God Bless America, they gone nuts.
Cuba sets trial date for jailed American contractor
Feb 24/2011
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cuba has set a trial date for U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross, the State Department said on Thursday, marking the next step in a case with has stalled progress in U.S.-Cuba relations.
"A trial date has been set for Alan Gross in Cuba. We hope he receives a fair trial and is allowed to come home. What he did is not a crime," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter. 
Crowley did not say what the date was, and Gross' family attorney did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Cuba's state media said this month that prosecutors would seek a 20-year sentence for Gross, 61, who has been detained since he was arrested at his Havana hotel in December 2009.
Cuban authorities have accused him in the past of illegally importing satellite communications equipment and possibly spying. A government statement posted on the website of Communist Party newspaper Granma said Gross had been charged with crimes against the state.
The United States has said Gross, whose trip was funded by a U.S. program aimed a promoting political change in Cuba, was only providing satellite communications equipment and Internet access for Jewish groups on the island and was not a spy.
The Gross case has become a serious obstacle between the two nations, stalling steps by the governments of U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro to improve long-strained ties. (similar to recent Pakistan/US relations strain)
But last month a senior U.S. State Department official expressed cautious optimism that Gross would be tried and freed once formal charges had been pressed. (Yeah, he will be freed like Davis)
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Cuba charges US citizen Alan Gross with spying
Cuban prosecutors are to seek a 20-year prison sentence for US citizen Alan Gross, who is accused of spying.
Mr Gross, 61, has been charged with plotting against the state and his trial date will be set soon, Cuban state media reported.
The US, which insists Mr Gross is an aid worker not a spy, said it "deplored" the decision. 
Washington has previously said there would be no major initiatives on US-Cuba relations until he was released.
Mr Gross was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and held without charge for 14 months.
He was working for the Cuba Democracy Programme, a US government programme aimed at promoting political change in Cuba.
The communist authorities consider this a subversive activity, and they allege that he was distributing illegal satellite equipment to Jewish community groups.
Hope
Now he has been charged with "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state", a government statement published in the communist party newspaper Granma said.
The US government had been informed and his lawyer and relatives would be allowed to attend the trial, the statement added.
Washington has repeatedly said that there can be no major initiatives towards improving relations until he is freed.
US officials have previously expressed hope that he will be sent back to the US once his trial is over.
His case has put a brake on President Barack Obama's efforts to improve US-Cuba relations, which have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.
Cuba has long been demanding the return of five of its citizens who have been in jail in the US on spying charges since 1998.
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US says Cuba has set Mar. 4 trial date for American accused of spying
HAVANA -
An American contractor jailed since December 2009 on suspicion of spying will go on trial in Cuba on March 4, U.S. diplomats and state-run Cuban media said Thursday, in a case sure to have profound ramifications for relations between the two Cold War enemies.
Cuban prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison term for Alan Gross, a 61-year-old native of Potomac, Maryland,
who was working for a firm contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested and sent to Havana's high-security Villa Marista prison.
The U.S. government and Gross' family say he was distributing communications equipment to the island's Jewish community when he was arrested. Cuba says he was part of a multimillion-dollar plan to destabilize the government, and charged him with "acts against the integrity and independence" of the country.
Cuban officials informed the U.S. State Department of the trial date on Wednesday, Molly Koscina, a spokeswoman for America's diplomatic mission in Havana, told The Associated Press. She added that Gross has also been notified that a trial date has been set.
"The Office of Cuban Affairs in Washington DC was informed yesterday," Koscina said. "The Cuban government has said that the family can travel and that U.S. officials can attend."
Cuban state-media confirmed the trial date, and said the proceedings would be held at Havana's Popular Provisional Tribunal.
"This information was transmitted through
diplomatic channels to the United States government, which was also notified that consular representatives, family members of Mr. Gross and his family lawyers can participate in the trial," said a report on the state-run news website Cubadebate.
Judy Gross, Alan Gross' wife, said in an email to the AP that she understands the trial is likely to last one or two days, but she said she has not yet decided if she will attend. The couple's 26-year-old daughter is currently recovering from surgery for breast cancer, and Alan Gross' mother was just diagnosed with lung cancer, making travel difficult.
"Now, more than ever, I beg the Cuban government to let Alan come home on humanitarian grounds. He has already served a 15-month prison sentence," she wrote.
She said she is worried about her husband's ability to "sustain the emotional pain and stress he is under," as well as his health. He has lost more than 90 pounds since being imprisoned.
News that a date would be set for Gross's trial came first in a Twitter posting sent from State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, though he did not state the date.
Crowley said in the Twitter posting that the U.S. hopes Gross will receive a fair trial and can be allowed to come home. He said what Gross did "is not a crime."
Relations between Cuba and the United States have reverted to their icy norm after a brief period of optimism following the election of U.S. President Barack Obama that the countries could put away their decades of enmity.
On Wednesday, Obama denounced Cuba's human rights record and called on President Raul Castro's government to release political prisoners and stop harassing the mother of a Cuban hunger striker who died last year.
While Obama's administration has taken several steps to loosen some travel and financial restrictions on Cuba, U.S. officials have said repeatedly that relations cannot improve in any meaningful way while Gross remains in custody.
The United States has maintained a 48-year trade embargo on Cuba.
As recently as January, a senior State Department official was allowed to meet with Gross in custody, and U.S. officials were voicing optimism he would soon be released.
One scenario mentioned privately at the time was that the American might be convicted, sentenced to time served and deported. But that was before Cuban prosecutors announced earlier this month that they would seek such a lengthy jail term.
The project Gross worked with was part of a $40 million-a-year USAID program to promote democracy and political change on the island.
U.S. officials have defended the program and said they will never stop supporting democracy and openness in Cuba. Detractors of the Cuba project have criticized it as ineffective and counterproductive.
While Gross claims to have been working with the 1,500-strong Jewish community, the leaders of the island's two main Jewish groups have said they had nothing to do with him.
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