One of the thousand and one nights of Alan Gross

By Weekly Archive On Mar 2, 2011

The Gross Case: One of the thousand and one nights of

Alan Gross

By Aurelio Pedroso

March 7 2011

The question, which I posed before to a few colleagues, and now to the readers is will the North American contractor spend a long time behind bars, or not? And one more still: will the Cuban authorities profit from the extended imprisonment of a man who has said it all before the tribunal and who has the burden of an illness-ridden family, himself included, as they say?

As far as I´m concerned, I would dare betting that Alan Gross will not stay in prison for long.

Not a few in the U.S have demanded it. Some have done so with imperial rigueur and unjustified vigor. Some others have paid their tribute to the strange and polemic nomenclature of “Cuba´s friends”.

The Gross case is almost at a definitive close. It has derived a lot of attention even if we from the press were not allowed any access to the hearings and that due to a decision of the Tribunal itself, and not of the political authorities led by President Raúl Castro.

And it is precisely in an attempt to come any nearer to the President´s way of thinking and deciding that I dare saying that Gross may be soon back in his home town. And that for a very simple reason: the message is already clear. Any endeavor to “democratize” the island and favor opposition groups, or other, through the introduction of first generation satellite technology, cash or family-size pickle sauce containers is doomed to failure.

If we add to this some of Gross´s statements who, as they say, turned himself from prosecuted into prosecution as he accused those who hired him, there doesn´t seem to be a major need to have him here as one more penitentiary guest from abroad.

Not to mention the international context, which the Cuban leadership could be inclined to take into consideration. So much is said and written here and there about political beaux gestes that any proficient analyst would conclude that after all has been duly informed and widespread, saying goodbye to Gross would be the thing to do.

I do want to believe that´s the way things will go. And maybe with a little help of those “friends of Cuba” so much willing that generosity prevails. Though generosity is a two-way thing, isn´t it?

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The Gross Case: Defendant implicitly pleads guilty

By Elsa Claro

March 5, 2011 – 9:38 pm

In a Cuban State Security video, apparently leaked by the very Cuban government in Internet, a young expert claimed that Alan Gross’ main objective in Cuba consisted in “creating a technological platform out

of the control of Cuban authorities”, something serious, but part of a Washington strategy for “articulating a virtual network of mercenaries”. Judging from the latest news, what he said was almost 100 percent true.

Alan Gross implicitly pleaded guilty in the second and last hearing at the trial, in the Havana Provincial Court, when he admitted that he was used by Development Alternative Inc. (DAI), a company hired by the State Department’s Agency for International Development (USAID), the latter with a long and not very clean record.

The prosecutor made his case with documented evidence and testimonies about the defendant’s actions, and proved that Gross had in his possession equipment and other resources and instructions for a subversive project with the objective of undermining legal order in Cuba, predisposing opinions and adverse tendencies against the Cuban process among the youth, women, religious and racial sectors, according to the official communiqué released a couple of hours ago and read on the Cuban TV News Hour.

In order to carry out the mission assigned to him, Gross distributed hi-tech equipment specifically designed for creating underground communication networks and feed allegedly spontaneous and popular provocations. According to the Cuban TV News Hour, evidence of that plan and of the involvement of the defendant was presented at the trial. Similar purposes, perhaps not as sophisticated, have been carried out against the island in the past 50 years.

According to Gross, DAI placed him in danger and drove him to his present situation that ruined his life and his family’s economy. The declaration of the defendant is the clearest admission of guilt, independently demonstrated by the testimony of 10 witnesses for the prosecution. Some of them could be security agents that –like two recently revealed as such– could have been working undercover with the small groups contrary to the Cuban government, as it is done in any other country with varied purposes and even less patriotic intentions.

After the official communiqué was read on the Cuban TV News Hour, it was announced that a documentary, part of the series “The Reasons of Cuba”, will be broadcast on Monday night. A preview of the film showed scenes that lead to think that apparently it will reveal more about the events, for it seemed to contain declarations linked to the Alan Gross case.

Besides the ten witnesses –some of them perhaps will be seen on the documentary–, during the trial the prosecution also presented 26 reports by experts, most of them supposedly related to the impounded equipment, and 9 experts on that and other matters, details of which will soon be made public.

According to declarations to the press by Gross’ US lawyer Peter Kahn after the first hearing (Friday, March 4), both Mr. Gross and his defense lawyer made a “vigorous defense” on that first day.

There is expectation to see what Secretary Hillary Clinton and other US officials will say, before the trial began they claimed that Gross was practically a philanthropic missionary that came to Cuba with the holy mission of helping the Jewish community to access Internet. But Adela Dworin, president of Cuba’s largest Jewish community (Beth Shalom), denied from the beginning any link with the contractor and later explained: “We don’t need any sophisticated equipment that Gross allegedly introduced in Cuba. We have a completely legal Internet.”

A similar position has William Miller, former vice president of Beth Shalom –and apparently the only one who met Gross–, when he said to CBS’ Portia Siegelbaum: “We have computers. We have Internet. We don’t need people like Alan Gross.” Since the CBS reporter and her crew had been taping at Beth Shalom on past September, Miller reminded her that in those images is the best evidence that they were not as lacking in equipment as they have been depicted.

Probably Gross’ legal representatives, as well the US consular officials were seriously shocked when Gross vented his frustration on the company for which he worked. But in essence, his protests reach the US government in one of the strongest moral slaps in the face of the Obama administration, and even of a more ethical transcendence than the recent WikiLeaks scandal.

Contractors, mercenaries, or whatever you may call them, they are individual deeply embedded in the US intelligence community. They have many resources for hindering the performance of government they do not agree with. DAI has particularly launched destabilizing actions in 2002 against the government of Venezuela, and this is not the first time that some of its personnel act in Cuba.

About Gross, it has been said that he has done an extensive and positive work in several nations, including Iraq, where in early 2008 there were more soldiers of fortune or contractors than regular troops. At the beginning of the occupation (2003), they were calculated in 10,000, and five years later there were already 190,000, according to a census by US Central Command.

To list the ones in Afghanistan and other places would take a long and boring time. In relation to the trial, the Court adjourned and the verdict will be handed shortly. Gross and his representatives will have 10 days for appealing.

Remember: Monday night at 8:30 p.m., Cuban TV willing, some secrets will be known.

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The Gross Case: the trial ended

HAVANA, 3/5/11 – 8:35 p.m. Radio Progreso Alternativa (RPA). The trial of sub-contractor Alan Gross ended today and sentence will be passed shortly. The prosecution has asked for 20 years and the panel of judges will agree or modify the sentence.

A newscaster during the 8 o’clock Cuban National TV News read an official communiqué that claimed that Gross declared at the trial that he had been deceived by Development Associates International (DAI), a company that has a contract with the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The US agency has a budget of $20 million dollars dedicated to undermine Cuban society and achieve a regime change favorable to Washington’s interests

According to Cuban TV, the prosecution called nine witnesses to the stand, none of them identified by name, and had the contribution of dozens of experts on the subject of communications.

The newscaster also announced with the backing of images that on Monday, after the news show, a special material will be broadcast on the use of internet networks directly linked to satellites. One of the charges against Gross is distributing equipment that could be used to that end. Some of the images shown as a preview seem to have been filmed with a hidden camera.

Stay tuned to Radio Progreso Alternativa for further information in the next few minutes.

Manuel Alberto Ramy

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The Gross Case: todays’ hearing began and ended

By Elsa Claro

Judy Gross in the courtroom.

March 4, 2011.

Judy Gross attended the first hearing of his husband’s trial. She walked into the courtroom flanked by two US legal advisors. Several diplomats from the US Interest Section in Havana also took their seats as part of the small audience allowed in the courtroom of the Provincial Court of Havana, where several hours ago the trial began behind closed doors, with no access granted to local or foreign media.

With those legal and consular representatives, Gross faces a 20-year sentence, charged by the prosecution of attempting against the security of the state. His defense attorney is Nurys Piñero Sierra, head of a group of lawyers whose office is in J and 23 St., in El Vedado. According to Tim Ashby, an expert on Cuba at the Department of Commerce. Ms. Piñera is “very competent and has a high reputation. (…) I suppose she’ll present Gross as a victim of US intelligence, rather as someone who tried to harm Cuban national security”, Ashby said to Reuters.

Arturo López-Levy, an expert from the University of Denver, declared that “The trial will serve the Cuban government to generate three effects: mobilize the nationalist sentiment of the population, dissuade by example the participation in regime change programs, and generate an international feeling of rejection tothe US policy toward Cuba.”

Almost coincidental with the first hearing of the trial, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on her demands to the government of Raúl Castro that the defendant be released “unconditionally.” For Ms. Clinton. Gross is innocent of any crime.

For Ricardo Alarcón, President of the National Assembly of Popular Power (the Cuban single chamber parliament), the defendant did “violate Cuban law and national sovereignty, and committed crimes that are punishable and that in the United States are severely penalized.”

The trial takes place in the midst of speculations, and although almost everyone believes Gross will be found guilty, the matter is seen from several angles. One of them is suggested by Phil Peters, an expert from the Lexington Institute in Virginia, who told the Associated Press: “I do not believe that the Cuban government is interested in keeping him in prison for a long time.”

Other analysts link the event to the tense Cuba-US relations, and presume that precedents such as the visit of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State several months ago, when she came to Cuba heading the US delegation that met with Cuban officials for discussing migratorymatters and visited Gross, is evidence of an interest of the US government on Gross fate, which could lead to some sort of compromise.

The possibility of a humanitarian gesture on the part of Cuba is not ruled out, and in that sense there is the offer of Rev. Jesse Jackson to serve as mediator for contributing to Gross’ release from prison. Rev. Jackson even mentioned his desire of coming to Cuba and meeting with Gross once the trial is over.

Among those who went into the courtroom was a delegate of the Jewish community in Cuba, supposedly William Miller, former Vice President of the Beth Shalom Jewish Community, and the only one that until now has said he talked to Gross on more than one occasion.

At 7:10 pm the court adjourned and the trial will resume tomorrow Saturday. It is believed that the Havana Provincial Court will reach its verdict 24 hours after the hearings are over.

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Judy Gross in the courtroom

By Elsa Claro

March 4, 2011.

At 7:10 pm the court adjourned and the trial will resume tomorrow Saturday. It is believed that the Havana Provincial Court will reach its verdict 24 hours after the hearings are over.

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The Gross Case: No access for foreign press

Havana, mar 3/2011. Radio Progreso Alternativa (RPA. The provincial tribunal has decided that the trial of the U.S. citizen Alan Gross will be held without access for the foreign press. So reads e-mail sent by International Press Center (CPI) to those reporters residing in Cuba.

RPA

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Cuban Jews and Alan Gross

By Aurelio Pedroso  March 3,2011.   A few hours before the Alan Gross trial begins, the reaction of the local Jewish community is practically non-existent. No one seems to know if it is because of a certain fear to talk to the press about such a delicate matter, or if they are totally ignorant of the case.

Meanwhile, it seems that their US brothers are more loquacious, so much so that they have written a letter to Cuban President Raúl Castro petitioning him the immediate release of the US contractor.

Until now we should thank our colleagues at CBS in Cuba that that were able to talk by phone with Cuban William Miller, former Vice President of the largest Jewish temple in Cuba.  Miller told them that he will be a witness for the prosecution. “I will be present, I am part of the case,” he said. And then the former number two of the community admitted that he had seen Gross several times. “I met him at the Beth Shalom Jewish Community. He came on more than one occasion.”

Undoubtedly, one of Miller’s most significant blurbs to CBS was the one in which he points out: “Let me tell you, the solution to the problem will come very soon. It is complicated. It is difficult even for me.”  We have been unable to learn in our office in Havana the opinion of several important figures from the field of culture that have a Jewish ascendancy. Some of them are true encyclopedias and know absolutely nothing about Gross’ adverse adventures.

We have left messages to others on their answering machines and we still have not been called back. During our research with one of the Jewish groups, we got a unique answer: they could not see us because they were writing a book about the Jews in Cuba.

But we have had some reward. I know a Cuban whose two last names are very Castilian, and that thanks to the marriage of her paternal grandfather she is at present a member of Havana’s Jewish community. She also has preferred to remain anonymous and her reasons must be respected.

“All I can say is from what I read in Internet, and I have never seen him in our meetings. If the Cuban government is accusing him it must be for a reason. I hope that the outcome of the trial will be known by all. Maybe you’ll be able to tell me something if you go to the trial as a journalist.”

But up to now, our bureau has not been told if we will be allowed to be in the courtroom.

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Saints and demons in Havana

By Elsa Claro

2 March 2011

To mention God in the Devil´s house (or the other way around) can create severe disturbances. And to presume, no matter how earnestly, the innocence of those with a long criminal record doesn´t necessarily turn them into angels.

A few days ago, Philip Crowley, spokesman of the State Department, declared in a press conference that his government expects Alan Gross –who is detained for violating Cuban laws- to have “a fair trial and be allowed to go back home.”

A little after, together with the announcement that the trial would begin on March 4th, it was made known that Washington had been informed that its consular representatives, the detainee´s relatives and those lawyers they would choose to designate, would be able to attend the trial.

The flexibility shown by Havana seems to respond to Crowley´s suspicious innuendo; eventually, in spite oh his apprehensions, he had to admit that the American contractor received consular assistance, which includes access to legal counseling and to be granted all rights comprehended in the law of the country in question.

Every country has a Constitution and a Penal Code. Cuba´s includes in its chapter of Crimes Against the Stability of the State those which endanger the national independence or integrity and its Article 91, under which Gross will be judged, whoever in the interest of a foreign government executes deeds whose aim is to undermine the independence of the Sate or its integrity.

“Gross was working for a program financed by the U.S. government to promote changes in the island and this is for Cuba proof enough of the hostility of the Obama administration.” (Reuters, 4 February 2011).

A second dispatch issued by EFE from Washington, on the same date, affirms that “Gross, 61, is an USAID sub-contractor working for a Maryland enterprise called Development Alternatives, which is devoted to development abroad.”

USAID is the euphemistic name for an espionage and subversion enterprise, as much as Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), is a CIA instrument aiming at unsettling those countries deprived of the sort of “democracy” the U.S. is bent on imposing. That is what the late Phillip Agee, an ex-CIA agent, pointed out when he affirmed that it was a common façade in many countries in Latin America and other continents. Gross was previously appointed to such places as Iraq and Afghanistan where his employers have not been exactly busy delivering cookies.

It´s not necessary to remind the reader that the American government keeps a program to “promote democracy in Cuba and to strengthen the civil society”, a purpose which claims 55 millions from the federal budget. And, what a coincidence, the biggest percentage of that figure corresponds to DAI, as the main organism in charge of taking to completion the “Program for Democracy in Cuba and Contingency Planning” or, as The Washington Post put it, “to strengthen a civil society in order to back a democratic government in Cuba.”

In Crowley´s eyes whatever Gross was attempting to accomplish in Cuba “…is not a crime”, and, from the perspective of the American administration, he may be right, considering that between 2001 and 2007 alone it was responsible for the secret imprisonment of more than 80 000 people, 26 000 of them in war ships navigating international waters. The existence, amount and position of such black sites were documented by Dick Marty, a Swiss researcher designated by the European Union which in turn did its best in order to make everybody forget about its own degree of accountability in the matter.

What did Gross do in the Cuban capital? He was here to distribute technologically advanced portable Internet equipment as well as other items which resemble more than a little those in a recent incident in Argentina, where an American air force plane tried to infiltrate an undeclared cargo with weapons, coded communication equipment, secret informatics programs, narcotic drugs, which gave way to a diplomatic skirmish and to a statement by President Cristina Fernández on the right to defend national sovereignty.

If Gross case is not exactly one of interference in domestic matters, it really looks like one, and also a paradox in a moment when the U.S and the E.U are forcing air travelers to stop taking certain items with them. Cuba is also in the position to settle specific limits to the admission of specific items as well as to the specific frame of actions to which an individual with a tourist visa is entitled, specially if he wants to act as a promoter for subversive acts, using an all too famous façade.

Gross, by the way, did not bring ordinary cell phones but costly apparatuses, like the Bgan Inmarsat, capable to violate normal communication channels, to send coded messages and even to facilitate ground coordinates for eventual air raids. And this is no paranoia, as the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion seems to remind us these days.

More details will appear in trial as, for example, who are the Jewish Cuban citizens so in need of such technology; as a matter of fact, only one of them, a Mr. Miller, ex-vice chairman of the Hebrew Community Beth Shalom has declared to have met Gross.

In any country, including the U.S., there are fundamental prescriptions to deal with activities related to treason (México, Argentina) or to restriction of basic rights (Germany, Spain) or other issues of territorial integrity or sovereignty. The absence of them would suppose an a priori indemnity for those who want to subvert the domestic order. Talking of which, would the Devil himself let anybody make a mess out of his house, or the All-mighty? I don´t think so.

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The Gross Case: The date for Gross’ trial has been set

A reporter´s notebook

The date for Gross’ trial has been set

By Manuel Alberto Ramy

ramymanuel@yahoo.com

Havana, 02/24/2011. US citizen Alan P Gross will stand trial on Friday, March 4, according to Cuban TV noon news broadcasts. The prosecution is requesting 20 years of prison for “crimes against the independence or territorial integrity” of the Cuban nation, included in Article 91 of the Penal Code.

Gross was arrested on December 4, 2009 when he was about to leave Havana for 6the US. That one had not been his first trip. According to released information, Gross had visited Cuba several times as a contractor in the service of USAID (the US Agency for International Development), and on those occasions had distributed computers and satellite phones. Those phones can be used in the island only with a special permit, for they are contrary to the island’s official regulations in connection to communications.

US public sources have declared that Gross had distributed some equipment among members of the Jewish community do that they could communicate with other similar groups in the US. But officials of the Cuban Jewish Community such as Adela Dworin have denied knowing the contractor or having received those donations. Who were the recipients, then?

Cuban official sources have said that relatives of the defendant and US attorneys may attend the trial, but they did not say which would be the role of the latter or if the public and the press will be allowed in the courtroom

My opinion is that the US attorneys will be observers of the proceedings. To my knowledge, there has been no precedent of lawyers from other countries acting as defense counsel of foreign nationals in a Cuban court. In relation to Gross’ defense, a significant conclusion can be made from a report on the Cuban web site Cubadebate: “It has been known that all the evidence presented by the defense in its writ of provisional conclusions was admitted by the court…”

The fact speaks in favor of the existence of a defense team that has been working for some time on the case. The work has been effective due to the acceptance of the evidence by the court.

Regarding the presence in the courtroom of local and foreign press, of which nothing has been said, I believe we will have access because the importance of the case and its implications, both for the defendant and his sponsors, the USAID and his contracting agency

Finally, there is a possibility that during the trial some of the recipients of the equipment delivered by Gross will appear as witnesses, whether as co-defendants or as witnesses for the prosecution.