Gonzalez who spent years in jail in the United States... (Associated Press) 
 
 Fernando Gonzalez, who returned to the island in February after serving more than 15 years behind bars in the United States, said the deal to secure the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban detainees raises the question: What about Alan Gross, the State Department subcontractor who has languished nearly as long in a Cuban jail? What makes that calculus suddenly safer for the United States?  HAVANA (AP) — The exchange of five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo for a U.S. Army soldier held captive in Afghanistan could set a precedent for a similar swap with Cuba, a Cuban intelligence agent who spent years imprisoned in the United States said Monday. But Havana considers such programs to be an affront to its sovereignty, and he was sentenced to 15 years. territorial integrity of the state” — bringing cellphones, personal computers and networking devices to help connect Cuba’s tiny Jewish community to the Internet as part of a democracy-promotion program. Gross, a 65-year-old Maryland native, suffers from various health problems.
– Regardless of where you stand on the controversy surrounding Bowe Bergdahl's release—Ruth Marcus calls herself "tentatively against the (prisoner) swap"—it serves as an argument for aiding another captive American. Alan Gross, a state department subcontractor, has been in a Cuban prison for almost five years. The 65-year-old was imprisoned for bringing communications gear into the country "under the auspices of the US government," Marcus writes in the Washington Post. His goal was, reportedly, to link Cuban Jews to the Internet to help boost democracy. Cuban officials have suggested they'd let him go in exchange for three Cuban intelligence officers convicted in Miami of spying in 2001. But the US says it won't make a link between actual spies and Gross, who wasn't one. Marcus' response: "Oh, please." Unlike the Taliban figures released for Bergdahl, the Cuban agents—members of the so-called Cuban Five—wouldn't pose much of a national security risk to the US; the danger in releasing them is only political. () Incidentally, an already-released Cuban agent has also called for such a release following the Bergdahl exchange, the AP reports. (Click to read about another American seeking freedom abroad.)