In accounts from both sides of the aisle, recently-freed Alan Gross has been portrayed as a humanitarian simply trying to bring Internet access to Cuba’s small Jewish community. But there’s more to the story than that shorthand suggests.
Subverting Cuba
Although Gross entered Cuba on a handful of occasions on a tourist visa and purported to be a member of a Jewish humanitarian group, Gross was actually doing work as a subcontractor for a pro-democracy program funded by the U.S. government, work for which Gross was being paid about a half million dollars. Reporting by the Associated Press revealed that Gross was covertly bringing in technology known to be illegal in Cuba — equipment such as satellite phones and a chip that allows Internet use without detection. Reports obtained by the AP also revealed that Gross knew what he was doing was “very risky business” and that detection of the equipment would be “catastrophic.”
For those unfamiliar with the full story, comments by Sen. Marco Rubio and President Barack Obama might suggest a purely innocuous purpose to Gross’ mission.
On the day he announced a restoring of diplomatic relations with Cuba, Obama told a group at a Hanukkah Reception: “Five years ago, [Gross] was arrested by Cuban authorities simply for helping ordinary Cubans, including Cuba’s small Jewish community, access information on the Internet.”
On Fox News the same day, Dec. 17, Rubio called Gross “a hostage” who “did nothing wrong.” Rubio said Gross “was taken hostage because he was helping the Jewish community in Cuba have access to the Internet.”
Gross was in Cuba to try to help the Jewish community gain unfettered Internet access. That’s correct. But the characterization of Gross as “simply” carrying out a humanitarian cause leaves out the subversive intent of Gross’ mission.
Citing trip reports that he obtained, AP reporter Desmond Butler wrote in 2012 that Gross — working under a contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development — smuggled into Cuba an array of communication technology including laptops, smartphones, satellite phones and a mobile phone chip that makes it impossible to track where a call is coming from. Sources in the intelligence community told Butler the chip was “not available on the open market and is distributed only to governments.” The idea was to allow those in the Jewish community to have unfettered access to the Internet. But it was also serving USAID’s larger goal of promoting democracy in the communist state.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/24/alan-gross-cuba_n_6377774.html
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