Response to “The Night that Changed McCain’s Life” by John King, CNN Chief National Correspondant http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/18/revealed.mccain.vietnam/index.html?iref=newssearch Comments on this article are about the false statements to the CNN correspondent by Vietnamese people that he interviewed in Hanoi. First, the witness Nguyen Dang Doanh describes the people pushing Lt. Cmdr. McCain in his life jacket to the edge of lake Ho Truc Bach as a life-saving event. In fact, his injuries were not from the ejection, but by the villagers who came into the lake and beat him. This is described in Senator McCain’s book and video about his imprisonment. The nurse Nguyen Thi Tranh describes her bandaging the injured pilot’s arms and leg when he was brought to the first aid station. According to Senator McCain, his arm was broken again after he was imprisoned in one of the outlying jungle prisons. He was beaten and tortured, and treatment was withheld when he refused to early released based on international illegality. McCain finally signed a false confession after four days of beatings, as John King explains very well. The then-prison director of the Central Hanoi / Hanoi Hilton prison Tran Trong Duyet says in recent interview that “our nation is civilized and humanitarian and you do not understand the Vietnamese nation. We never beat anybody.” John King refutes the Duyet statement with one from Ernie Brace, who was imprisoned in Hoa Lo at the same time as John McCain (1967 – 1972) and was also beaten and bones broken. This is the time period of Tran Trong Duyet’s directorship. My recommendation to John King and other national and international reporters is to look at prison conditions in Vietnam today to see the duplicity of his Vietnamese informants. Freelance journalist Truong Minh Duc is in prison in Vietnam today for his alleged violation of Clause 2 of Section 258 of the Vietnam Penal Code, by “taking advantages of the people’s liberty and democracy rights to harm the interests of the country”. Duc was arrested and imprisoned since May 5, 2007. On July 18, 2008 his five-year sentence was confirmed. Last December Truong Minh Duc broke his hand in a fall inside the prison. He was not x-rayed or even splinted until Reporters Without Borders and Vietnamese overseas (who left the country as refugees and now living useful lives) made complaints to the Vietnamese government and the American Embassy. The Embassy officials called Mr. Truong’s wife to inquire. My source is the Vietnamese Populist Party, based in Houston, interview of General Secretary of Nguyen CongBang on August 19, 2008: “The only political prisoners who receive somewhat proper treatment are those who are well-known or now citizens of other countries. This is because the government is afraid of international condemnation. For the unknown prisoners who are Vietnamese citizens the treatment is still very bad.” Journalist Truong Minh Duc received surgery on his arm in June, shortly before his hearing on July 18 which confirmed his five-year sentence: “As the court session started, the judge told Duc that the court would reduce his sentence to four years or less if he would openly admit his “crime against the state”. Duc immediately refused the judge’s offer and insisted that his works did not violate any laws of Vietnam; instead, they were to expose government officials of their illegal actions such as power abuses and corruption. “ The major charge is “Joining the Dang Vi Dan” (Vietnam Populist Party) an underground political party that advocates for a free and fair general election in Vietnam). Journalist Truong Minh Duc is a member of both the Vietnam Populist Party and Bloc 8406. Since 1994, he has assisted several victims of government’s corruption and power abuses in southern provinces, and authored a number of articles published in Vietnam and overseas. Prior to the appeal court, Duc's wife affirmed his persistent stand (via RFA) in pursuing his ideals: “I strongly believe that campaigning for democracy, freedom, social justice, and welfare for the poor people, is not a crime. I will continue to defend and fight for the people’s rights and values, even when I am still in prison.” See the DVD (Vietnam Populist Party) English language web page: http://www.vietnampopulist.org/ Jean Libby, editor VietAm Review http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com Jean Libby is editor of the blog VietAm Review and Allies for Freedom publishers. The first book of the Nhan Quyen Tai Viet Nam Series is forthcoming on October 20, 2008. It is two stories of prison conditions in Vietnam including the Hoa Lo prison by the renowned dissident poet and author Nguyen Chi Thien. see www.vietamreview.net/Hai_Truyen_Tu.html   more »

White House statement covers topics of agreement on trade, energy, human rights, Vietnamese Americans' "contribution to the promotion of the relationship between the two countries." "President Bush welcomed these contributions and reiterated the U.S. government's support for Vietnam's national sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity." The United Nations and ASEAN were discussed. United States Education Cooperation with Vietnam In a Memorandum of Understanding signed by United States Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman and Vietnam Vice Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan, the two countries: • Expressed their wish to enhance friendship between peoples and cooperation in the field of higher education; • Recognized the importance of higher education in economic development; and • Recognized the importance of public-private sector partnerships between American and Vietnamese universities, colleges, and other organizations that support training and education projects. To develop strategies to deepen cooperation further in higher education, including contacts between educational institutions, they agreed to establish an Education Task Force, which will: • Encourage more and deeper linkages and joint programs between American and Vietnamese universities (including discussions about the best path to create a U.S. model higher education institution in Vietnam with the support of American universities and colleges, and simplifying procedures to establish new education and exchange programs in Vietnam); • Increase the number of Vietnamese studying at American universities and colleges, especially PhD students (including the United States’ initiative to facilitate an increase in the number of Vietnamese students studying in universities in the United States at all levels, and the Vietnamese interest in seeing more Vietnamese receiving United States graduate degrees); and • Promote educational programs designed to help Vietnamese students acquire the skills needed in Vietnam’s modernizing economy.    more »

The People’s Democratic Party – Feb. 26, 2008: We would like to make available this top-secret directive from the Hanoi Politburo/Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party detailing the “treatment of political trials” to various people and democratic organizations, both in and outside of Vietnam . The official communique came from The Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party, signed by a high-ranking political cadre named Truong Tan Sang, with limited circulation among the political infrastructure and high echelon members. This is a secret document and was recalled after circulation. So far, a number of top-level political cadres in the Vietnam Communist Party such as President Nguyen Minh Triet, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, have always maintained in the international press that Vietnam does not persecute or imprison political prisoners. If that is the case, we don’t know what to make of political prisoners in Vietnam such as Father Nguyen Van Ly, lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, Nguyen Bac Truyen, Tran Quoc Hien, Doctor Le Nguyen Sang, reporter Huynh Nguyen Dao, Nguyen Phong, Doan van Dien, Tran Thi Le Hong, Doan Huy Chuong also known as Nguyen Tan Hoanh, etc… This document therefore would put to rest with the public at large that the persecution and prison sentences of the dissidents are indeed “political trials” and that the Vietnamese Communist Party “absolutely cannot permit the opposing political parties to organize” in Vietnam. Regards, Tran Nam, Spokesperson for the People's Democratic Party NOTICE Conclusion of the Political Party Concerning raising the bar of quality and effectiveness in the execution of the political trials in the face of new development. In the meeting of August 16, 2007, after hearing the report of the law enforcement agencies regarding the situation and results of the disposition of the recent political trials, the Central Committee has discussed and has come up with the following assessment: Recently, the disposition of these political trials have achieved some degree of success, with the intent to make example of or to teach a lesson, to effectively prevent the contrarian political activities of the enemy forces while they are still in the embryonic stages, not allowing them from publicly establishing themselves in the country to organize violent insurrection, in order to overthrow the rule of the people. So we need to fortify the security measures for our political stability and peaceful order in society, to protect the rule of socialism, to resolutely contribute to the economic and societal development, to build a political system and promote the strength of the whole solidarity bloc of our nation populace, to ensure the perpetuation and stability of socialism. Our teams of cadres and soldiers who specialize in the ad-hoc task forces have made efforts in the execution of the political trials and to show steadfast loyalty to the Fatherland, to uphold their political integrity, possessing a high sense of duty, completing their responsibility and assignment given to them. On behalf of the Politburo Members of the Central Committee Signed and Sealed Truong Tan Sang Recipients: - Provincial and Municipal Committees - Technocrat committee, party associations, party committees under direct rule central committee - Comrades committee members of the Ruling Central Committee - Copied to the Central Committee   more »

The ongoing protest against Viet Weekly is a natural response from those who have felt insulted by the publication over the years. The author mentions the article that is often cited as the basis of the protest, but that is merely the straw that broke the camel's back. Viet Weekly always boasts of having found a new form of journalism by a young generation of reporters in Little Saigon. In reality, these self-styled journalists have managed to insult some person or the community in almost every issue of the publication. When the call for protest came, it brought together all elements in the community to build up a perfect storm against the newspaper… The persecution continues even today and did not end some 30 years ago, as many like to believe. Non-Vietnamese may not understand why a display of a communist symbol can invoke such intense reaction. But to many Vietnamese, these symbols bring back the nightmares that they lived through or risked their lives to escape from. They want to forget the past and get on with their lives, but they cannot tolerate the kind of provocation that Viet Weekly and Mr. Tran Truong exhibited to their faces… The protest against Viet Weekly is only a natural response to the journalism menace practiced by the newspaper. To judge the protest against Viet Weekly, one must understand what the publication truly did to many of those protesters. This editorial opinion is by Lan Quoc Nguyen, President of the Garden Grove (California) Board of Education. The full article was published in the L.A. Times on September 14, 2007. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-nguyen14sep14,0,2124873.story?coll=la-opinion-center   more »

If Nick Schou ("A Vietnam War in O.C." in L.A. Times Sept. 6, 2007) investigated how many are voting American citizens among the people he calls “Vietnamese exiles” he might think again about his knee-jerk reactionary rhetoric. This is the regime that is supported by the publisher of Viet Weekly, Le Vu. He has been caught red-handed cutting and pasting articles from the Communist papers into his own. His Spring 2007 trip to Hanoi to cover the police manhandling of women outside the Ambassador’s residence in the presence of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is a good example. On the previous day the former Ambassador Michael Marine had written a powerful op-ed essay criticizing the Vietnam government and political imprisonment of Father Nguyen Van Ly... There was a demonstration of 2,000 people in Saigon only a month ago who demanded redress for their losses in the aftermath of communist victory. They were forcefully dispersed into the countryside in military trucks. One elderly woman demonstrator died. An African news agency says there were more. It’s not about yesterday that 1,000 Vietnamese Americans in Orange County are peacefully assembling and protesting within the law, it’s about today. Jean Libby's response is based on experience with the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi press office, which has done the same obfuscation technique with Nick Schou. As an investigative journalist with a recent book on the alliance of the CIA with the cocaine traffic that was exposed by Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury in 1996, and then denied by that newspaper, the OC Weekly investigative editor has done little investigative reporting for this story. He prefers to vilify and ridicule the Orange County Vietnamese American population.   more »

First response is to article published in the L.A. Times September 2, 2007 by Mike Anton, Times Staff Writer, by Jean Libby, editor, VietAm Review. Comparison is made to American civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s when local whites opposed to the demonstrations were treated as experts on Constitutional issues of free speech and free press because that makes an easy story for the reporter. One line only is quoted from an organizer of the demonstrations, Long Kim Pham. Viet Weekly editor's Le Vu is discussed, and a brief history of Viet Am Review articles on the topic, which have centered on Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange County), and former Ambassador Michael Marine at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Comments on the OC Weekly article by Nick Schou center on this press conference and manipulation of the audio tape by Viet Weekly. The Embassy denies knowing anything about the controversy. The position of Viet Am Review in opposing Viet Weekly is complimented by California Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove).   more »

We the undersigned are the interim representatives of Bloc 8406, who represent tens of thousands of those who have signed the Manifesto on Freedom & Democracy for Vietnam, released on April 8, 2006, to openly confront the Communist dictatorship in a non-violent struggle for a democratic, free, and pluralistic Vietnam....We also know that you have met on August 10 a number of our compatriots in Washington, D.C. You indicated at this meeting that when you assume your position in Vietnam, you shall focus your attention on the issues of human rights, economic development, as well as education in Vietnam. We believe that these are the real issues currently facing our country. They are inter-related since there is a serious lack of respect for human rights and the Vietnamese people have lost all freedoms and are thereby unable to contribute fully to the economic development of the country. This, in turn, results in a stagnated and backward education system. Signed by four interim representatives of Bloc 8406 on August 16, 2007.    more »

Statements of U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine in leaving office in Vietnam have been reported quite differently by the Associated Press and the Communist-controlled media known as Vietnambridge. Disappointment and disapproval of the regime for jailing political activists by Ambassador Marine characterizes the AP report; chirping congratulations to Vietnam for achieving PTNR status with the US and the visits between presidents Triet and Bush are the subjects of Vietnamnet.   more »

Thank you Tieng Dan Weekly for the attached copy of the response from Nguyen Tam Chien of the VN Embassy to a letter from Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D - San Jose) regarding the recent demonstration and arrests in Saigon. The letter is particularly odious and deceptive, saying that the issue is not human rights but "land disputes" as "stated by sources unfriendly to Vietnam." The letter, dated August 1, 2007, was authorized by VN President Nguyen Minh Triet. Congresswoman Lofgren is fighting hard and well to insure the rights of small groups of immigrants and their children to the USA as well as speaking out for human rights in Vietnam. Her battle with showboating Republicans who are appealing to ethnic prejudice with "immigration backlash" as chair of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee is front-page news in the San Francisco Chronicle today. Also in Congress yesterday, Representative Tom Lantos (D - San Mateo), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has opened an inquiry into the conduct of Yahoo when it turned over information to Chinese officials about the pro-democracy journalist Shi Tao. A human rights group has recently published the search warrant presented by China to Yahoo to gain information and it is clear to Congressman Lantos that Yahoo should be investigated for misrepresenting their role in the jailing of Mr. Shi Tao. Jean Libby, editor, VietAm Review.   more »

Michael Michalak, who was nominated by President Bush on May 24 to replace Michael Marine as Ambassador to Vietnam, has testified to two key U.S. senators, Barbara Boxer (D- California) and James Webb (R – Virginia) that he will seek improved human relations performance by the current VN government after his expected confirmation by the Senate. In response to questions by Senator Boxer on the nature of the crackdown on human rights in Vietnam, Mr. Michalak suggested the U.S. State Dept. could implement current human rights dialogue and a “public diplomacy program to train investigative journalists.” The American Embassy in Hanoi has been following the Viet Weekly’s attacks and lies too. They provided me with an actual transcript of the press conference on April 6, 2007, which proves the pro-communist proclivity and the complete absence of education about the U.S. Constitution, rights and responsibilities of the press, by the Viet Weekly. Jean Libby, editor, VietAm Review   more »

This is a presentation of documentary evidence of significant differences between a published audio recording by Viet Weekly Magazine of a press conference held by the American Embassy at the Hilton Hanoi on April 6, 2007 and the official Embassy transcription of that conference. I received the Embassy transcription from James Warren, Counselor for Public Affairs, on July 7 after repeated inquiries beginning May 29, 2007. This press conference is still not listed on the American Embassy website, although other press conferences that occurred afterward are given normal coverage. It was transcribed from a recording in the U.S. at an unknown date. The substance of my charge continues to be evidence of Viet Weekly’s manipulation of the audio recording and their pro-Communist viewpoint, which can be seen further in their absence of coverage of the press conference of April 6 regarding the physical prevention of invited guests at the Ambassador’s residence from entering his home by the Vietnamese police. It is clear that Ambassador Michael Marine has been violated by the Vietnamese police by their actions toward his invited guests who are Vietnamese citizens. This was the major topic of the press conference and the context of his statements. Jean Libby, VietAm Review   more »

To conclude: Viet Weekly can not hide its pro-communist stand. When its act is caught by the Vietnamese community that is predominantly anti-communist, its staff instead of recognizing the wrong doings and apologize to the community, they aggravated the problems by committing plenty of lies to cover them up. This cover-up can be seen as a “small scale Watergate scandal” within the Vietnamese media and the Vietnamese community. By spreading lies and inventing facts to back them up, Viet Weekly can no longer be trusted as a credible media organization. Phu Le. After the press release of April 5, 2007, in which Ambassador Michael Marine criticized the Vietnamese government specifically for political imprisonment and naming Father Ly, the American Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez who was escorting the wife of a political prisoner to the Ambassador’s home was prevented from entering. The Vietnamese woman was physically prevented by Communist police. After the Ambassador protested this to the Deputy Prime Minister Kheim with the American Congressional delegation on April 6, he was reportedly asked to resign by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His resignation takes effect July 31. His nominated replacement is the Ambassador to APEC Michael Michalak. The extraordinary APEC appointment at Ambassador level was made by President Bush in November 2005 and confirmed by the Senate in February 2006. The nomination for Ambassador to Vietnam was sent to the Senate on May 24, 2007. Jean Libby   more »

Following the altercation in front of the Ambassador’s residence on April 5, 2007 between Hanoi police and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez and her guest, the wife of an imprisoned journalist, Michael Marine resigned his post as Ambassador to Vietnam effective the end of July. He can be seen in this extraordinary video published two weeks ago by butvang (the editor of Anh Duong online) promising the Vietnamese woman (through an interpreter) that he will discuss her case with Deputy Prime Minister Khiem the following day. http://youtube.com/watch?v=p1MbiAFvxrE&mode=related&search= Jean Libby, editor of VietAm Review, shows evidence that the Viet Weekly Magazine is pro-communist and manipulated the transcription of the press conference of April 6, 2007 at which this incident was discussed in Hanoi. Soon after these events Ambassador Michael Marine resigned due to stress of the assignment, effective July 31. He will retire. This has not been reported on the Embassy website nor that of the State Department. Mr. Michael William Michalak was appointed to the rank of Ambassador to APEC by President Bush in November 2005. His nomination to Ambassador of Vietnam was sent May 24, 2007. Neither event is reported on the White House website; the site is criticized for ineptness.   more »