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.
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.”
Eric Hershberg, director of the Center for American and Latino Studies at American University, scoffed at the idea that Gross’ activities were limited to helping the Jewish community access the Internet. The chip brought into Cuba by Gross was “military level” technology, and was brought on behalf of a government group, USAID, that Hershberg said is committed to “promoting regime change” in Cuba.
As Washington Post columnist Joe Davidson put it, “Gross was not a spy, and Cuba was wrong to treat him like one. But he also was not a naive do-gooder. His activities were at least semi-covert, and he took efforts to conceal them.”
Cuba: A state sponsor of terrorism?
Sen. Ted Cruz condemned President Barack Obama’s announcement that he would normalize relations with Cuba, calling the communist country “a leading state sponsor of terrorism.”
That’s a stretch, to say the least.
In fact, the State Department report said, “There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups.” It did note that Cuba has historic “ties” to two regional terrorist groups: Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) in Spain and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But Cuba’s ties with the ETA “have become more distant,” and it has supported and hosted peace talks between FARC and the government of Colombia, the report said.
As for Cuba harboring fugitives wanted in the U.S., the Congressional Research Service report notes that Cuba in recent years has returned some fugitives on a “case-by-case basis.” The CRS report also noted that Cuba is a regional member of the Financial Action Task Force, an international group that was formed to combat the financing of terrorism.
In 2012, Cuba joined the Financial Action Task Force of South America, now known as the Financial Task Force of North America. The U.S. is a member of the FATF. The State Department report on Cuba’s terrorist activities in 2013 does not mention Cuba’s ties to North Korea – even though, as Rubio correctly mentioned, Cuba sought to provide arms to North Korea in violation of a United Nations weapons ban. Rubio was referring to an incident in the Panama Canal in July 2013, when a North Korean ship carrying undeclared Cuban weapons was seized by the Panama Canal Authority.
In February, North Korea paid a fine of nearly $700,000, and the ship was allowed to return to Cuba. Cuba insisted that it sought to have the military equipment repaired by North Korea and was not trying to sell or transfer the arms. The panel said it was “unconvinced by Cuba’s rationale” in part because the weapons were undeclared and hidden under bags of sugar.
Chip Tuthill lives in Mancos.
