Gross calls for pact with Cuba

Peter Kornbluh's iPhone photo. Credit: NBC News

I read today, on the third anniversary of the jailing of Alan Gross in Cuba, a blog by my colleague Tracey Eaton, that the US Senate is to present a resolution calling for his release.

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five asks supporters to contact their senators and press for a prisoner swap (see contact information here).

Tracey also notes that NBC News on Sunday reported that Cuba specialist Peter Kornbluh had met with Gross for four hours on Nov. 28.

Kornbluh works at the National Security Archives, a respected nonprofit group that over the past 25 years has filed 40,000 Freedom of Information and declassification requests with more than 200 federal offices and agencies, opening up more than 10 million pages of previously secret government documents.
Kornbluh told NBC News that Gross was upset that the U.S. government has not done more to seek his release.

He’s angry, he’s frustrated, he’s dejected — and he wants his own government to step up" and negotiate, Kornbluh said. "His message is that the United States and Cuba have to sit down and have a dialogue without preconditions. … He told me that the first meeting should result in a non-belligerency pact being signed between the United States and Cuba.