E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSAmerican contractor Alan Gross has been imprisoned for three years in Cuba for smuggling satellite equipment to the country's Jewish community. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports.
HAVANA, Cuba — Three years after he was arrested in Havana, jailed American contractor Alan Gross is asking the U.S. government to sign a "non-belligerency pact" with Cuba as a first step toward negotiating his release, according to a Cuba policy analyst who just visited him.
Peter Kornbluh , right, stands with Alan Gross, in a picture taken on Kornbluh's iPhone by a guard during his visit to the Havana prison where Gross is being held.
Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba specialist at the National Security Archives, a nonprofit research center in Washington, met with Gross for four hours on Wednesday at the military hospital in Havana where the contractor is being held. He said Gross appeared "extremely thin" — he has lost over 100 pounds since his arrest —and dispirited.
"He’s angry, he’s frustrated, he’s dejected — and he wants his own government to step up" and negotiate, said Kornbluh. "His message is that the United States and Cuba have to sit down and have a dialogue without preconditions. … He told me that the first meeting should result in a non-belligerency pact being signed between the United States and Cuba."
Gross' comments appear to represent a new tack in an aggressive public relations campaign to win his freedom. His supporters have planned a candlelight vigil outside the Cuban interests section in Washington D.C., on Sunday and the U.S. Senate is poised to take up a resolution Monday demanding his release, Gross’ wife, Judy, has also become increasingly critical of the U.S. government for not doing more to demand that her 63-year-old husband be allowed to return home.
Jose Luis Magana / AP
Judy Gross at her home in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 29.
"He feels like a soldier in the field left to die," she said at a press conference in Washington last week.
Gross, who worked for an Agency for International Development contractor, was arrested by the Cubans on Dec. 3, 2009, and accused of smuggling sophisticated satellite and other telecommunications equipment into the country to give to the island’s tiny Jewish community. Gross has said he was only trying to increase Internet access in Cuba. But he was convicted by a Cuban court in March of last year for crimes "against the independence and territorial integrity of the state" and sentenced to 15 years.
Related coverage
Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for American contractor held in Havana
Slideshow: Castro through the years
Last month, Gross and his wife filed a $60 million lawsuit against the U.S. government and the contractor he was working for, Development Alternatives, charging he was used as a "pawn" in a U.S. government program to change the Castro regime and never advised about the dangers he faced bringing high tech satellite transmission equipment into Cuba. (The State Department, of which AID is a part and which has repeatedly called for Gross’ release, declined comment. Development Alternatives has released a statement saying it has "no higher priority" than bringing Gross home.)
Kornbluh, who has advocated closer U.S.-Cuba dialogue, was in Havana last week to attend a conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. He was granted permission to visit Gross by Cuban officials. (The Cubans so far have denied all news media requests to meet with him.) He said Gross was most upset about being unable to return home to see members of his family who are ill, especially his 90-year-old mother in Texas who has cancer.
Keystone / Getty Images
Ever since U.S.-backed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista was forced from power by rebels led by Fidel Castro in 1958, the relationship between the two nations has been fraught with difficulties.
"He really wants to see his mother, who is quite old and infirm,” said Kornbluh. When Kornbluh had his photo taken with Gross, the contractor held up a photo that read: “Hi Mom.” When he asked Gross what he wanted to get out of the lawsuit, the contractor replied: “I want to see my wife and I want to see my mother."
To accomplish that, Gross is seeking to nudge the Obama administration, according to Kornbluh. Gross knows that his freedom "is going to depend on his government negotiating in good faith with the Cubans," said Kornbluh. "His message to Barack Obama is: I’m fired up and ready to go. Where are you at this moment?"
Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent; NBC News producer Mary Murray also contributed to this report.
More from Open Channel:
- Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for American jailed in Havana
- Livestock falling ill in fracking regions
- Tobacco industry used trade pacts to try to snuff out anti-smoking laws
- Jeb Bush's reputation as education reformer gets a second look
- As fighting raged in Syria, Russia sent tons of cash to Damascus, records show
- One email exposes millions to ID theft risk in South Carolina cyberattack
- Study finds breast cancer risk for women in auto plastics factories
- Jill Kelley email: Petraeus, Allen sought help hushing 'Bubba the Love Sponge'
Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
I say if we want him we should go get him......surgical strike would do wonders
He is suing the US for 60 million because he broke the Cuban law and got caught .... Let his ass rot in jail...
Of course I have compassion for his and his wife's situation, but he was not representing us in Cuba and he was involved in personal criminal doings, doings he was lucky enough to get away with before, but hey, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. I just don't see how this could be the US's fault, or even Obama's or even Bush's for that matter. I would like to see us have better relations with Cuba, but this is not the guy we should be negotiating for. He got himself into this and he will have to get himself out or just do the time. Maybe his wife still has a lot of the money he made with his previous, more successful crimes, and she can negotiate with that.
Maybie the first step should be to make sure Gross is getting the nutrician he needs. 100 pounds lost is condiderable and he looks very thin.
If he lost 100lbs he was probly considered obess or pretty close to it 3 YEARS ago.. If he was being starved he wouldnt be smiling and he sure wouldnt have color in his face and wll its been 3 years.. hes probly healthier now then when he went in.
Lets not forget Cuba is not a rich country the natives to the Island are pretty thin themself - to be honesty America is becoming one of the fattest unhealthiest countries hence why we are now pushing for more active life styles and why the child nutrition act requiring our children be served 3 fresh vruits and veggies daily on the States pocket was inacted- In my kids school even the bagged lunch kids are offered fresh goods free daily Bonus the food comes from local farms which is a win win for all.
Actually Fenderbluejr. Cubans didn't rise up of their own accord, and neither did Panama or Nicaragua. Nobody in the Western Hemisphere has risen up of their own accord with-out U.S review or involvement. Most of it, especially Castro, is of U.S. involvement and manufacture.
“The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention.[1] President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. It became a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets, and would be invoked by many U.S. statesmen and several U.S. presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan and many others.”
Who really gives a @!$%#, I don't. Life is full of tough luck Charlie, situations, you win some you loose some. America has no power to @!$%# anymore, lay-off be a super power and negotiate. That entitlement fell short right after the Vietnam War. Going to be a third world country soon, the rich, elite, and corporations have made sure of that one.
Dude is lucky he only got 3 and a half years. Try smuggling satellite equipment into China an they will either give you Life or Have you summarily executed as a Spy.
I feel for the guy but he knew the risks when he undertook that task. If he didn't, well he's the most Naive 63 year old I have ever heard of. The man was around during the Cuban Missile Crisis for crying out loud. What possessed him to ignore history and smuggle ANYTHING into Cuba? :/
pss.. he got 15..he's been there for 3
why is it when someone goes into another country and does something illegally, why do they demand that the u.s. government do something to get them out of a bind. If the crime was illegall, in this case smuggling satelite equipment int to cuba then he should do his time and think about what he did so it won't happen a second time. Let his company that hired him to do this illegal deed, get him out
Because the United States government paid this private contracting company to have this guy bring in this material. This is the new way of spying in the US. It costs about half as much as having a "real" agent perform the work. Plus, the good news is, if the A-hole does get caught, there is a buffer inbetween (ie. the company they hired). The US can just deny they had any part in this, and that's exactly what they will do.
Trust me, if this guy was supposed to get out, he would have been out a long, long time ago. He means absolutely NOTHING to our government, N O T H I N G!! They could care less if Cuba starves this guy to death, in fact it would be better if they did so that there wouldn't be any more articles written in the paper about this guy asking for help.
This is what our country has sank too, hiring out our spys to save money and keep their "plausible deniability". F-u-c-k-e-n Gross!!!
Forget Cuba.
He broke their laws by doing what he did,no doubt he was smart enough to know what he was doing and now he must pay the price. People taking jobs in foreign countries know there are risks and should be aware of the consequences!
So Carl, interesting paste regarding Russia's desire to place a naval station in Cuba. he thing is that when the Soviet Union collapsed the U.S. was able to get a birds-eye view of Russian military might, and the results made the whole Comrade Army fear appear a little phobic. Their equipment is inferior because they relied on a command economy to supply what they needed, rather than a free market with private arms builders competing for superior products. Bottom line, Russia is not a military threat to the U.S.. They can talk big, but that's about it. George Little doesn't sound like he's to worried about it, and for good reason.
As an American living abroad, I now know I can not depend on the US government to protect their citizens who work, travel, or live abroad.
WARNING ~~ American citizens you are a target to be used in the "political games" played by various governments. Be careful.
He is MOSAD that got caught trying to overthrow Castro, let Israel bail him out.
The reason he has lost so much weight is that he is on the same goverment regulated ration on food that its requires its citizens get to eat - Keeps them real healthy. Goverment health care at its finest
Oh Im dissapointed.. I thought for sure you were gonna say hes lost weight due to giving up the high fat fast food American diet lol amazing what majority fruits & veggies can due to somebodys figure =)
Haha!! Asking for our government to step in and help?? OUR GOVERNMENT?? Is he kidding? It'll be a heck of a lot cheeper to pay anonther prisoner down there to kill him for making an embarrassment of the USA. Trust me, if he was supposed to know what kind of equipment he was taking into their country, he would have known. Our govt thought it better to just PAY a private contractor to bring in the spy satalite, therefore it was up to the company to inform him of the dangers of what he was "sneaking" in.
He got caught and our govt has plausible deniability so that's all there is to say about that. 'A private company sent one of their workers to Cuba and he was caught with sensative technology. Not out govts. fault, it was the company who sent him in there's fault.' That's basic way this discussion will end with our govt. Too bad for this guy, he was just a pawn in the whole thing all along...
Is anyone else as absolutely disgusted with how our govts handling of this as I am? This man could have been out 2 years ago if they had only took the slightest interest in this case. But I suppose they figure if they can just ignore it long enough this guy will die from the horrid conditions inside his "prison"...
Owe him he was there for the $$$$$....Going to play then your going to pay!!!!!!!
I had a feeling way back then when they grabbed this guy that the whole purpose was to use him as a hostage to get back their despicable spies that were sent to the US to damage our security. Im surprised they havent asked for arch-spy and another person responsible for the murder of US, citizens, Ana Montes.
This fellow had no reason to be snatched by the Castro thugs; he was simply acting to support his fellow Jews (maybe Israel should be involved, although they probably are covertly). He was not acting as a US agent, merely using his US Citizenship as a foil to help his international Jewish brothers. He took his chances with a vile police state, and he was caught.
Now, how does this fellow relate to US National Security? It does not, and the other preposterous thing is that the Castroites are trying to use this innocent as a hostage. In short....this is little more than one more act of STATE TERRORISM by Castro.....and if the US caves in...it will show that we are ready for an even bigger incident of provocation to free Castro's "True Believer"...Ana Montes.
Lets not open the door to this obvious bit of terrorism. Sorry, but Castro did two evil things: he sent his spies/saboteurs to the US and then he took hostage, an innocent person to get his trained assassins back.
Two wrongs do not make a right....Lets not reward this act of State Terrorism....please tell the US Jewish cheering squad, and especially the one embedded in our media, that US security cannot be bargained away.
“Gross, who worked for an Agency for International
Development contractor, was arrested by the Cubans on Dec. 3, 2009, and accused
of smuggling sophisticated satellite and other telecommunications equipment
into the country to give to the island’s
tiny Jewish community. Gross has said he was only trying to increase Internet
access in Cuba. But he was convicted by a Cuban court in March of last year for
crimes "against the independence and territorial integrity of the
state" and sentenced to 15 years.”
Let’s see here. You
work for the government under contract, smuggle in illegal hardware, get caught
and tried, have to serve 15 years jail time for the crime and it’s not your
fault?
Also, “Gross was most
upset about being unable to return home to see members of his family who are
ill, especially his 90-year-old mother in Texas who has cancer.”
So you’re upset that you got caught and are serving jail
time for your crime.
I on the other hand, served in the military, was in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba when my first grandmother was dying from a brain tumor and in Naples,
Italy when my second grandmother was dying from diabetes but could not leave my
ship due to a little situation at the time, you know, a war.
So I say f@%&ck you to you and the Mrs.
Well Stated!
Call Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lol
Where's Obama? He's planning a luxury vacation in Hawaii and Obama's playing games with fiscal cliff. If he's too busy to solve problems for all Americans, how can he possibly have time to worry about one American in Cuba? The bottom line is that relations with Cuba should have been normalized decades ago - our boycott of Cuba has been as ineffective as our war on drugs. Zero impact. Zero rationale - oh yes, except for politics in Florida.
Our spy for ONE of their spies. What is so complicated about that?
Hold out for a one to one trade.
And knock off this anti-Communist Cuba stuff, that is so 'Fifties mentality. Got that? Normalize relations.
lol so you like the movie dirty dancing to huh?
Did he break a cuban law? If yes then as we would expect here he should pay the price otherwise how can we expect other countries to respect our laws when we cant follow laws ourself?
Trade me 1 smuggler of bringing in the evil internet God forbid if the locals check out the New cars they been missing on driving.. or even worse they might be updated on history selectivly withheld due to cubas media banns no kidding you cant even legally mail a comic book to cuba oh that wicked spiderman vs green lantern!
In exchange we just have to give them 5 men who came to our country to Spy.. hmmm.. wonder what the USA is going to do??
The US state dept warns ppl about traveling to cuba, and what to expect. While we may not think what he did was bad, it is cuba's laws he violated.
We dont know the whole story and the press and his friends will always put a good spin on this. Just to get his release .
who the heck does he think he is? maybe he should have waited until their was a pact before his greedy ass went there......why should the U.S. let a peon like himself dictate foreign policy?
This guy was stupid and broke Cuban law. He tries to wrap himself in his religion to justify it. F**K him and his wife. When will people realize that being a US citizen does not allow you to flaut the laws of other countries and make you bullet proof. I am sick of seeing idiots like him, then try to claim some moral high ground and require our government spend millions of our dollars saving their sorry asses. I say let him rot as an example to other idiots.
You mean like taking a little hike in Iran?