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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.
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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.
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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.
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If you go to a communist country for any reason, you are risking your freedom and your life. Mr. Gross knowingly brought contraband (as far as Cuba is concerned) into their country and wonders why he was put in jail. Could the government do more to gain his release? Probably. But my question is why haven't they done more? Perhaps Mr. Gross is guilty of more than we know. I would not travel to Cuba because of the danger of going to a country that is obviously against us. As far as his wife's lawsuit is concerned, sounds like an attempt to make some money.
What "belligerency"?
The Cuban regime just wants international aid to Cuban human rights activists to stop se it can "deal" with them as harshly as it pleases.
Read up on the case of Alan Gross and repression in Cuba:
When someone travels to another country and breaks their laws they are at the mercy of that country.
Spies? These five men informed both the Cuban and American governments about illegal activities of international law planned and conducted by Miami based fanatical anti-Castro groups. At most, they should have been kicked out of the country (those who were not American citizens), but none should have been set up in a sham trial in a Miami court and sent to prison.
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.
One does not have to break the law in a foreign country to become incarcerated, especially one that has spoken honestly about their feelings. Given the relationship between Cuba and America, he should have known that anything was possible when he landed there.
To me, it would be like him taking a contract in Iran and then wondering what hit him.
Oh, he went to a foreign country and gets caught doing something illegal and now he expects the US to come save him. Guess again.
We don't negotiate with kidnappers...tough luck for this dude...we could always threaten to send marco rubio back to cuba to rabble rouse if they don't release this guy
Anyone who is an American knows the risks of travelling to Cuba - even if it is as just a tourist. They have a judicial system setup to meet their needs and doesn't respect the rights of citizens or the international community. To trust that one wouldn't be accused and jailed of something for any kind of even frivolous reason is sheer folly. To take the chance is an even bigger mistake - and not a very intelligent one at that.
This is nothing but extortion by the terrible Cuban government, we do not want that island, we have Florida, they just don't get it, the world can live very nicely without Cuba, they hurt only themselves by holding an American hostage, he should have known better than to take that equipment to such a paranoid place, the Cubans live in poverty next to the wealthiest country in the world. Who would ever want to visit there? You risk getting thrown in jail. Castro is an idiot he picked the wrong side to suck up to. The big bear, USSR fell apart. Capitalism won. Look at how well China is doing. Take a hint, be nice Cuba,
And if we find a Cuban national setting up satellite equipment for Castro regime sympathizers? We just thank them for their trouble and let them go home, right?
50 years of opposing Cuba and what have we gained? They are still comminist, as is our biggest trade partner China. Nothing terrible can come from sitting down with Cuban officals and TALKING with them. Our 50 year policy of suppresion fas failed. Time to try something different. The continued policy of this nation of forcing our views on other countries around the world and using millitary force has not and will not work. It has bankrupted our country and done nothing to add to it's security.The world has changed since ww2 America has not.
Is Israel setting up a colony in Cuba? And considering there is a huge Jewish fertility clinic in Miami that provides Jewish women treatments so they could conceive and have lots of babies, as they automatically become Jewish, would they open one in Havana too? There is already several in New York city I gather. How does one say Cuba in Hebrew?