Could a US-Cuba prisoner swap break ice?
Could a US-Cuba prisoner swap break ice?
US government subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba for smuggling satellite equipment onto island
UPDATED 5:16 PM EST Nov 07, 2014
(CNN) —Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba for smuggling satellite equipment onto the island, is being held at Havana's Carlos J. Finlay Military Hospital. With peeling canary-yellow walls and hordes of people coming and going, the aging building doesn't look like a place where Cuba would hold its most valuable prisoner. But police officers and soldiers surround the hospital. Inside, Cuban special forces guard the 65-year-old U.S. citizen, emotionally and physically frail and approaching his fifth year in confinement.
North of the Florida Straits, Gross' imprisonment is seen as the major impediment to better relations with Havana.
Now, however, midway through the second term of President Barack Obama, several signs of possible change have emerged. Senior administration officials and Cuba observers say reforms on the island and changing attitudes in the United States have created an opening for improved relations.
The signs include the admission this week by senior administration officials that talks about a swap between Gross and three imprisoned Cuban agents -- part of group originally known as the Cuban Five -- have taken place. In addition, recent editorials in The New York Times have recommended an end to the longstanding U.S. embargo against Cuba and even a prisoner swap for Gross.
~snip~
The operation involved the smuggling of parabolic satellite dishes hidden in Styrofoam boogie boards, Armstrong said. Cash was transported to Cuba to finance demonstrations against the Castro regime.
"They were sending this poor guy into one of the most sophisticated counterintelligence operating environments in the world," said Armstrong, who spent 25 years as a CIA officer. "It was not credible his story about the Jews. It didn't make sense."
More:
http://www.wesh.com/national-news/could-a-uscuba-prisoner-swap-break-ice/29604908