At noon today. Nbcs mark potter has the very latest out of miami. Sources have said that alan gross, a 65yearold sub contractor for the usaid has been released on humanitarian grounds. He is being flown to the United States. He has been imprisoned there for five years after being sentenced to 15 years by the cuban government. Gross claimed he was in cuba providing internet equipment to allow the Jewish Community to contact the world in ways that are hard to do in cuba. The cuban government claimed he was involved in activities counter to the cuban government that he was providing military equipment. He was arrested convicted and sentenced to 15 years. The five years in prison have been very tough. He has deteriorated in terms of his health. He is said to be in very poor health. Hes lost a lot of weight. Hes missing teeth. He is in quiet bad shape. Theres been pressure from the u. S. Government to release him and that has happened today on humanitarian grounds. Recently, president obama said it was important to do this to help improve relations with cuba. Former president bill clinton was here in miami saying the same thing last week saying the release of alan gross could lead to better relations with cuba. But this was the first step that was required and now weve heard it has happened today. And im wondering, mark if theres any possibility of a quid pro quo. Because cuba has been asking for the release of convicted spies in the United States for exchange. I am wondering if theres a quid pro quo in alan gross is leaving. That still stands to be seen. What we are talking about is the cuban five. Five cubans convicted of attempted espionage in the United States. Two of them have already been released. They have served their time. Three more are still being held. They are heroes in cuba. Which says they were here not spying on the u. S. Government but on the Cuban Exile Community, primarily here in miami. They want them returned. We have no indication theres a quid pro quo but were waiting to hear that announcement from the white house today to see if thats happened. Thats what the cubans want out of this. A recognition from the United States that perhaps its time to change the embargo against cuba and also to change the terror designation of cuba by the United States. Again, indications from this administration and the former president bill clinton that the time may be coming for improved relations with cuba. This is the first step that was required. Again, it has happened now. Alan gross, leaving cuba after five years in prison heading to the United States. We will see what the president has to say at 12 00 noon. Alan gross released this morning. Chris, good morning. Good morning. I can tell you that this is something the administration has been working toward. Obviously, the president , members of the National Security council council, had been aware of mr. Gross deteriorating health. He had lost a lot of weight by some reports, as much as 100 pounds, lost his teeth and had hip problems and was saying he was going to be on a hunger strike, that he didnt expect to see his 66th birthday in may. This is a situation that needed to be resolved for some kind of detaunt between the United States and cuba and for more normalized relations moving forward. Weve heard over the last couple of weeks coming up on the fifth anniversary of alan grosss imprisonment. That they were deeply concerned for his health. That they were reiterating the calls for his release. On the part of cuban officials who knew the severity of the situation, that if gross died while being held in cuba, it would be a terrible situation between these two governments. Again, we will hear from the president and get his reaction. He is on a u. S. Government plane right now and should be landing in the United States within some hours. I want to kind of bring up the point that i did with mark potter in our miami bureau. The question of a quid pro quo. On a bipartisan level, there has been calls for the release of alan gross here in the United States. Senator bob menendez the democrat from new jersey has joined hands with the house of representatives. Sending a letter to the president , saying he acted to help release mr. Gross. But where things differ is on the situation of a quid pro quo and what the United States has been willing to do in order to get the release of alan gross. There, there we will see a shift between those who say that there is no moral equivalency between mr. Gross and the cuban spies in the United States and others who say this is all good for future relations with that regime. Thats right. So that was that was the question. That was the difficulty. Clearly the cuban government has long tied mr. Grosss detainment with those of the five cuban spies who were arrested in miami. As you know the cuban government had proposed humanitarian release involving prisoners on both sides. That is the wording that was used in this release. We dont have any indication of what well hear from the president about how this all came about. Just to get a little more perspective, these cuban spies convicted in the United States, in courts of law, include a person who was directly involved in the planning of the shootdown to brothers of the rescued airplanes the death of american citizens. This is not just about spying on the Cuban Exile Community in south florida and throughout the country, its also including the act of the death of american citizens aboard a plane in International Waters some years ago. What can we expect from the president this morning, chris . Obviously what were going to hear from him is expect his displeasure on what happened. Its going to be interesting to hear what details we get. These are sensitive negotiations. So i guess the outstanding question really is how did this come about and how many details wheat get. This is going to be something the administration and the administration will view as a way for u. S. cuba relations to move forward. Obviously, the u. S. Has kept cuba under economic embargo and list it as a state sponsor of terrorism, so there are many issues that are involved here sensitive issues. Chris jansing, thanks very much. Andrea mitchell. No one knows more about Foreign Affairs and specifically about the relations with cuba than andrea. Its good to see you, friend. Thank you very much. Well we weve been aware of this for i guess about two weeks. About the imminent release of alan gross. But the caution was with cuba youd never foe when something was going to happen. Timing it for the jewish holiday of hanukkah which started at sundown last night. This was an important moment for him and his family. We all knew after the fifth anniversary something was happening. These negotiations were being conducted. I was aware senator leahy was involved. So it was a bipartisan effort by senators to go and get him out. Leahy has been visiting him and senator leahys staff of course had been visiting him. There was a congressional delegation this week. The house members were not as directly involved. So we are frankly agreed not to report this for the last days because it might have interfered with him getting out of prison. And i think that was the decision we had to make here at nbc news. Jose the possibility of this prisoner swap has been discussed. The feeling in cuba is, you know vigorously passionately about what they claim is the innocence of these three men. Two were paroled. So these are the three remaining in u. S. Prisons. More broadly, i think this is the opening of a major breakthrough in relations. Raul castrol is expected to speak at noon the president expected to speak at noon we understand, and this could lead to the ending of the terror designation against cuba. When you think of the fact that cuba is the only country that is on that terror list with north korea and iran and, you know, syria, it does lead to arguments by the people in havana that cuba does not belong on the terror designation list that it has been really more of a political decision here in washington for many many years, rather than a decision based on the merits. There are many people in the state department in the white house, in this administration who believe that to be true. Weve also seen a change in Hillary Clintons position in recent weeks and months. John kerry praising havana for its military rather for its nonmilitary, for its medical mission in africa against ebola. All of these have been signals that they are moving toward a big change in policy. Under the law, which was passed after that horrible mission, the shootdown of the brothers to the rescue plane back in the 90s under bill clinton, under that law, congress will have to rescind the embargo itself but theres a lot that can be done by executive action and apparently this president is planning to do as much as he can administratively, even though theres going to be a political price to pay. Andrea you talk about the executive actions that the president could take certainly. He could take a lot. And as far as the embargo, its important to underline the fact that the embargo were a series of executive orders later codified into law. That among other things asks that the United States will not have ties with the castro regime until there are three things including the freeing of Political Prisoners and the commission of independent unions. Theres a lot the president can do. One of the questions, is there a quid pro quo . Is gross being released at the same time these three cuban spies are going to be released . My understanding is that was the case. Frankly, i need to make sure and check that has taken place. We need to do a little bit more reporting in the next few minutes before we say that affirmatively. Thats the great part of Live Television and having an extraordinary correspondent like yourself speaking on this issue. Lets paint the big picture. Were talking about what cuba and the castro regime has been wanting and could go out of this. One of the issues the United States could do ununilaterally is remove it from the state sponsors of terrorism. Just a handful of others around the country. Around the world. But what other things does the cuban regime want from the United States government . Well, theres an awful lot. Under the embargo, there are Administration Actions that the treasury takes and that were far loser back during the clinton years and then it got tighter of course under george h. W. Bush. When there was the roundup of cuban dissidents in 2003 thats when the restrictions really tightened up. There were more cultural exchanges before that. For instance the ebola medical teams in africa. Have to use cash because they cant have any involvement with the International Banking system under the embargo. There are ships with grain, for instance, that have to put money up up front, before they can make deliveries. So there has been a real tightening of that those economic restrictions under the Bush Administration and under the early obama years as well. Theres a lot under treasury that can be done to make it easier for the cuban economy to begin moving closer to the International Banking system. Andrea mitchell thank you so much for being with me on this morning of breaking news. No one better to speak with than you. I hope to see you in the next hour and a half we have left on this program for much more reporting inging from you. I want to bring in Washington Posts ann shrin. Lets talk about this breaking news were bringing this morning on msnbc. Alan gross released. The big question is what does the United States get out of it and what is the United States willing to give up to get this gentleman back. In the short term the United States gets the release of a man who was in terrible medical shape. As chris and some of your other correspondents referred to this morning. Alan gross had lost a great deal of weight. He was in really really difficult medical straights. The cuban were worried about it. The United States had been publicly committed to getting him out. It would have been a disaster politically as well as of course for alan gross and his family had he died in prison. Thats a shortterm thing. Obama gepts the possibility of improvement in the Political Climate between the United States and cuba. Which has long been a goal. That it was frankly, just crazy from the getgo but politically has been unable to do anything about it. This could provide an opening for at least some more normalization, not a total normalization in the time he has left in office but some improvement. 2008 first candidate, he was asked whether he would be willing as president to speak to enemy regimes of the United States and he said absolutely he would be. He has at least on the iran front been able to follow through that it is important. This issue is bipartisan as far as the requests to get mr. Gross out of the dungeon that he was at in cuba. But at what cost. I think you have folks Andrea Mitchell was talking about like leahy and senators who both support the ending of the embargo against the cuban regime. Then you have senator men nen does. Senator rubio of florida, house of representatives. A number of house of representatives, on the republican side, on the democratic side. Who said there is no quid pro quo. That theres no equivalency between gross who went to help the community there, and the spies convicted in the United States of spying. Right. To the degree that the release or any other sort of legal accommodation, made for the three remaining five. That looks like a concession to the United States. That is the quo here in the quid pro quo, would be difficult for obama to finesse. We dont negotiate for hostages and you have to kind of parse is. We wont do that but we will do a prisoner swap. Thank you very much. Ill be seeing you throughout the program. Back to south florida with mark potter, our correspondent there. The reaction in washington expected in noon. The president s expected to speak. Andrea mitchell saying the cuban leader raul castro also expected to speak at that same exact moment. There are going to be repercussions throughout the United States. Nowhere felt more intensely than where you live and report in south florida. Talk to me about what we can expect there from the large miami cuban exile population. I can expect a mixed reaction here. Of course, the older cubans the more conservative cubans are going to react harshly to this. Not to the release of alan gross. I mean they clearly want that. They certainly want that. But its all the other talk thats out there about what this will lead to. Does this suggest a softening in relations between the United States and cuba. Could this lead to talk about the embargo and all the other things that have been discussed on the program. Thats going to concern people here. The cuban five are seen as villains in that community. Again, the more conservative Cuban Exile Community. Theyre not going to like the idea of shortened sentences for them. It will be interesting. There are others here including younger people in the Cuban Community who have a more moderate view. Were going to watch this carefully. Its a much different reaction now. I know you know this. Than it would have been 10 years ago, 15 20 years ago. But there will be a harsh reaction. A political reaction to this. From leaders in this community. Will be down on southwest eight areas you know very well talking to people there to hear what they say about it. Its going to be a mixed reaction. Theyre not going to be as happy about this in the main as others and other parts of the government, other parts of the country. I think its important to underline what you said. Theres a difference between the political side of things in south florida and throughout the United States where there are cuban exiles. There are different political perspectives. Even on cuba and how to deal with it from the regime from the american side. When you have three convicted spies, including people who were behind the death of american citizens, that i think, theres less gray area from people who dont necessarily see that as being part of the future relations between the United States and the castro regime because these are convicted spies in the United States and they received all of the rights that they had in the american judicial system. Absolutely. That shootdown you were talking about, brothers to therescue, that was horrible. Traumatic. Still remembered here by people in this community. The linkage to that to the cuban five certainly the cuban with the cuban three still in prison thats going to be a difficult issue here. But, again, thats here. A relatively small part of the country. A very vocal part. But times are changing. Even hearing about what to do with cuba. Talk to young cubanamericans who say, well, maybe the embargo embargos not the smartest thing. Maybe we can effect change with more contact. You hear that all the time. There have been agreements between the United States and the upz coast guard. The u. S. Weather service. Interviewing somebody in cuba in a cooperative agreement. These things can be done. There may be more. Many in the community wou