The Deacon's Bench
From The Washington Post:
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) received a phone call on Tuesday night from White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice that “just knocked me off my feet.”
After more than five years of captivity, Alan Gross was coming home. Durbin was in the midst of wrapping up the Senate’s tumultuous year, but said the news was “a great relief.”
“I got to know his wife, Judy, and had met her and shared her pain. I met with him when he was in prison in Havana and I really feared for his health if he continued to be in prison,” he said.
The White House also informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) of the release Tuesday night, but it was not immediately clear whether top Republican leaders had also been informed.
Other lawmakers closely tracking U.S.-Cuba policy said they were given just a 30-minute advance warning that a “major announcement” regarding Cuba policy was imminent.
After keeping close tabs on the situation over the past several years, Durbin said he learned only recently that the Obama administration and the Vatican have been working together for more than a year to secure Gross’s release from Cuba.
“I’ve spoken to this president many times over the years and I know that it was his goal to change our relationship with Cuba,” he said in an interview. “I also knew that the administration was quietly behind the scenes doing a lot to free Alan Gross.”
UPDATE: Time magazine notes:
President Obama thanked Pope Francis for his role in negotiating a more open policy on Cuba and the release of U.S. citizen Alan Gross from Cuban custody.
In a 15-minute speech announcing that the U.S. would normalize relations with Cuba, Obama said that the pope helped spur the change and personally thanked him. The Vatican then released a statement noting that the Vatican hosted delegations from both countries in October to negotiate the deal after Pope Francis had written to both leaders.
A senior administration official said that the appeal from the Pope was “very rare” and unprecedented.
“Pope Francis personally issued an appeal in a letter that he sent to President Obama and to President Raul Castro calling on them to resolve the case of Alan Gross and the cases of the three Cubans who have been imprisoned here in the United States and also encouraging the United States and Cuba to pursue a closer relationship,” said the official. “The Vatican then hosted the US and Cuban delegations where we were able to review the commitments that we are making today.”
American officials have also noted Francis’ deep familiarity with the Americas, being the first pope from the continent. The letter from Pope Francis “gave us greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward,” a white House official said. “Cuba was a topic of discussion that got as much attention as anything else the two of them discuss.”
The move is perhaps Pope Francis’ boldest foreign policy move yet, but it is not his first.
Read more.
There’s more about his background and imprisonment here.
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