To: President Donald Trump
Bring Alan Gross Home in the New Year
Fund for Reconciliation and Development
Your administration can and should obtain the release of USAID subcontractor Alan Gross without further delay, through high-level direct negotiations with Cuba.
Why is this important?
There has never been a better opportunity to free Alan Gross from imprisonment in Havana.
When laws and goals of two nations conflict, negotiation is the only realistic path, as undertaken regularly by the US, Israel and other countries that seek return of detained agents.
Alan, Judy and two-thirds of the Senate have asked his employer, the Obama Administration, to take action on Alan's behalf.
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From an article in Florida's Sun Sentinel:
Judy Gross is frustrated with the lack of help she feels she has not gotten from Washington.
Gross said in a statement: "I am angry at the U.S. Government for its lack of response in working toward bringing Alan home. For four years, we have had meeting after meeting with the State Department, and the National Security Council. Each meeting ultimately ended the same way — with patronizing comments, with empty promises and ultimately with no action … The White House has refused to speak to me or Alan's legal team for four years. I didn't even qualify for a form letter one usually gets after writing to the President.
"I do know that there are those in Congress with hatred so strong toward Cuba that they are willing to let Alan rot in prison. This way of thinking has failed to bring Alan home for four years and is a death sentence for Alan. … I urge all South Florida residents to send messages and meet with Senator Mark Rubio, CongresswomanDebbie Wasserman Schultz, Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lethinen and Congressman Mario Dias-Balart. … We need to try something different or Alan will die in prison."
******************
From a letter to the President by sixty-six members of the US Senate:
"We urge you to act expeditiously to take whatever steps are in the national interest to obtain his release, and we stand ready to support your Administration in pursuit of this worthy goal."
******************
The President needs broad support to overcome special interests that prefer Alan remain a symbol, separated from his family, if the means of his release does not accommodate hostility to their country of origin.
For additional background, visit http://thehavananote.com/2013/12 /could_alan_gross_be_home_holidays and http://thehavananote.com/2013/12/do_it_mr_president_do_it
When laws and goals of two nations conflict, negotiation is the only realistic path, as undertaken regularly by the US, Israel and other countries that seek return of detained agents.
Alan, Judy and two-thirds of the Senate have asked his employer, the Obama Administration, to take action on Alan's behalf.
******************
From an article in Florida's Sun Sentinel:
Judy Gross is frustrated with the lack of help she feels she has not gotten from Washington.
Gross said in a statement: "I am angry at the U.S. Government for its lack of response in working toward bringing Alan home. For four years, we have had meeting after meeting with the State Department, and the National Security Council. Each meeting ultimately ended the same way — with patronizing comments, with empty promises and ultimately with no action … The White House has refused to speak to me or Alan's legal team for four years. I didn't even qualify for a form letter one usually gets after writing to the President.
"I do know that there are those in Congress with hatred so strong toward Cuba that they are willing to let Alan rot in prison. This way of thinking has failed to bring Alan home for four years and is a death sentence for Alan. … I urge all South Florida residents to send messages and meet with Senator Mark Rubio, CongresswomanDebbie Wasserman Schultz, Congresswoman Ilena Ros-Lethinen and Congressman Mario Dias-Balart. … We need to try something different or Alan will die in prison."
******************
From a letter to the President by sixty-six members of the US Senate:
"We urge you to act expeditiously to take whatever steps are in the national interest to obtain his release, and we stand ready to support your Administration in pursuit of this worthy goal."
******************
The President needs broad support to overcome special interests that prefer Alan remain a symbol, separated from his family, if the means of his release does not accommodate hostility to their country of origin.
For additional background, visit http://thehavananote.com/2013/12 /could_alan_gross_be_home_holidays and http://thehavananote.com/2013/12/do_it_mr_president_do_it