermediary, peace activist Gershon Baskin, says Gross “is being held hostage.” The view is shared by much of the US Jewish community as well as the State Department, which has no direct ties with Cuba. Palestine, however, has an excellent relationship with the island nation, so Baskin contacted Abbas.

"I asked the Palestinians, and he did that," Baskin said in an interview. "It was a very good, humanitarian gesture on the part of Abu Mazen," he said, although the talks failed to secure Gross' release.

What does an American jailed in Cuba have to do with the Palestinians? Emails stolen in May from a Palestinian Authority cabinet minister may provide a clue.

Posted online, the messages depict Palestinian officials desperate to convince a powerful Cuban-American lawmaker to lift a hold on $147 million allocated for civilian aid to the Palestinians.

The congresswoman, Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is one of the Castro regime’s fiercest critics in Washington. Gross is from Maryland but his plight is a priority for many of the lawmaker's south Florida constituents.

Three weeks after Abbas contacted Castro, Ros-Lehtinen relented on half the funds -- about $89 million -- that she had withheld for seven months in protest of Palestinian efforts to seek membership in the UN. On March 23, the lawmaker sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explaining that she would “no longer object” to distributing the aid for water programs, healthcare and food.

The letter made no mention of the Palestinian overtures to Castro, but a person involved in the campaign to free Gross said the congresswoman had agreed to consider releasing the money if Abbas succeeded. She was first approached with the proposal by one of Gross' attorneys.

Baskin confirmed this account but said Ros-Lehtinen was also under pressure from the State Department and even AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobby group. And she was not the only one blocking Palestinian money; Republican Kay Granger of Texas had a similar hold in place.

Still, the Palestinians understood their intervention as necessary to appease Ros-Lehtinen, not Granger. Baskin said he initiated the talks as a goodwill gesture to Ros-Lehtinen, although she is not mentioned by name in the messages stolen from Mahmoud Habash, a senior Palestinian official.

Trade the “Cuban Five? Maybe, But For These Guys, Not Alan Gross

By Chris Simmons

For some time, the Castro regime has suggested various scenarios for an exchange of Alan Gross for up to six of its spies jailed or on parole in the United States.  However, Alan Gross is a hostage, not a spy.  As such, trading him for the Cuban Five cannot be seriously considered under any circumstance.  However, exchanging Gross for several indicted Cuban officials and all US fugitives on the island could benefit both nations.    According to law enforcement sources, as many as 70 US fugitives may be enjoying the protection of the Castro regime.

Luis Armando Pena Soltren

A precedent for such a prisoner exchange already exists.  In 1979, four CIA operatives jailed in Cuba for nearly two decades were exchanged for Oscar Collazo, who tried to assassinate Truman in October 20, 1950, as well as Lolita Lebron and three other Puerto Ricans who shot up the US Congress on March 1, 1954.  Additionally, in June 2008, Cuba returned American fugitive Leonard Auerback to the US to face Federal charges of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and the possession of child pornography.  Cuba also allowed Luis Armando Pena Soltren to return to the US in October 2009 to surrender to FBI officials to face a 40-year old indictment for air piracy.

In this scenario, the Cuban Five would be exchanged for Alan Gross, all 50-70+ fugitives want by the US, and four indicted Cuban officials.   The indicted Cubans are all associated with the murder of four Americans during the February 1996 shoot down of two US aircraft flown by the humanitarian group, Brothers to the Rescue.  Indicted by the US on August 21, 2003 were General Rubén Martínez Puente, Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Perez Perez, and his twin brother, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Perez Perez.  All three were indicted for conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of destruction of aircraft, and four counts of murder for the shoot down of the two aircraft and the death of the crews.  Ironically, most of the evidence against them was developed as a result of the 1998 arrests of 10 members of a Cuban spy ring known as the Wasp Network.  Another Cuban officer to be included in the proposed exchange is Lieutenant Colonel Juan Pablo Roque, another member of the Wasp Network, also remains under indictment for conspiracy to commit murder and espionage-related charges.

Víctor Manuel Gerena

Among the wanted US felons are terrorists Víctor Manuel Gerena and Joanne Chisimard.  On the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” List, a million dollar reward is offered for Manuel Gerena http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/victor-manuel-gerena/view.  Similarly, a million dollar bounty is offered on Joanne Chisimard for the May 2, 1973 execution of a New Jersey state trooper http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt/joanne-deborah-chesimard.  The crimes committed by the dozens of other felons include numerous counts of murder, air piracy, and other heinous acts.

So, regarding the idea of exchanging the Cuban Five for Alan Gross – no, not now, not ever.  But trading the Cuban Five for Alan Gross and as many as 74 terrorists, indicted officials, and other dangerous criminals?  That’s an idea worth considering.  I’d say yes to “75 for 5!”

Cuba Trade Proponents in Senate Pressure Castro Over Jailing of US Citizen

by Chris Simmons

By Erik Wasson – The Hill

Two Senate advocates for increased trade with Cuba have backed off their efforts in light of the detention of a U.S. citizen by the Fidel Castro regime.

Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had been leading a congressional push to “reset” relations with Cuba and increase trade and travel ties, but have halted that advocacy over the Alan Gross case.

Gross, 63, was given a 15-year prison sentence for alleged spying and is reportedly frail. The State Department has called repeatedly for Cuba to release him.

“I have tried to change the trading relationship with Cuba. I am taking a hiatus from that effort. I am no longer willing to do that,” Moran said.  “I hope that this will put pressure on Cuba to release him,” he said.

Moran and Durbin had faced opposition from Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla), who has thwarted changes to Cuba policy since becoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011. Despite the lack of action in the House, Moran and Durbin persisted last year in trying to increase agricultural exports to Cuba.

U.S. companies have been permitted to ship food and medicine to Cuba since 2000, but Treasury Department regulations have inhibited trade by making the payments for those goods more complicated.  Moran last year inserted an amendment into a draft 2012 Financial Services Appropriations bill that would have allowed Cuban buyers to make direct cash payments to U.S. financial institutions in order to ease agricultural trade. Farm lobbyists supported the language.

The Kansas senator also supported language that would end a restriction that forces buyers to pay for goods before they leave U.S. ports, rather than when receiving the goods.  Both provisions were stripped out of the final 2012 omnibus appropriations package that was enacted into law, however.

Moran this week said he is no longer pushing for the trade changes, and aides said neither provision is in the bill that passed out of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday.  Durbin, the spending “cardinal” in charge of the Treasury budget, said that he supports Moran’s decision despite being an advocate of using trade to open up closed societies.  Durbin said he’s “always voted with [Moran] to expand trade,” but a visit with Gross in prison this spring convinced him that more needs to be done to free him.

In 2010, the House Agriculture Committee under now-ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) attempted to pass a wide-ranging Cuba trade bill.  Asked Friday about the Gross case, Peterson said he still wants stronger trade ties.  “I’m still for opening trade with Cuba,” he said through a spokesperson.

Former Gov. Bill Richardson on Alan Gross, Cuba