ICYMI: Alan Gross made news on Capitol Hill today
Alan Gross made news on Capitol Hill today, only no one seems to have taken notice. He submitted written remarks to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for its hearing titled “Cuba: Assessing the Administration’s Sudden Shift.”
His remarks say, “As Members of the Committee know, I recently concluded five years of imprisonment in Cuba due to my participation in a USAID-sponsored program authorized and funded pursuant to the Helms-Burton Act.”
Mr. Gross, by telling the truth, made news and left the State Department rather exposed.
This is not their story. From early January 2010, when State began taking questions on his case, it would never concede what Mr. Gross said so plainly today. Instead, its spokespersons told the U.S. public he was arrested for “facilitating Internet access for Cuba’s small Jewish community,” he was “innocent,” his case was a matter “of a sitting government having locked up a human – an assistance worker on no basis whatsoever,” and so forth. This was spin they would repeat for five years and it wasn’t true.
Worse, our government’s deception was not aimed at Cuba or protecting his identity – Cuba arrested Mr. Gross because they knew who he was and what he was doing –it was aimed at the U.S. public. A program that didn’t work, a program that sought to accomplish covertly what we could have achieved publicly by repealing restrictions on travel, was surrounded by a bodyguard of lies used to deceive us for five years.
Mr. Gross’s testimony corrects the record by clearly stating he was arrested for activities funded by the Helms-Burton law to overthrow Cuba’s government.
Mr. Gross is a symbol of what diplomacy can do. He could make his statement because President Obama did exactly what leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told him not to do; namely, he negotiated directly with Cuba and won an agreement that along with swapping spies also resulted in Mr. Gross flying home a free man.
He is now back in the U.S. and able to speak his mind, and so he did. “My five years in Cuba did not deter me from wanting to bring about change through development and engagement. To the contrary, I believe more strongly than ever that the President’s decisive first steps need to be followed by Congressional action ultimately repealing Helms-Burton and related statutes.”
These are words that needed to be said. We hope someone in Congress takes notice.
