• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 03 / 30 / 2011

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Former president allowed to meet Alan Gross, sentenced this month for "subversive" acts, but Cuba says it won't release himCBS/AP) HAVANA - Former President Jimmy Carter has met with a jailed American contractor but says Cuban authorities have made clear they do not plan to release him.

The announcement was a disappointment for Alan Gross' supporters after expectations rose that the 86-year-old former American leader would be allowed to bring the Maryland native home with him. Gross is serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted of bringing communications equipment into Cuba illegally.

Carter said Wednesday that even before he arrived, Cuban authorities made clear that "the freedom of Alan Gross would not be granted." Carter also said he met with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Despite rampant speculation, Carter said outright Tuesday that he was not in Cuba to secure Gross' release, CBS News' Portia Siegelbaum reported.

Carter said he is on a private visit at the invitation of the Cuban Government, during which he hopes to "contribute to better relations" between the United States and Cuba -- although Cuba has never clarified why it invited the former president.

Author Peter Kornbluh, who is currently working on a book about the history of back channel talks between Cuba and the United States, says he believes "Carter harbors regrets for not normalizing relations with Cuba during his presidency and is committed to doing what he can so that the Obama Administration does not pass up the opportunity to improve ties." For the Cubans, says Kornbluh, "Carter is the highest level intermediary possible that they can have with the Obama Administration
and the American public."

Gross was sentenced March 12 for crimes against the state, a verdict likely to have sweeping repercussions for already-sour relations between Washington and Havana.

The court said prosecutors had proved that Gross, 61, was working on a "subversive" program paid for by the United States that aimed to bring down Cuba's revolutionary system. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year jail term.

The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID-backed democracy-building project. The U.S. government and Gross's family say he was working to improve Internet access for the island's Jewish community, did nothing wrong, and should be released.

Cuban officials have called him a mercenary and maintained his motives were more nefarious. The court said the program that Gross worked on - part of a $20 million Washington-effort to support democracy on the island - showed that the U.S. government continues to seek the overthrow of a Cuban government ruled since 1959 by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro.

Source: www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/30/501364/main20048824.shtml