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 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,  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/04/MNJ7RCGOU1.DTL.  Among the individuals who are being championed by Congresswoman Lofgren is a De Anza College student who was born in the Philippines in 1984.  His parents were deported for not maintaining  their visa status properly, and the student was arrested on May 2.  He is in federal custody.  His older siblings were allowed to remain in the USA legally because they had become adults during their long residency.

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A measure among the small bills that Representative Lofgren is reportedly introducing soon is a proposal for Amerasians in certain South Asian countries born since 1950 be granted U.S. citizenship in their countries of birth.  Last May this topic was addressed in a meeting with Zoe Lofgren in San Jose by the Boat People SOS organization represented by Jean Libby as a volunteer, by San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, and a dozen residents of San Jose who are Amerasian.  Congresswoman Lofgren promised she would introduce the measure "at the right time" and it is possible that this is that time--although my communication on this matter has become inconsistent.  

 Best wishes to Congresswoman Lofgren in your battles with Republicans to protect human rights at home and with the Communist government to protect them in Vietnam. 

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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.  Additionally, the Sunnyvale (California) web portal is named by human rights groups of complicity with the Chinese government by supplying it with records of several journalists and activists who are now in prison.  See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/04/BUBCRCLTH1.DTL

   

Thank you, Congressman Lantos.  As a Yahoo client who spends $130 monthly on domain web hosting (including a merchant site), I am following your Congressional investigation closely in order to initiate web hosting changes.  My domains and merchant site are not subsidized by any other individual or organization. 

 

Jean Libby, editor

VietAm Review

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"Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."  Benjamin Franklin.