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<h1><font size=4><b>Glover and Landau Visit Gerardo Hernandez, Compare
Gross Case With Cuban 5</b></font></h1><hr>
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<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/glover-and-landau-visit-gerardo-hernandez-compare-gross-case-with-cuban-5-by-saul-landau" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/glover-and-landau-visit-gerardo-hernandez-compare-gross-case-with-cuban-5-by-saul-landau</a>
</font><hr>
<font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/saullandau">Saul
Landau</a><br><br>
Thursday, December 22, 2011<br><br>
2:30 PM, departure time the most excruciating part of visiting Gerardo
Hernandez. A prison guard announced: “Visiting hours are over.” Gerardo
lined up against the wall with the other inmates. We stood with wives,
children and mothers. Finally, the electronically controlled, heavy metal
door opened. Gerardo held up a triumphant fist. We did the same. He
stayed in Hell (13 years now). We left.<br><br>
We drove from the Victorville Penitentiary to the Ontario California
airport, discussing the absurdity of five Cubans (one on precarious
parole) who helped the United States fight terrorism but remain locked in
federal penitentiaries while Luis Posada Carriles who orchestrated the
1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane (73 died) dines in Miami’s finest
restaurants? In between visits to his proctologist Posada and fellow
geezers continue plotting anti-Cuba violence.<br><br>
Miami Federal Court judges will decide on Gerardo’s appeal, which
presents new facts and evidence: Gerardo’s trial lawyer now admits he
inadequately represented him; new documents show payment by the US
government to Miami-based “journalists” who offered negative stories
about the accused Cubans, thus tainting the trial atmosphere. Finally,
the US government has still refused to deliver its “secret” map showing
the exact point where on February 24, 1996 Cuban MIGs shot down two
Brothers to the Rescue airplanes. The Cubans claim the incidents occurred
over Cuban airspace, i.e.; no crime took place. Washington insisted the
planes got hit in international air space, but the NSA said they could
not release their crucial diagram: “national security.” Gerardo played no
part in the drama -- no matter where the shoot down occurred.<br><br>
We agreed US Cuba policy bordered on the absurd. For example, the State
Department placed Cuba on its terrorist list although the US has made
Cuba a victim of terrorist attacks; Cuba has not reciprocated. But Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee argued:
"the United States should not negotiate with a state sponsor of
terrorism." <br><br>
This related to her objection to any US humanitarian approach to get Alan
Gross released. Convicted in Cuba for activities related to a USAID
regime change policy, Gross must either serve his fifteen year sentence
or wait until the US military “liberates” the island. She called on
people to assassinate Fidel Castro (see Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST
PLEASE STAND UP).<br><br>
This rhetoric hardly serves Gross’ interests. Thanks to Ileana he might
stay in prison until age 75. He misses his family, as do the Cubans in US
prisons. Like Alan, they also have close relatives with serious
illnesses. When my mother died in 2009 “I wasn’t in Cuba to bury her.”
<br><br>
Gerardo told us he and Adriana, now 42 want children. So does another
member of the five, Fernando Gonzalez and his wife. The US denies visas
to their wives. Time is running out. Gerardo’s face showed a flash of
anguish. <br><br>
The Five’s cause gets little publicity. Not so the case of Alan Gross, an
American contractor sentenced to 15 years in Cuba for activities designed
to undermine Cuba’s government. The Gross and Cuban Five cases, however,
are different. Gerardo received two consecutive life sentences plus
fifteen years for conspiring to commit espionage and aiding and abetting
murder -- supposedly providing information to Cuban authorities, which
was public, on the February 24, 1996 fatal flights of the Brothers to the
Rescue. Since the trial took place in Miami, the prosecution didn’t need
to provide evidence for either charge. Imagine five Jews on trial in
Berlin in 1938!<br><br>
Gross, perhaps misunderstood the nature of his mission, to teach
clandestinely dissidents to operate closed satellite networks to help
overthrow the Cuban government. The Five came to Florida to stop
terrorism, not destabilize the US government,” said Gerardo.<br><br>
True, Gerardo explained, Gross and the Cubans are prisoners and want to
go home. But, he said, “the media reports regularly on the
Jewish-American imprisoned in Havana for allegedly trying to help the
Jewish community obtain internet technology. Cuban Jewish leaders deny
Gross came to help them. Synagogues in Cuba had access to the Internet
well before Gross’ visit,” he clarified.<br><br>
Nor, Gerardo smiled did “we [the Cuban Five] enter the US with tourists
visas as Gross did.” In his visits to Cuba, “Gross never told his Cuban
contacts he worked on a government contract. US policy says it wants
regime change. Imagine Cuba sending in agents to overthrow capitalism and
install a socialist government. Wow! Free health care for all -- just
because all human beings deserve it.” <br><br>
Gerardo sympathized with Gross health problems. Alan gets special medical
attention and doesn’t cohabit with convicted criminals. The Cuban 5 often
did not receive needed medical attention in US prisons. Cuba has allowed
Judy Gross to visit her husband.<br><br>
Recently, groups of Jews picketed the Cuban Interest Section in
Washington. Their signs “Cuban Gross Injustice” don’t indicate
recognition of the Cuban Five. They, like the US government, demand that
Cuba free Gross. They don’t demand reciprocity from Obama: free the
Cubans who have already served 13 years. <br><br>
Obama could make a humanitarian gesture to free the Cuban Five. Cuba has
already “conveyed to the U.S. government its willingness to find a
humanitarian solution to the Gross case on reciprocal basis.” (Cuban
government press release December 2011) <br><br>
The US media ignores the statements of 10 Nobel Prize winners, Amnesty
International and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions. All
agree. The Cuban Five did not get a fair trial and merit a pardon or a
new trial – not in Miami.<br><br>
Obama knows how to get Alan Gross home. After all, Israel swapped 1000
Palestinian prisoners for one captured Israeli.<br><br>
<br><br>
<i>Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow. His WILL THE REAL
TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP (with Danny Glover) is on dvd
(cinemalibrestore.com. COUNTERPUNCH published his BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD.
<br><br>
</i> <br><br>
<i>Glover is an activist and actor.<br><br>
<br><br>
</i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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