A prestigious public relations firm sent out a press packet on Thursday about Alan Gross, a USAID funded detainee in Cuba, including a video appeal from his wife Judy and background materials.
It was timed to have an impact on the bilateral talks on migration taking place in Havana today.
The public relations campaign came after a letter was sent by eight pro-embargo members of the House who demanded the Obama Administration "suspend all talks" with Cuba until Mr. Gross is released.
The press packet includes a letter to the Secretary of State from Maryland Senators Mikulski and Cardin and Representative Van Hollen arguing more reasonably that the negotiations, "create an ideal opportunity to make clear that Mr. Gross' release is a most important priority in our nation's relationship with Cuba."
The public relations firm, Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates (CLS), lists many governments and political candidates among its clients, along with prominent universities and the American Red Cross. The release does not say who paid for its work on behalf of the Grosses.
A central point in the background material is:
“Alan was helping Cuba’s tiny Jewish community set up an Intranet so that they could communicate amongst themselves and with other Jewish communities abroad, and providing them the ability to access the Internet.The Jewish community in Cuba with whom Alan was working with is quite small (the islands Jewish population is estimated to be between 1,000 and 1,500 of a population of 11.4 million people).”
ORT, a prominent international non-governmental organization, has a substantial computer program with the small Jewish community in Cuba which already provides those services. Was Mr. Gross duplicating its efforts or working with ORT?
I find no reference to him in ORT's postings about its work in Cuba.
My request to CLS for clarification has not been answered.
While I believe that Mr. Gross should be released, it is likely that he will be succeeded by other detainees unless USAID follows normal diplomatic protocol and obtains authorization from the receiving country before funding programs within it.
Both the US and Cuba consider it a criminal offense to work in their territory as an unregistered agent of a foreign power.
Ideally both governments will take this opportunity to set a new course of mutual respect in their relations. This should result in the release of Mr. Gross, the proper operation of USAID funded programs in Cuba, and the end of executive imposed restrictions in Washington and Havana on educational and cultural exchange.
***************
Unpublished letter to the New York Times:
To the Editor;
By turning away from real engagement with US adversaries ("News Analysis" by Helene Cooper, 2/15/10), the Obama Administration risks replicating the error of its predecessors.
Better packaging of inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom about the world has only passing value on an international stage which we can no longer dominate.
No doubt, "administration officials hope they will benefit from a global perception that Mr. Obama has reached out to North Korea, Cuba and even Syria."
However, in the case I am most familiar with, Cuba, most international observers see the US as still bound by domestic interest groups into unilateralism built on fiction (Havana as a state sponsor of terrorism) and fear (denial of Americans' right to travel).
They wonder what happened to the Barack Obama who told Cuban Americans in Miami on May 24,2008, "it is time to pursue direct diplomacy, with friend and foe alike, without preconditions.”
John McAuliff
(The author is founder and executive director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development in Dobbs Ferry, New York.)