Alleged spy Gross felt abandoned by US in Cuba

Alleged spy Gross felt abandoned by US in Cuba

Washington (AFP) - US contractor Alan Gross says he was mistreated by
his captors and felt abandoned by his own government after Cuba arrested
him and accused him of spying.

In his first major interview since his release last year, Gross said
exercise, family memories and humor kept him going though his five-year
ordeal.

"They threatened to hang me. They threatened to pull out my fingernails.
They said I'd never see the light of day," the 66-year-old told CBS
television's 60 Minutes.

"I had to do three things in order to survive, three things every day,"
he said, in an extract from a longer interview to be broadcast in full
on Sunday.

"I thought about my family that survived the Holocaust. I exercised
religiously every day and I found something every day to laugh at."

Gross was contracted by the US Agency for International Development to
deliver electronics to Jewish groups when he was arrested in Havana in
December 2009.

Initially accused of espionage, he was tried in 2011 and sentenced to 15
years for committing "acts against the independence and territorial
integrity" of Cuba.

Asked whether he had thought that the US government would find a way to
get him out, he said: "Oh, I absolutely did for the first two weeks.

"And then I said to myself, 'Where the hell are they? Where are they?' I
didn't have any idea I'd be there for five years," he told CBS.

The US government has always insisted Gross was not an intelligence
agent but a development worker trying to connect Cuban communities to
the outside world.

A specialist in satellite communications, he had previously done such
work in around 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

He had visited Cuba four times before to his arrest, delivering computer
and satellite gear to the communist island's small Jewish community.

On his fifth journey he was allegedly in possession of an electronic
chip that prevents governments from tracking the location of satellite
telephone calls.

Gross returned to the United States in December last year after he was
released as part of a historic warming of ties between the former Cold
War foes.

Source: Alleged spy Gross felt abandoned by US in Cuba - Yahoo News -
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