• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 03 / 14 / 2011

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Washington called on Cuba to release U.S. contractor Alan Gross after he was sentenced to 15 years for crimes against the state.

By LESLEY CLARK. MiamiHerald.com. WASHINGTON -- A U.S. contractor accused by Cuba of plotting to “destroy the revolution” was convicted of crimes against the state Saturday and sentenced to 15 years in prison, prompting protests from the White House and fury in Miami.

The Associated Press reported from Havana that a Cuban court said that prosecutors had proven that Alan Gross was working on a “subversive” program paid for by the United States that aimed to bring down the Cuban government. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year jail term during the two-day trial that ended last Saturday.

The White House, which has called on Cuba to release Gross since he was arrested in December 2009, called Saturday for his “immediate release,” saying the sentence “adds another injustice to Alan Gross’ ordeal.

“He has already spent too many days in detention and should not spend one more,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council. “We urge the immediate release of Mr. Gross so that he can return home to his wife and family.

Gross was arrested and jailed in Havana after he delivered at least one satellite telephone and other communications equipment as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) effort to assist Jewish and other nongovernment groups in Cuba. A string of recent Cuban television reports alleged that the satellite phones for Internet connections were just the latest tactic in Washington’s long campaign to overthrow the communist government in Havana.

Cuban law makes it illegal for its citizens to receive assistance provided by campaigns run by USAID or other U.S. government agencies. Havana officials brand recipients as ‘‘mercenaries.”

The case of Gross, a 61-year-old from Potomac, Md., has become a major stumbling block in the Obama administration’s efforts to improve relations with Raúl Castro’s government, with U.S. officials claiming that he did not violate any Cuban laws.

His lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, said Saturday that Gross’ family was “devastated by the verdict and harsh sentence.” Noting that Gross has already served 15 months in prison, Kahn said: “Alan his family have paid an enormous personal price in the long-standing political feud between Cuba and the United States.”

Kahn said he would continue to work with Gross’ Cuban lawyer to explore “any and all options,” including the possibility of an appeal. “During this most difficult time for Alan and his family, we again call on the Cuban government to release him immediately on humanitarian grounds,” he said.

Possible release

Some Cuba analysts have said that they expected Gross would be convicted and sentenced, but could be freed within months as a “humanitarian gesture.”

The Obama administration has said repeatedly over the past 15 months that any significant effort to improve relations with Havana must wait until Gross is freed, and any prison sentence is sure to further complicate frosty relations between the United States and its Cold War antagonist.

Critics of the administration’s policy Saturday called on the United States to get tough with Cuba and repeal recent moves to ease travel restrictions.

The administration this week approved travel to Cuba from nine U.S. airports as part of an effort to make it easier for Cuban-Americans and licensed school and church groups to travel there. The administration said its aim was to help civil society in Cuba. Critics said the move would only help the Castro government.

“With Mr. Gross’ sentencing, the Castro government has effectively demonstrated the hopeless and dangerous naiveté of this administration’s policy toward the regime,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. “Mr. Gross is simply a humanitarian who was seeking to help the Jewish community in Cuba access the Internet, and he deserves to be freed and reunited with his family at once.”

Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on the United States and “all responsible nations” to “demand not only the release of Mr. Gross, but of all those wrongly imprisoned in Castro’s dungeons.

The Havana court found the evidence presented at the trial “demonstrated the participation of the North American contractor in a subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the Revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of authorities,” according to a statement read out on the afternoon news.

‘Being manipulated’

It said that during testimony in the two-day trial, Gross “recognized having been used and manipulated" by his company — Bethesda, Md.-based Development Alternatives, Inc. — as well as by USAID and the State Department. It said he has the right to appeal the sentence to the Supreme People’s Tribunal, Cuba’s equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Development Alternatives was awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for the program in which Gross was involved, and Gross received more than a half million dollars through his company, despite speaking little Spanish and had no history of working in Cuba. Gross traveled to the island several times over a short period on a tourist visa, apparently raising Cuban suspicions.

The USAID programs have been criticized repeatedly in congressional reports as being wasteful and ineffective, and funding was held up briefly in 2010 over concerns after Gross’ arrest. The money has begun flowing again, though U.S. officials say Development Alternatives is no longer part of the program.

Now that Gross has been convicted, his backers will try to get him released through a court action or executive pardon, possibly on humanitarian grounds. His wife, Judy, says Gross has lost more than 90 pounds since his arrest, and that his 26-year-old daughter and 88-year-old mother are both suffering from cancer, the AP said. Supporters, from the Rev. Jesse Jackson to U.S. Jewish groups, have already made impassioned pleas to Cuban President Raúl Castro to free Gross.

At least 14 witnesses testified at Gross’ trial, including Cuban intelligence agents and members of the island’s Jewish community, the State Department’s top man on Cuba told lawmakers last week in a telephone briefing on the trial.

Source: //www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/12/v-fullstory/2112694/