Contractor Jailed in Cuba Was Aiding Religious Groups, U.S. Says

Contractor Jailed in Cuba Was Aiding Religious Groups, U.S. Says
By GINGER THOMPSON and MARC LACEY
Published: January 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — The United States contractor detained in Cuba last month
and accused of being a spy is a 60-year-old social worker from the
Washington suburbs who had gone to Cuba to provide communications
equipment to Jewish nonprofit organizations, according to American
officials.

In postings on the Internet, the contractor, Alan P. Gross — whose
identify had not previously been made public — said he had more than 20
years' experience in development work around the world. One of his
Internet networking sites said he had been a volunteer field organizer
for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

American officials say that Mr. Gross had gone to Cuba as part of a
United States government program and was providing encouragement and
financial assistance to religious nonprofit groups. The officials
acknowledge that Mr. Gross entered Cuba without the proper visa, though
they contend that he was not involved in any activities that posed a
violent threat to the Cuban government. And they flatly dispute any
allegations that he is a spy.

The Cuban government, however, has characterized his work as a threat to
national security.

In the United States, where Cuba continues to fire political passions,
Mr. Gross's detention has become the source of new tensions between
Washington and Havana, and it threatens to ignite more debate on Capitol
Hill about how the Obama administration ought to proceed in its Cuba policy.

Specifically, the case has raised questions about whether the
administration should continue a Bush administration practice of sending
development workers to conduct the kind of semicovert operations that
landed Mr. Gross in jail.

Mr. Gross has visited Cuba several times, delivering computer and
satellite equipment to three Jewish community groups, according to
people with knowledge of his work.

In December, they said, he was on a follow-up trip for Development
Alternatives Inc., a contractor working with the United States Agency
for International Development. The people who know about his work, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
comment on the matter, said Mr. Gross was sent to research how the
groups were making use of the equipment he had previously distributed to
them.

"His work in Cuba was focused on facilitating communications among
people in a nonviolent, nondissident religious organization," DAI said
in a statement.

Details about Mr. Gross and his work in Cuba slowly began to emerge this
week. Mr. Gross studied social work at the University of Maryland and
the Virginia Commonwealth University, and he had a long career as an
international development worker that took him to at least 50 countries.

In 2001, he started a company called Joint Business Development Center,
whose Web site says it has "supported Internet connectivity in locations
where there was little or no access," including Iraq, Afghanistan,
Armenia and Kuwait. Records show his company earned less than $70,000
last year.

One friend, Howard Feinberg, said, "The Alan I know is someone who is
concerned only about helping improve the human condition, not meddling
in people's politics."

President Obama came to office promising a new era of engagement with
Cuba. But after lifting some restrictions on travel and remittances, he
has been reluctant to take further steps, citing continuing reports of
human rights abuses in Cuba. Some Cuba experts have said that Mr.
Gross's arrest may harden Mr. Obama's stance.

Cuba, meanwhile, said the episode signaled that Mr. Obama was just as
committed to overthrowing the government as his predecessor was.

Havana has used Mr. Gross's arrest as an opportunity to raise an old
grievance: America's long prison terms for five Cuban agents convicted
of spying on Cuban exile organizations. Havana maintains that the agents
were in the United States to prevent terrorist acts against Cuba and has
called on the Obama administration to release them.

As for Mr. Gross, Cuba has said little. The government has not formally
charged him with a crime. Cuban authorities have provided the United
States almost no information, nor have they made any demands.

As a result, Washington and many American experts on Cuba have been left
speculating about Havana's intentions.

"The Cuban regime is obviously looking for some kind of U.S. concession,
callously using the contractor as a bargaining chip," said
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, a member of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Some American officials said they suspected that Cuba aimed to shine
light on A.I.D.'s undercover Cuba programs, whose financing has grown in
the past decade from about $5 million to over $45 million a year and
have a history of mismanagement.

Senator John Kerry, chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations
Committee, has called for a comprehensive review of the A.I.D. programs.

Representative Bill Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, meanwhile,
asked whether there might be other ways to provide information to
nongovernmental groups. "If we want to have influence on the island,
what makes sense?" he said.

Others say that sometimes covert actions are necessary.

"This is the kind of thing we do all over the world when we are trying
to reach people their governments don't want us to reach," said an aide
to a Democratic senator. "It's naïve to think that if we asked Cuba for
permission, we'd get it."

Ginger Thompson reported from Washington, and Marc Lacey from Mexico City.

Contractor Jailed in Cuba Was Aiding Religious Groups, U.S. Says -
NYTimes.com (13 January 2010)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/americas/13havana.html