warpedskydiver

Americans Convicted of Terror in Vietnam Friday, November 10, 2006 6:59 AM EST The Associated Press By MARGIE MASON HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — Three Americans were convicted by a Vietnamese court on terrorism charges Friday after being accused of trying to take over radio airwaves and call for an uprising against the communist government. A judge sentenced the Americans and four Vietnamese to 15 months in prison, with credit for time served. They all are expected to be freed within one month, and the Americans required to leave the country within 10 days of their release. The defendants, all of Vietnamese descent, had been jailed without charges for more than a year, prompting Washington to pressure Hanoi to move forward swiftly and fairly. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plan to visit Vietnam next week for the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Both countries had been eager to resolve the case before Vietnam's biggest-ever international event begins. The defendants faced punishments ranging from 12 years in prison to execution, but prosecutors sought lesser terms, saying the defendants had repented and had no previous criminal records. It is highly unusual for Vietnam to give a lenient sentence for national security crimes, especially in such a high-profile case. But the quick resolution to the diplomatically sensitive trial could end a distraction from APEC and Vietnam's entrance into the World Trade Organization, which was approved this week. All on trial were accused of plotting to smuggle radio equipment into Vietnam to broadcast a call for a revolution to topple the government. An indictment said the scheme was hatched by the Government of Free Vietnam, a California-based organization that the Vietnamese government considers a terrorist group. It is one of many anti-communist groups founded by Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Many of its leaders are soldiers of the former South Vietnamese Army who fled Vietnam after the war ended in 1975. The Government of Free Vietnam group is run by Chanh Huu "Tony" Nguyen, who is wanted in Vietnam for failed plots to bomb the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand and buildings in Vietnam. Nguyen, a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested at Vietnam's request in April while traveling in South Korea. He was held for three months before being released to the U.S. Presiding Judge Vu Phi Long said the crimes were "particularly serious and encroach on national security" and deserved severe punishment. But he said the defendants deserved leniency because they had expressed remorse, had no previous criminal records and were politically naive. He said they had been dragged into the scheme by Chanh and his associates. Prosecutors say the defendants convicted Friday set up an adoption agency in Cambodia as a front to disguise their plans. Authorities seized their equipment, including 14 radio transmitters, which had been smuggled into the southern Vietnamese province of An Giang. Those found guilty Friday were: Thuong Nguyen Foshee, 58, of Orlando, Fla.; Le Van Binh, 31, of Tampa, Fla.; and Huynh Bich Lien, 51, of San Gabriel, Calif.; Vietnamese nationals Tran Dat Phuong, 65; brothers Ho Van Giau, 59, and Ho Van Hien, 38, and Cao Tri, 35. Cao Tri is also a U.S. resident. Under questioning from the judge, some of the defendants acknowledged carrying radio equipment to Cambodia on behalf of the Government of Free Vietnam, while others described themselves as employees at an adoption agency. Lien said she was not a member of the Government of Free Vietnam, but had gone to work for USIM, a charity in Cambodia that helped arrange adoptions of Cambodian kids for Americans. She said she knew Chanh was associated with USIM but that all she did was help take care of children. Two representatives of the U.S. consulate attended the trial. On display near the court house entrance were two tables covered with radio equipment the defendants had allegedly planned to use. The case has attracted attention from Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who raised the issue with the Bush administration and reportedly blocked a key vote in Congress that would normalize trade relations between the former foes. The vote is of great importance to Vietnam. Without it, U.S. companies will not be able to enjoy all the benefits of Vietnam's new WTO agreement. Bush had been hoping to get the bill approved before he came to Hanoi for the APEC summit. Resolution of the terrorism case might increase his chances, although Congress will only be in session briefly before he departs next week.

Your'e welcome and thanks to you, and all the rest of our combined nations Veterans, both living and dead.

Checking out the spare parts action John?

It was great!

I think the only thing that will happen is another attempt at an AWB(Assault Weapons Ban). I mean hey it idn't work last time, maybe it's because the goverment didn't throw enough money away.

Bill I am sure you are aware that by no means am I thin skinned nor easily offended. But I think people forget how awful something is by using it in every day language and therefore desensitized, towards that behavior. History repeats itself far too often.

I think it is a repugnant word. There are words you can use in adressing people in this state(Illinois) that will get you arrested, and if convicted, three years in a state penitentiary, but Nazi isn't one of them. How strange.

The same reason we give money to countries that harbor terrorists.

I think it is a shitty term to use in describing anyone who isn't a Nazi. The strange thing is I hear people use it alot, and yet, all I get the image of is what those nice people did to other people in those wonderful summer camps called Auchwitz, Treblinka, etc. PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK

Mine did not have the original motor Jean. We pulled that motor out of a catalina safari wagon before it went to the machine shop. The original was blown up by the previous owner, a Professor at Mt. Palomar who had forgotten to check the oil.

Well as the term gets used so much around here with impunity, I wanted to know how you would like being referred to as one, or having it implied that you associate with Nazi's.

, my mistake, I misread it to say Official Goat Thread. I was thinking, WTF is this crap about Goats! Is this guy talking about Pontiac's GTO! Well now, that got my goat and I was all prepared to rail you back into the stone age on why GTO's are nothing but salvaged waste from a Chevrolet waste bin. Sorry for the mistake. Oh and if you do drive a GTO, fuck you and your goat Hey my first car was a 1967 GTO convertable with a 428 and dual quads. Yeah it guzzled gas but it was a fun ride

Didn't you proudly vote for your party of choice in this election? Be careful what you wish for. Repeat after me, Democratic Socialist Party. If youre implying I am a democrat, socialist, or otherwise you are most definately wrong. If you are implying that the Dem Socialists are the way to retain or constitutional rights you are wrong as well.

Hopefully, your nazi-boys will no longer be able to wipe their asses with the U.S. Constitution. Anything beyond that is gravy. Who's nazi boys? thats a strong statement there if you think I am Nazi like in any way please do tell. if not STFU

>I will GLADLY leave this state if such a law passes. OK Alec! You would be quite suprised

Did someone say threeway?

yeah where is sheepboy anyways? I haven't seem him on here lately

I have no idea if he will return or what time as I do not know much of anything at all. I know the bible tells us so. I don't think I will ever live to see if it is true.

I don't know what you think but I can state for the record, that Jesus would be the world's best pointman

Yep

Doesn't anyone think that the referendum question was totally biased and constructed with verbage to illicit only an affirmative response? Politicians are so damned disgusting and dishonest.

Hamas Chief: Truce With Israel Is Over Wednesday, November 8, 2006 10:31 AM EST The Associated Press By IBRAHIM BARZAK Listen to Audio BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, says a 2005 truce with Israel is finished and appealed to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks: "There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those victims." Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including eight children as they slept, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said. Two Palestinian militant groups promised to step up suicide attacks in response. Hamas' military wing in Gaza urged Muslims worldwide to attack U.S. targets, a call disavowed by the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Israel halted artillery attacks in Gaza while it investigated the shelling, but said operations would continue against Palestinian rocket squads. Both Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret at the loss of civilian life and offered humanitarian and medical assistance to the Palestinian Authority. The tank shells landed around a compound of four apartment buildings in Beit Hanoun, the town Israel took over for a week in pursuit of militants who launch rockets at southern Israel. More than 50 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, were killed before Israeli troops withdrew on Tuesday, and the rocket attacks resumed immediately. After the Wednesday shelling, gaping holes were torn into the structures, owned by four brothers from the al-Athamna family who lived side by side. Blood pooled in front of the houses. Asma al-Athamna, 14, said her family was woken early Wednesday by the sound of an explosion. Her mother quickly ordered everyone out of the house. "She was saying, 'There is shelling.'" Another shell landed as the family fled, killing the girl's mother, older sister and brother-in-law. "They were killed when they came out of our house," the weeping girl said, speaking from her hospital bed. "I was behind them and I was wounded. " Bits of dismembered bodies were plastered to walls of the damaged buildings and lying on the ground. A woman's headscarf, children's boots and slippers, and a pair of jeans — all burnt — were strewn outside. "I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried out a young girl covered with blood," said 35-year-old Rahwi Hamad. "We saw legs, hands, parts of heads stuck to the wall. There was a smell of blood and the stench of burnt bodies." A young man, standing in the bloodied alleyway, said an infant girl had been blown to pieces. "I tried to look for her head, I tried to look for her head," he shrieked, then sank to the ground, weeping. Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. One man dipped his hand in victims' blood and smeared it all over his face. "God avenge us, God avenge us," he wailed. Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said all the dead belonged to the al-Athamna family. About 60 people were wounded, including 26 children, the ministry said. The Israeli army said it had fired artillery at suspected rocket launching sites early Wednesday, but the targets were far from the apartment compound. In Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the "terrible, despicable crime" jeopardized peace prospects. "We tell the Israelis, you are not seeking peace at all, but are destroying all chances for peace. You must therefore bear all the consequences of these crimes," he told Palestine TV. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas suspended talks with Abbas on forming a coalition government. Abbas, a moderate from the rival Fatah party, urged that negotiations continue. Both men declared a three-day mourning period throughout the West Bank and Gaza and, in a rare gesture, the two visited victims in a Gaza hospital together and each donated blood. After the explosions, thousands of people, including relatives of the dead, gathered outside Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where some of the bodies were brought. Many called for revenge. Mashaal, Hamas's Syria-based leader, said his group was abandoning a February 2005 truce and would resume attacks, raising the prospect of a new wave of suicide bombings. Scores of Israelis have been killed in attacks by Hamas over the past decade. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances," he told Al-Jazeera from Damascus. Since the 2005 cease-fire there has been a sharp drop in violence, although rocket fire and periodic suicide attacks have continued. Hamas, however, has not been involved in any of the suicide bombings. The last Hamas suicide attack was in August 2004. Hamas militants in Gaza, accusing the U.S. of supporting Israel, urged Muslims around the world to target "the American enemy." But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led government, said the group had no intention of attacking American targets. Israel, he added, "is a state that believes in killing, and therefore this state should cease to exist." The killing of Palestinian civilians in the past has often preceded a sharp escalation of violence. A series of deadly incidents last summer, including a June 9 explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight civilians, was followed by the capture of an Israeli soldier and an ensuing Israeli invasion of Gaza. The civilian deaths drew swift condemnations around the world. France and Russia warned of an escalation of hostilities, and the British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, demanded that Israel "respect its obligation to avoid harming civilians." "It is hard to see what this action was meant to achieve and how it can be justified," she said in a statement. The U.N. special envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, said he was "deeply appalled and shocked." Jordan, one of three Muslim states with diplomatic ties to Israel, denounced the "heinous massacre." Spontaneous demonstrations erupted across Gaza and the West Bank. In the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, thousands called for revenge and chanted, "Death to Israel, death to America." Black smoke billowed into the skies of northern Gaza as protesters set tires ablaze. Quote Nice huh?

Happy Birthday Scott! I hope you enjoy many more!

Geez Betsy, you gave me that uneasy feeling when I read the title! whew