Vietnam - Trading with the Communists - Fighting the War on Terror

Van Duc Vo (aka Nguyen Nha Trang) a US citizen who was born in Vietnam and said to be a member of a California-based terrorist group known as Government of Free Vietnam was quietly removed from a prison in Los Angeles on December 1 and flown to Thailand on Thursday after Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice signed an extradition order.

Vo, a US citizen, who came to the US in 1978, was arrested in October 2001 by the FBI at California's John Wayne Airport after returning from a trip to Bangkok. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry claim he was the ringleader of a plot to bomb the Vietnamese embassy in Bamgkok, Thailand. Two alleged accomplices Pham Nguyen Thanh Hien Si, (Tony) Anh Tuan Tran, and (Philip) Phan Thanh Binh were arrested at the time and are awaiting trial.

He is alleged to have placed a backpack full of explosives in front of the Vietnamese embassy and tossing a bomb over the compound's fence.

The bombs, weighing 6.6 pounds and 11 pounds, were supposed to be detonated by cell phones but failed to explode, according to Thai authorities, who charged Vo with "conspiring to use and using weapons of mass destruction during an attempted bombing."

Vo graduated as a civil engineer from California State University and helped form the Government of Free Vietnam an anti-communist Government in exile, in April 1985 with Mr. Chanh Huu Nguyen.

Readers will remember that President Bush was in Vietnam in November 18/19th for the 14th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit (who will forget Bush & Putin in their nightshirts ?) . (See White House Video Bush meets US Vietnamese businessmen who want to do trade with Vietnam at Hanoi Stock Exchange 20/11/06) A Trade Bill had just been stalled by a vote on November 13th in advance of this summit (and the elections) granting permanent normal trade relations status to Vietnam, which has Asia's second-fastest growing economy after China. If approved, U.S. companies would benefit from lower tariffs after Vietnam joins the WTO at year-end, facilitating exports to a nation of 84 million people with a fast-growing middle class but it would hit Republican textile area constituencies in the South.

However on 7th December in the last gasp of the Republican-led 109th Congress, HR 6346, a package including "Permanent Normal Trade Relation" (PNTR) status for Vietnam, a trade preferences extension for Haiti and a duty reductions renewal for 4 Andean nations that have signed bilateral trade deals with the U.S. and over 100 developing countries was passed by 212 to 184 in the House.

The bill includes two main sections. The first one mentions grounds for granting PNTR for Vietnam, such as Bill Clinton's decision on normalization of relations with Vietnam, the bilateral agreement of May 2006, progress and commitments made by Vietnam during recent years, as well as the nation's cooperation on the POW/MIA issue. The second section calls for ending Article 4 of the Jackson-Vanik 1974 Trade Law (which required annual reviews of Vietnamese relations / trade). It also deals with bilateral trade concerns such as government subsidy, textile quota and so on. Vietnam will become a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Dec. 28.

Democrat Sen. Max Baucus said the bill "makes certain that more U.S.-made goods will get into Vietnam's markets."

The Vietnamese Leather and Footwear Association (Lefaso) has announced US exports now account for nearly 40% of Vietnam’s total footwear export turnover as EU controls have cut back exports to Europe., The sector had export earnings of US$ 3.55Bn. this year ahead of a target of US $3.4 billion set for this year.

For many years the US refused extradition of IRA terrorist suspectson the basis of legislation passed in 1972. A US / UK extradition Treaty was forced through which has allowed the famous Nat West 3 who were involved with Enron and have been extradited.

Less well known is the case of Jeremy Crook, a former European VP of US software company Peregrine Systems, was extradited to the US in September 2006 after being indicted by a US Grand Jury on fraud charges relating to alleged accounting irregularities at Peregrine.

Crook left the company in 2001 and was until recently running his own company, but was forced to surrender to US authorities under the UK's controversial extradition treaty with the US. The treaty allows the US to request the extradition of suspects without presenting any of the prosecution evidence in a court first.

Facing 85 years in prison when Crook voluntarily surrendered he was met my Marshals who escorted him in chains.

The Senate ratified the recent Treaty on November 7th - it is not expected that a flood of IRA terrorists will overhelm the UK authorities.