Raul castro, the president of cuba will also give a News Conference in his country that will happen at noon eastern time. Of course cnn will continue to follow this breaking news throughout the day. Thank you for joining me today, im carol kos toll low. this hour with berman and michaela starts now. Hello, everyone. Im john berman. And. And im michaela pereira. History is being made at this hour after more than a half century of tension and diplomat diplomatic silence between the u. S. Its releasing alan gross from prison after five years. A series of genuinely breathtaking developments. Cuba is also releasing a u. S. Intelligence asset, a spy, whos been locked up in cuba for more than 20 years. In Return Washington is freeing three cuban spies convicted in 2001 of espionage. That is big in and of itself. It all seems part now of something much, much bigger. President obama will announce major changes in u. S. Policy toward cuba. Officials calling them the most sweeping changes since t
peacecorpsconnect.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peacecorpsconnect.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MONTEREY NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries on Wednesday announced the appointment of Lisa Wooninck as superintendent of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, according to a news release from the sanctuary.
so-called cuban five that s a group of cuban spies convicted on espionage charges. they served decades in american jails. three of them will be released back to cuba in exchange for mr. alan gross. let s talk about this. congressman sam farr, democrat from california, is on the phone right now. welcome, congressman. thank you. what great news. give me more of your reaction to this news. well, i visited with alan gross in may and he was in very frail condition. we ve been advocating to the president to release alan gross, to get the prisoners released because two of them have already been released and i think, frankly, this is a very modern mature move by both countries. it s long overdue. this has been a failed policy for some 53 years. we have a lot of americans that have been traveling there illegally. the enthusiasm to get there and be legal and be able to import and export goods.
made, i suppose, that the embargo has been in place for, what, more than 50 years, and it hasn t worked. the castros are still in power. why not take another road? that s an excellent argument to have and one that the organization that i m involved with, we don t have a position on the embargo. but what is important is if people are going to have a discussion on the subject like a member of the u.s. congress like congressman farr, they maybe should have a little more knowledge about what the facts are as opposed to going with talking points that are being spread by the cuban government and its allies. cuba is a dictatorship and inviting it to be a part of a democratic gathering of nations is no different than if suddenly we invited the government of north korea. the u.n. exists for people to theoretically have dialogue with each other and look where that has gotten us. the fact is that isolating nations that are human rights violators does work. it does make a difference. sanctions m