I appeal to His Excellency President Raul Castro to release Mr. Alan P. Gross on humanitarian grounds.
Mr. Gross is ill and in poor health. Further, Mr. Gross's daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Releasing Mr. Gross to his wife and family would be a positive humanitarian gesture on the part of the Cuban government. It could only help to foster improved relations between the United States and Cuba.
My direct appeal is for Mr. Gross to be released to his wife and family in the United States, and have indicated my willingness to travel to Cuba to facilitate his return home.
With the assistance of the Catholic Church, you rightly released several Cuban dissidents to Spain last year and I commend you for your courage in doing a difficult but moral thing.
I appeal to you not to allow the issue of Mr. Gross to distract you from other vital issues such as continuing to fight poverty and promote peace and unity within and outside Cuba. We must connect the human family and address these and other pressing needs.
I therefore appeal to you to release Mr. Gross on humanitarian grounds. Releasing him will be a vital, positive humanitarian gesture and redirect focus on restoring and improving relations between out two nations.
My appeal is solely a humanitarian one with deep respect of the national sovereignty of your beloved country. I know that you have the moral courage and authority to free Mr. Gross and I hope and pray that you will accept my appeal. I am ready to travel to Cuba at any moment to meet with you and also visit Mr. Gross. I hope you will allow Mr. Gross to be reunited with his family.
Follow Rev. Jesse Jackson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revjjackson
More backgrounds on http://totallyfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/us-and-false-flag-operations/
Alan Gross has break the cuban law, He knew what he was doing from the first step on cuban the territory .. I believe its very low from a political personality as you, to refer on humanitarian grounds, to mr Gross wife or daughter. Let me remind you that the cuban five also has wifes and daughters plus they have not broken any terrorist law. The only thing US has to do its follow its own constitution.. which it havent been done.
It not more then right that Mr Gross will be judge by his actions and not by his familys situation. I am sure that your own president would do the same
Best regards
from Sweden
I think that in his same trend of humanitarian feelings he could help release the five antiterrorist Cubans, that are unjustly in USA prisons for more than 12 years because of there antiterrorist activities in US territory, which never harmed the United States.
Remembering historical facts, in 1958 during the civil war in Cuba, 50 Americans including 24 militaries from the Guantanamo US Naval Base in Cuba, were released in a moral and political agreement in which the State Department and the CIA exchanged directly with Raul Castro and Vilma Espin at the moment in the headquaters in the mountains of the Second Front of the Cuban Rebel Army, leaded by Fidel Castro.
I would like to have and answer of Reverend Jackson, and maybe of the family of all the parts involved in my comment.
An exchange of them, is possible, now with no hesitation, and with the ethics and pragmatism to do it by both sides. I am sure of that.
First and foremost, you refer to raul castro as the "president" of Cuba, which in and of itself implies that he has been elected by the people of Cuba as their leader. This is incorrect. the role of "maximum leader" was handed down to him by his brother fidel, which in fact makes raul a monarchical ruler of Cuba.
Your appeal for the release of Alan Gross is admirable and noble, especially based on its humanitarian grounds. However, the island of Cuba is one where even the most basic of human and civil rights are violated prevalently and continuously. Thus, chances are your call for a show of decency and humanity from the Cuban government will fall upon deaf ears.
Margaritta,
I suppose, since you are the daughter of Cuba's former Foreign Minister and current head of Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, it's both part of your job and your nature to misrepresent the truth, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Your credibility, for those who know the realities of Cuba, is non-existent.
Mr. Mc Auliff,
While Mr. Gross was acting on behalf of USAID, only in a closed society like Cuba, where information and technologies are strictly controlled by the State for its own means, would providing religious groups with cell phones and other communications equipment be illegal. After all, access to information is the totalitarians state's greatest enemy.
I can't say whether you are misrepresenting the truth or just don't know it. We will see what comes out in court, but there are many sources indicating the equipment Mr. Gross was distributing were BGAN satellite linked machines that can be used for encrypted data transmission and creation of local wifi nodes. As you must be aware, personal cell phones and lap top computers have been legal in Cuba since soon after Raul Castro assumed power. I and countless Cuban Americans regularly bring them for friends.
When a far bigger and more powerful neighbor has spent 50 years trying to assassinate your leader, choke your economy and subvert your political system, it is hardly surprising that a country would make it illegal to undertake explicitly interventionist programs such as those funded by USAID.
"Access to information" is also the greatest enemy of the extremists in Florida and New Jersey who have opposed freedom of travel to Cuba and even the modest steps for people to people exchange taken by the President last month.
I don't know Ms. Alarcon, but I believe she is conveying the truth as she knows it. An ad hominem attack is not productive.
John McAuliff
My comments towards Miss Alarcon werent an ad hominem attack, they were meant for those interested in her commentary to consider the source and decide for themselves if her exhortations stem from an agenda.
With regards to your comment on BGAN satellites and encrypted data capabilities and the creation of wifi zones: so what? Encrypted data is transferred through the internet constantly and continuously. moreover, what information could a religious group or your average Cuban citizen possibly have to convey that would be of concern to the Cuban government? Military secrets? Hardly. Militarily, the US has ample information already. And, empirically, the US hasnt acted militarily against Cuba in 50 years, what would be the impetus now, with a regime friendly administration in office? So what else would need encryption that would be of such dire consequence? What could a member of a synagogue possibly say to what i assume is the outside world that would worry the government so?
Plus, why would any government want to restrict their citizens access to the internet through a wifi zone? seems to me that having a few more people able to log on and surf the web would be a good thing, especially if it's affordable, in a country where an hour of internet access costs a months salary at the moment.
(continued)
Religious groups and average Cuban citizens dont know the inner workings of the government, they arent privy to security secrets and they certainly dont pose a threat to the government, unless that government has either something to hide like human rights violations or it prefers that its citizens be illinformed and not privy to accurate, unbiased world news and information.
You comment on laptops being legal since raul took power as a good thing exposes your own bias. And laptops being legal are a good thing, of course, but why would they have been illegal in the first place? why is it that Cubans couldnt have them legally before? what harm could possibly come to a state so perfect, where "leaders" are always elected by a 100% margin and as such are loved, that the government would need to ban a computer?
Why is access to the web so dangerous in Cuba? One need only look at the recent and ongoing events in Egypt and Libya to know why. A people empowered truly is a dangerous thing for a totalitarian state.
As for your comment on the "extremists" who oppose the freedom to travel to Cuba" and more "people to people exchanges:" it is not information that we wish to curtail, it is the rewarding of a government that by all accounts from every human rights organization in the world, systematically violates the most basic civil and human rights of the people with more money to fund these violations.
Lastly, please, out of respect for the Jewish community in Cuba and in the US and elsewhere, please stop portraying Mr Gross as a humanitarian aider of said community in Cuba, NO ONE belonging to the Jewish community in Cuba had ever even met Mr Gross. He was down here doing something else, not helping Jews.
And out of respect to the Jewish community in Cuba, I don't blame them for saying they didnt know Mr. Gross. Of course that's what they're going to say publicly or to the Cuban authorities. I'm sure they don't want to be interogated or detained for knowing him. That's like them saying to state security, "sure, I knew that spy and didn't report his activites"...NOT a good idea. Obviously, Mr. Gross, worked with a alot of Jews over 7 trips to Cuba, they're just smart enough not to admit it.
On February 24, 1996, the group's planes flew another search and rescue mission. While the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were still north of the 24th parallel, the Cuban Air Force ordered the scrambling of two military aircraft, a MiG-29 and a MiG-23, operating under the control of a military station on Cuban soil. The MiGs were carrying artillery, short-range missiles, bombs, and rockets, and they were flown by members of the Cuban Air Force.[9]
According to the ICAO report, the Cuban Air Force shot down the first plane while all three planes were north of the 12 mile limit of Cuban airspace. Afterwards, Basulto trespassed into Cuban airspace, still heading east, for less than 45 seconds. The second plane was then shot down, approximately ten miles farther north. Thus, it is beyond question that one plane, Basulto's N2506, entered Cuban airspace that day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_to_the_Rescue
There is substantial evidence that Mr. Gross violated well established Cuban law under contract of USAID's misguided campaign to "democratize" Cuba.
See my post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mcauliff/cuba-travel-and-the-alan-_1_b_822451.html
John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development