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For American Imprisoned in Cuba, Suit Against U.S. Is Part of New Strategy American Held in Cuba Takes Aim at Impasse
(about 11 hours later)
MEXICO CITY — Alan Gross, a computer expert with extensive experience overseas, went to Cuba in 2009 as part of a State Department program delivering satellite Internet equipment to Jewish groups in Havana. He was a longtime supporter of Jewish causes, and his wife, Judy, said he fell in love with Cuba, praised the contractor that hired him and enjoyed the work. MEXICO CITY — The Cuban government says he is perfectly fine. His lawyers say he could soon die of cancer. After nearly three years, the drama of Alan Gross, an American contractor imprisoned in Cuba nearly three years ago, has come down to this: a battle over a bulge of tissue on his shoulder.
Then he was arrested. And now, after nearly three years behind bars in Cuba, Mr. Gross, 63, is mostly angry, his wife says — and not just with the Cuban authorities who prosecuted him. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday asserting that Mr. Gross was healthier than his lawyers claimed, and that a biopsy had shown that a growth on his shoulder was not cancerous, as his legal team has suggested.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 16 in federal court in Washington, Mr. Gross directs his ire at the United States and at the contractor, DAI, accusing both of negligence for sending him on five semi-covert trips to Cuba without proper training, protection or even a clear sense of Cuban law. In response, a lawyer for Mr. Gross, Jared Genser, issued a statement declaring that a full examination by an independent doctor would be the best way to determine whether Mr. Gross was cancer free.
The case is part of an aggressive new strategy by the Gross family to win his release. After reorganizing their legal team to include a human rights lawyer, who has started a campaign to pressure Cuba partly through the United Nations, the Grosses sued the United States government for up to $60 million and made it clear that they do not intend to stay silent about their growing sense of disappointment with Washington. The dueling statements came as Mr. Gross’s family has intensified its campaign to win his release, through public rallies, a campaign in the United Nations accusing Cuba of human rights violations, and a lawsuit against the United States government.
“Alan is a victim of 50 years of failed policy with Cuba,” Mrs.Gross said, adding, “I don’t like to shame people, but if that’s what it’s going to take, that’s what we need to do,” And while the sparring over Mr. Gross’s health pushed his case back into the public eye — State Department officials called again for his release on Wednesday — it also revealed that the larger dispute over his detention and his work in Cuba is far from being resolved.
Scott Gilbert, one of the Gross family’s lawyers, said the case could be especially damaging for the State Department and DAI if the discovery process produces more examples of unqualified and ill-prepared contractors sent to Cuba. He said the suit would draw attention to the American government’s pro-democracy effort, which Mr. Gilbert described as “flawed in conception” and “completely messed up” in execution. Both Cuba and the United States have resisted efforts to negotiate. Each has blamed the other side while holding firm to its own position.
Run chiefly by the United States Agency for International Development, the program was authorized in 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the Cuba trade embargo and allowed for money to be set aside for “democracy building efforts.” “They are like a divorced couple who cannot talk civilly with one another, or refuse to do so for fear of recognizing one another’s legitimacy or point of view,” said Ted Henken, a Latin American studies professor at Baruch College.
Created to push Fidel and Raul Castro from power, the program has seen its budgets range wildly — from $3.5 million in 2000 to $45 million in 2008 and $20 million a year under President Obama. Some of that spending has been criticized. A government audit in 2006, for example, found that several groups with democracy grants made dubious purchases, including Nintendo Game Boys. Judy Gross, Mr. Gross’s wife, said the lack of meaningful negotiations led to the family’s more aggressive strategy. “I don’t like to shame people, but if that’s what it’s going to take, that’s what we need to do,” she said in an interview. And while she said that Cuba deserved much of the blame, as “a brutal Communist government,” the United States also deserved to be held accountable.
Cuba considers the effort an affront to its sovereignty. Collaboration with the program has been illegal for years, prompting one group with the democracy program to try to evade detection by hiding satellite Internet equipment in boogie boards. The lawsuit filed by Mr. and Mrs. Gross on Nov. 16 in federal court in Washington seeks up to $60 million from the United States and DAI, the contractor that hired Mr. Gross to go to Cuba in 2009 as part of a State Department program delivering satellite Internet equipment to Jewish groups. It accuses his employers of sending him on five semicovert trips to Cuba without proper training, protection or even a clear sense of the Cuban laws that led to his detainment.
Mr. Gross acted more openly. His wife says he registered the equipment he carried into Cuba with customs authorities, and was never told by his employer that Cuban law did not allow what he was doing.. “You could say Alan was naïve, and I’m sure he was in some way, but there was no indication that it was this serious,” Mrs. Gross said. Scott Gilbert, a member of the Grosses’ legal team, said the lawsuit could be especially damaging for the State Department and DAI if the discovery process produces more examples of unqualified and ill-prepared contractors sent to Cuba. He said the lawsuit would, at the very least, draw more scrutiny to the American government’s pro-democracy effort.
In a statement, DAI refused to comment on whether it had adequately trained Mr. Gross. “As much as we would like to address the numerous disagreements we have with the content of the complaint, the fact is that doing so will not advance the cause of bringing Alan home, which remains our highest priority,” the company said in a statement. The State Department also declined to comment. The program was authorized in 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the Cuban trade embargo and allowed for money to be set aside for “democracy building efforts” that might hasten the fall of Fidel and Raúl Castro.
Mr. Gross did appear to learn over time that he was engaged in sensitive activities. After his first visit working with DAI in the spring of 2009, he wrote a memo that said the group he met with “has specific concerns about government informants and the highest level of discretion is warranted.” Soon after that, Cuba made collaboration with the program illegal, but it continued and grew.
By his third trip in June, he had become more blunt, writing to DAI that “this is very risky business in no uncertain terms.” Detection of the networks he set up, he said, could lead his Cuban contacts to be arrested. President Obama inherited its $20 million budget when he took office. After Mr. Gross was detained on Dec. 3, 2009 — charged with subversive acts, and later sentenced to 15 years in prison — administration officials sought to reduce financing and alter elements of the programs. But the president’s efforts were rebuffed by Cuban-American lawmakers, including Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who said in an interview that he had always opposed cuts to the program.
The lawsuit argues that these memos should have been enough to lead to additional training for Mr. Gross, or a new approach. Instead, the complaint says, DAI and the American government “failed to take an action to protect Mr. Gross.” State Department officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, which indicated that Mr. Gross became more worried about his work with each trip. After his first visit working with DAI in the spring of 2009, he wrote a memo that said the group he met with “has specific concerns about government informants and the highest level of discretion is warranted.” By his third trip in June, he had become more blunt, writing to DAI that “this is very risky business in no uncertain terms.”
On his next trip, he was arrested. On the Friday in December when he was supposed to come home, Mrs. Gross had set the table for the Sabbath with wine and candles. She discovered what had happened only after frantic calls to the State Department, which confirmed Mr. Gross’s detention. The lawsuit argues that these memos should have been enough to prompt additional training for Mr. Gross, or a new approach. Instead, the complaint says, DAI and the American government “failed to take any action to protect Mr. Gross.”
She said she initially expected him a quick release. “I had faith in my government and my State Department,” she said. ”Of course they are going to do something about this right away. Of course they are going to get him out right away. The idealism didn’t last very long.” In a statement, DAI refused to comment on whether it had adequately informed Mr. Gross of the risks that came with his work in Cuba. “As much as we would like to address the numerous disagreements we have with the content of the complaint, the fact is that doing so will not advance the cause of bringing Alan home, which remains our highest priority,” the company said in a statement.
A petition that the Grosses’ new lawyer, Jared Genser, filed in August with the United Nations described his trial and imprisonment as a violation of his human rights and an international treaty Cuba signed in 2008 guaranteeing freedom of expression in any medium. Robert Pastor, a former Latin America adviser to President Jimmy Carter who is an international relations professor at American University, called the standoff “an accident waiting to happen.”
Mr. Genser also told the United Nations that a growth on Mr. Gross’s shoulder could be cancerous and was being ignored by Cuban doctors, but on Wednesday Cuba issued a statement declaring Mr. Gross’s health was “normal.” The statement said a biopsy performed Nov. 24 showed that the lesion “was not carcinogenic.” Mrs. Gross said she had been stunned not just by how poorly her husband was trained, but also by the government’s lack of effort on his behalf. “I had faith in my government and my State Department,” she said. “Of course they are going to do something about this right away. Of course they are going to get him out right away. That idealism didn’t last.”
Mrs. Gross said that her husband is clearly a victim of “a brutal Communist government” but that she and he have also become frustrated with their own government’s hard-line approach, in which American officials say discussions are dead because they refuse to negotiate certain issues — especially a possible pardon for the Cuban Five, Cuban citizens who were convicted in the United States 2001 of spying on Cuban exiles. Mrs. Gross said she understood that American officials are frustrated with the Cubans, and that “part of me thinks you don’t reward a country for holding a hostage” — the position favored by Cuban-American lawmakers in Congress. But she said she had also concluded that these same hard-liners had become a major hindrance to her husband’s release.
Mrs. Gross said she understood that American officials are frustrated with the Cubans and that “part of me thinks you don’t reward a country for holding a hostage” — the argument favored by Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and other Cuban-American lawmakers. “He is a pawn of these very radical right-wing Cuba haters, for lack of a better word, who don’t want to see any changes happen, even to get Alan home,” she said.
But she said she had also come to realize that her husband might have already been released if not for these same hard-liners in Congress. Even after Mr. Gross was detained, Mr. Menendez and others successfully resisted the Obama administration’s attempts to reduce financing for the Cuba pro-democracy programs, making negotiations harder. Mr. Menendez said criticism should be focused on Cuba, which has “arrested an American who should not have been arrested in the first place.” But when asked if he would support any change in Cuba policy — including cuts to the Cuba democracy program — if it meant getting Mr. Gross released, he said, “I’m not into negotiating for someone who is clearly a hostage of the Cuban regime.”
What the Gross family now realizes, she said, is that her husband is “a pawn of these very radical right-wing Cuba haters, for lack of a better word, who don’t want to see any changes happen, even to get Alan home.” Mr. Genser, the lawyer, said he was urging White House officials to satisfy their responsibility to Mr. Gross, despite the potential political cost.
In an interview, Mr. Menendez said the focus should be on Cuba, which has “arrested an American who should not have arrested in the first place.” Asked if he would support any change in Cuba policy — including cuts to the Cuba democracy program — if it meant getting Mr. Gross released, he said no.
“I’m not into negotiating for someone who is clearly a hostage of the Cuban regime,” he said.
Mr. Genser said he was urging senior White House officials to ignore such absolutist opposition to engagement with Cuba. Noting that former President Bill Clinton negotiated the release of two American journalists from North Korea in 2009, he called for another high-level envoy to be sent to Havana as soon as possible.
“Alan Gross is a U.S. government contractor sent to do a job by the United States,” he said. “If we can negotiate the release of people in Iran, Burma and North Korea, surely we can find a way to get someone released from Cuba.”“Alan Gross is a U.S. government contractor sent to do a job by the United States,” he said. “If we can negotiate the release of people in Iran, Burma and North Korea, surely we can find a way to get someone released from Cuba.”