http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/08/05/american-jailed-in-cuba-loses-his-final-appeal-cuba-supreme-court-upholds-his/

Seems that one Alan Gross, who somehow got the stupid idea in his head that he could go down to Cuba, violate their laws, and set up internet conneections with impunity, has had his conviction upheld by Cuba's highest court.

Normally I would say this is a case of another American who causes trouble through his own idiocy in a foreign country and wants to be bailed out, but in this case his "mission" was funded by and American pro-democracy agency.

His mission ostensibly was to provide internet connections for the masses of Jews in Cuba.  Problem is there are only about 500 Jews in all of Cuba (population: 11 million).  Why the hell is the United States Government recruiting civilians to go violate Cuban laws in a religious/ethnic-partisan mission targeting one two-hundredth of one percent of the Cuban population?  Leave this cr@p to the professional cloak-and-dagger guys who know the risks and know they'll be disavowed if they get caught. And without the whole ethnic/religious angle.

This guy was not kidnapped by the Cubans.  He went out of his way to go down there and violate their established laws.  This guy made his own bed now he can lay in it.  SHAME on the American politicians... both Dem and Repub... the Anti-Castro and Zionist-for-any-reason types, who put him up to it.  In my mind they "violated this man's rights" far more than the Cubans did.  This was a complete frittering of American money and foreign policy capital, and the life of a well-meaning but not-too-bright individual.

In a post-9/11 world, it ain't smart to sneak around any country trying to fark with their communication systems, let alone for an American wisenheimer in Cuba. 

But I suppose it's no dumber than aiming to assassinate Castro with an exploding cigar!
::)

at the risk of sounding like oliver stone, if these guys WERE part of an actual covert op sponsored by a clandestine US agency and were being disavowed, how would this story look any different? maybe this IS some kinda hijinks sponsored by the CIA or some such.

at the risk of sounding like oliver stone, if these guys WERE part of an actual covert op sponsored by a clandestine US agency and were being disavowed, how would this story look any different? maybe this IS some kinda hijinks sponsored by the CIA or some such.


In that case their mission would have been disavowed.  IN other words, the US Government woulda said "Hey don't look at us, we had nothing to do with this."

Instead in this case, everybody is admitting to the mission and its purpose... more or less...

In that case their mission would have been disavowed.  IN other words, the US Government woulda said "Hey don't look at us, we had nothing to do with this."

Instead in this case, everybody is admitting to the mission and its purpose... more or less...
well, they're admitting to the backstopped version of the mission, they're admitting that the cover story they concocted exists.

i mean i'm sorta playing around here, i have no reason to think the CIA is randomly funding jews in cuba, i'm not sure why they would do that. but just because they denied it doesn't mean they didn't have a hand in it. fun and games, man, fun and games! it's a mystery wrapped inside an enigma etc.