ALAN GROSS
Posted on 12/17/2014 6:55:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Held for five years in Cuba, 65-year-old American contractor Alan Gross has been released from prison and is en route to U.S. soil, ABC News has learned exclusively.
In a landmark humanitarian prisoner exchange to be announced by President Obama shortly at the White House, the agreement was reached following more than a year of secret back channel talks at the highest levels of both governments.
Today’s release of Gross, who is said to be in poor physical condition, represents a first step toward normalizing relations with the neighbor just 90-miles off the Florida coast.
Gross was convicted of espionage by a Cuban court in 2011 and sentenced to 15 years for bringing telecommunication devices into Cuba while working as a subcontractor for United States Agency for International Development.
The Cuban government accused him of being party to a U.S.-led plot to overthrow the government through an “Arab spring.”
Following a recent visit, Gross’ attorney described him as nearly toothless, barely able to walk because of arthritis in his hips and blind in one eye. He has been kept in a small room at a military hospital 24 hours a day with two other Cuban political prisoners.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
If so, where's Dianne Feinstein? Where's John McCain?
what was he doing going to Cuba in the first place?
Gross was a U.S. international development professional. In December 2009 he was arrested while in Cuba working as a U.S. government subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a program funded under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.
He was prosecuted in 2011 after being accused of crimes against the Cuban state for bringing satellite phones and computer equipment (to members of Cuba’s Jewish community) without the permit required under Cuban law.
How many terrorists did we trade for his release?
Thanks SeekAndFind.
God only knows what we REALLY gave up to free this poor man. Or was the priority the other way around?? Given the America-hating sociopath in our Oval Office, only God and co-president Jarrett knows for sure (/s). The beat goes on...enemies of America keep getting released, Club Gitmo vacation bookings are weakening. Our security weakens. Everything is weakening.
Who’s computers did Obama give access to in exchange for this guy ? Like he gave North Korea access to Sony computers for the release of Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller.
3
Gross’ “humanitarian” release by Cuba was accompanied by a separate spy swap, the officials said. Cuba also freed a U.S. intelligence source who has been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years, although authorities did not identify that person for security reasons. The U.S. released three Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage in 2001.
American officials said Mr. Gross’s release was made on humanitarian grounds and not directly part of a prisoner swap. Instead, the United States traded the three Cuban spies for what officials called an “intelligence asset” who has been imprisoned in Cuba for 20 years.
Per the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html?_r=0
All so from the same article:
WASHINGTON — The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday.
“...The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana...”
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ANOTHER “In Your Face America”....our commie sociopath pandering to the world’s dictators and communists. How much more anti-American can it get??
“...represents a first step toward normalizing relations with the neighbor just 90-miles off the Florida coast.”
WHAT?!!!!!!
At the very least, this guy has been held captive as a political prisoner, abused, mistreated and starved....and Cuba’s punishment for treating an American like that is NORMALIZING RELATIONS?!
YOU SUCK BARACK HUSSEIN OBASTARD, YOU ANTI-AMERICAN, COMMIE LOVING POS!!!!
The ransom is paid. What’s next?
I thought libs are always raving about Cuba's healthcare system.
Twas a tongue-in-cheek comment.
He certainly does not negotiate on behalf of American interests. This is all about boosting Castro’s Cuba.
Probably so that we can take Cuba’s AIDS patients into America since Cuba’s government doesn’t like dealing with them.
China oversaw the torture and maltreatment of American POWs in the Korean war. That didn’t stop US from trading with the ChiComms.
He doesn’t LOOK like Jack Bauer.
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