Document confirms the secret and subversive mission Alan Gross in Cuba
News from Cuba | Friday, 18 January 2013
by Jean-Guy Allard
A hitherto unknown document just unveiled on a U.S. website confirms the secret and subversive mission of USAID agent Alan Gross in Cuba, for which he was convicted by Cuban justice. The text describes the task in terms of Gross assimilating the work of intelligence agencies, confirming the role of USAID as a CIA front.
Official representatives of the U.S. government insisted on the secrecy of the task entrusted to Gross, during a meeting on August 25, 2008 with Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) of Bethesda, Maryland, the firm chosen to perform it shortly before the draft technological infiltration into Cuban territory.
The contents of a summary of the meeting prepared by the same DAI has just been published by the website Along the Malecon, by journalist Tracey Eaton, who specializes in several years searching for documents on the controversial USAID activities in Cuba and their financing.
The note was presented by the DAI in federal court on January 15 as part of its response to a demand for $60 million by the family of Alan Gross in November 2012.
As pointed out by the representatives of USAID, the contractor would carry out a daring plan to establish satellite Internet connections in the noses of the security agents of the Cuban State.
USAID pledged then to protect the identity of contractors and partners inside and outside Cuba.
DAI finished recruiting Gross, a veteran of this type of "humanitarian& quot; tasks in countries like Afghanistan, to secretly enter "new media" - a number of military capabililty - described as "sensitive components in a very sensitive project."
During four trips to Cuba, Gross established three illegal Internet connections, with sophisticated satellite technology - one in Havana, two on the outskirts of the capital.
DAI paid him $258,274. Gross asked for more money to continue the project and was promised $332,334, which would have increased its subcontract to $590,608 if Cuban security had not interrupted their raid, December 3, 2009.
During his first trip to Cuba, Gross had supplied their Cuban contacts with Broadband Global Area Network equipment, BGAN, an expensive satellite communication device generation.
The gear, which fits in a backpack, can be used to establish a broadband connection to the Internet from anywhere in the world. Users can also make phone calls, send emails and set up a Wi-Fi network.
However, in his notes to his bosses, Gross points out some concerns. He considered it "highly probable" that [Cuban] state security agents detect satellite connections in the provinces.
The Cuban government technicians with portable devices routinely seek illegal signs: "The discovery of using BGAN would be catastrophic, " wrote Gross
. During the last three of the six planned trips Gross, the contractor proposed yet provide "up to three possible new sites" with what he described as a "Telco- in-a-Bag" .
Each of these "bags" consisted, among other things, about SmartPhones, a 120 GB iPod, a BGAN, a wireless router, a MacBook and various memory cards.
All of this to form a powerful network of informants belonging USAID itself, that of "humanitarian aid". This was the same help the state agency that promotes U.S. in the Middle East, in support of NATO troops.
