Three hundred U.S. rabbis urged President Barack Obama to “take action” to secure the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Cuba for attempting to establish Internet communications for Cuban Jews. Gross, 65 and in deteriorating health, has served nearly five years of a 15-year sentence, and his case remains a serious…
The wife of Alan Gross visited her husband in a Cuban prison, then likened his plight to an American prisoner of war traded for five Taliban members. “If we can trade five members of the Taliban to bring home one American soldier, surely we can figure out a path forward to bring home one American…
President Barack Obama has sent an indirect message to Cuban President Raúl Castro through Uruguay’s leader, asking Cuba to release a jailed U.S. aid contractor and encouraging political reforms, U.S. officials said on Friday. It was a rare presidential-level communication between the United States and Cuba, which lack diplomatic relations and have been hostile neighbors…
The mother of Alan Gross, the Jewish-American contractor imprisoned in Cuba, has died. Evelyn Gross died Wednesday in Plano, Texas, according to a statement by Emily Black, a spokeswoman for the Gross family. She had long been suffering from cancer. She was 92. “This is a devastating blow for Alan and our family,” Alan Gross’…
The United States has not changed its stance on trading Cuban prisoners for Jewish U.S. aid worker Alan Gross, despite a recent prisoner swap. The U.S. last week agreed to exchange five Taliban prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban in Afghanistan for the…
Alan Gross did not warn his family he was launching a hunger strike, but hearing the news, they understood why: The U.S. government subcontractor languishing in a Cuban prison feels forgotten. Gross, a 64-year-old Jewish father of two from Potomac, Md., is currently serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba for “crimes against the state.” He…
Alan Gross suspended his hunger strike after a week at the behest of his elderly mother. “Alan’s mother asked him to stop the fast,” Jill Zuckman, the spokeswoman of the family of the State Department subcontractor imprisoned in Cuba, told JTA. “He agreed to do that today.” Gross, who launched his fast April 3, told…
A Jewish contractor who has launched a hunger strike while serving a long prison term in Cuba is receiving “dignified and decent treatment” in a hospital ward, where he is in normal and stable health, Cuba said on Wednesday. Cuba’s communist government said it was concerned by a statement from Alan Gross’s lawyer on Tuesday…
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