Alan Gross vs. the Cuban Five?

Alan Gross vs. the Cuban Five?
May 23, 2012 - Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington

Advocates for Alan Gross, who is serving prison time in Cuba, say that
talk of a trade for five Cuban spies is a non-starter. But they
acknowledge hopes that the Obama administration will consider
lower-level concessions in exchange for Cuban considerations for the
jailed American.
Gross with his wife, Judy, at the Western Wall in the spring of 2005
Photo courtesy of the Gross family

Insiders say that Gross' advocates want the U.S. government to consider,
among other things, more family visits for the "Cuban Five," agents who
were arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001 on espionage-related
charges, and the permanent return home for the one among them who is now
out of jail and serving probation.

The Cuban government recently came closer than ever to making explicit
that the fate of the Cuban Five factors into its considerations of
whether to release Gross, the State Department contractor who was
convicted on charges stemming from his efforts to connect Cuba's small
Jewish community to the Internet.

Gross, who is Jewish and from Potomoc, Md., was arrested in 2009 and
sentenced last year to 15 years.

"We have made clear to the U.S. government that we are ready to have a
negotiation in order to try and find a solution, a humanitarian solution
to Mr. Gross' case on a reciprocal basis," Josefina Vidal, the top
official in the Cuban Foreign Ministry handling North America, said in a
May 10 interview on CNN.

Vidal would not offer specifics, but prompted by interviewer Wolf
Blitzer, she said the Cuban Five were a concern. "Cuba has legitimate
concerns, humanitarian concerns related to the situation of the Cuban
Five," she said.

The State Department immediately rejected such reciprocity. "There is no
equivalence between these situations," Victoria Nuland, the State
Department spokeswoman, said in remarks to the media the day after the
interview. "On the one hand, you have convicted spies in the United
States, and on the other hand, you have an assistance worker who should
never have been locked up in the first place. So we are not
contemplating any release of the Cuban Five, and we are not
contemplating any trade.

"The continuing imprisonment of Alan Gross is deplorable, it is wrong,
and it's an affront to human decency. And the Cuban government needs to
do the right thing," she said.

On background, a source apprised of the dealings among Gross' advocates,
the U.S. government and the Cubans says that Gross' advocates are
willing to press for visits by the wives of two of the Cuban Five, Rene
Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez. The United States has refused visas
multiple times for the women, and Amnesty International has taken up
their cause.

Another possible "give," according to the source: a permanent return to
Cuba for Gonzalez, who is out of jail and serving probation in the Miami
area. It's not clear what the Cubans would offer in return for such
concessions, but it is likely they would draw protests from the
Cuban-American community, including among stalwart pro-Israel lawmakers,
such as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the powerful chairwoman of
the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, who has
rejected any leniency for the Cuban Five.

Ronald Halber, who heads the Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Washington and has directed much of the national activism on
Gross' behalf, said he understands the "intensity" of the Cuban-American
community's response, but said that Obama also should take into account
the national interest.

"I do not believe that U.S. policy to Cuba can be held hostage by the
Cuban community in Miami," he said. "It's American national interests
that are at stake. They should be part of the conversation, I understand
the intensity, although this intensity is more among the older
generation, not the younger generation. Our government has to do what is
in our interests."

Gross' family and his advocates in the organized Jewish community
emphasize their agreement with Nuland's premise: There is no equivalency
between a contractor installing and training others in the use of
communications equipment and five spies believed to be instrumental in
the 1996 shooting of two small aircraft leafleting Cuba with
pro-democracy messages, resulting in the deaths of four Cuban-American
activists.

Three of the five were sentenced to life and one to 19 years. Gonzalez,
sentenced to 15 years, was released last year on a three-year probation.

"We're not in a position to negotiate that and I don't think the U.S.
government is inclined to do so," said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive
vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, the community's foreign policy umbrella.

Instead, he said, "we are continuing to press the case in various fora
directly and indirectly."

That included the Presidents Conference's recent requests that Pope
Benedict XVI raise Gross' plight during his March trip to Cuba.

Gross, who is held in a medical facility, has been visited by family,
friends and Jewish leaders. He is allowed weekly calls to the United States.

Most recently he spoke with leaders of the JCRC of Greater Washington to
thank them for leading U.S. advocacy on his behalf.

Gross, his family and his advocates want him to make a two-week visit to
his 90-year-old mother, who is dying of cancer in Texas, after which he
has pledged he will return to Cuba.

His family had voiced support for allowing Gonzalez to return home for
two weeks to visit his brother. Gonzalez made the visit in March and has
since returned.

Vidal said the two concessions were not equivalent.

"The cases of Mr. Gross and Mr. Rene Gonzalez, I have to tell you, are
different," she told CNN. "First, Mr. Rene Gonzalez, who is one of the
Cuban Five, he served completely his term until the last day. Rene
Gonzalez was not detained and was not imprisoned for attempting against
U.S. national security."

Those are the charges against Gross; Cuba says the Cuban Five were
guilty only of spying on groups it considers as extremist and not on the
U.S. government.

Cuba maintains that Gross' activity on behalf of the Jewish community
was a cover for installing sophisticated communications equipment. Gross
has said the equipment is freely available in U.S. electronic goods
outlets and online.

Halber of the Washington JCRC noted a new openness to Cuba under the
Obama administration, which has facilitated travel between the two
countries. President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, is attending a
conference this week in San Francisco.

Halber said the primary fault lies with the Cuban government for
attempting to leverage Gross' freedom to secure concessions for the
Cuban Five.

"He is a man who is being used as a hostage, who is being used as a
pawn," Halber said. "The Cubans are using a man as a bargaining chip to
get back five correctly convicted folks who committed crimes on U.S. soil."

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