Alan Gross, spy released from a Cuban jail in swap, will receive $3.2 million from the government
Score! NOTE: the Jewish community he was supposedly helping wanted nothing to do with him
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d9bf9dc86dae4319b587d78895ab429a/govt-pay-subcontractor-freed-cuban-jail
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former subcontractor freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail will receive $3.2 million from the federal government as part of a settlement with the Maryland-based company that employed him at the time of his arrest.
Alan Gross, who was arrested in 2009, was freed Dec. 17 as the U.S. announced it would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than a half-century. He had been working there to set up Internet access without local censorship for its small Jewish community, but the Cuban government considered such work subversive and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement Tuesday that an agreement reached in principle last month with Development Alternatives Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, had been made final this week. Although the statement did not specify the amount to be paid to Gross, a USAID spokesman said it was $3.2 million.
The USAID said in the statement that the agreement would resolve claims pending before the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals for unanticipated claims under a cost-reimbursement contract, including claims related to Gross. The USAID spokesman, who was not authorized to be named and requested anonymity to discuss the terms of the agreement, said DAI had sought $7 million. DAI did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The USAID said the settlement "avoids the cost, delay and risks of further proceedings, and does not constitute an admission of liability by either party."
= new reply since forum marked as read
While early accounts indicated Gross' work involved the island's Jewish community, Adela Dworin, vice president of Patronato Hebreo Cubano, Cuba's largest Jewish organization, said she does not know Gross. News that he was working with a Jewish group "was a surprise and very worrying for us," she said. Dworin wouldn't be alive if Cuba had not accepted her parents as refugees after they escaped the Holocaust, she explained. "We are grateful to this country," she said, going on to clarify that the Patronato Hebrero Cubano is not a political group "We feel very Cuban. We have always tried to stay outside politics."
She continued, "We are interested in Jewish culture. What interest would we have in espionage or improving our access to the Internet? Why? I don't think any Jewish organization in the country is mixed up in that." Dworin, based in Havana, reported that the Island's Jewish community is small, about 1,500. It's likely Gross entered Cuba as a tourist, she claimed, and while it's possible she met him, she doesn't remember it. "From October to May, we get hundreds and hundreds of Jewish religious visitors. If you put him here in front of me, I may know who he is."
http://pulitzercenter.org/blog/untold-stories/contractor-or-spy-jailed-american-and-his-mysterious-mission
Fun. Predictable.
to betray their Fatherland. They call him out on it and he goes to jail.
There is a saying in Cuba "‘PATRIA O MUERTE, VENCEREMOS" - "Fatherland or death, we will win". It's completely unambiguous to most observer who their loyalties are with (their adopted country). Anyone who suggest that Cubans of jewish faith or background had some other loyalty and would betray their homeland would be spouting an anti-Semitic canard or just generally confused.
It's one thing to assume people of Jewish background or faith have some empathy for modern day Israel, quite another to propose that they would betray their adopted homeland because of their background, faith or empathy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Cuba
