American's Thai Bombing Trial Opens

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

American's Thai Bombing Trial Opens

The Associated Press
Monday, April 9, 2007; 8:58 PM

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Vietnamese-American accused of trying
to bomb Vietnam's embassy in Thailand said at the start of his
trial Monday that he had taken only "symbolic" actions on behalf
of democracy.

Thai authorities accuse Vo Van Duc, 47, of placing a backpack
containing explosives in front of Vietnam's embassy and tossing
a small bomb over its wall on June 19, 2001. Both devices
failed to explode.

-snip-

Duc, a naturalized U.S. citizen who fled communist Vietnam in
1978, is a member of the California-based Government of Free
Vietnam, an anti-communist group that Vietnam considers a
terrorist organization. The communist government in Hanoi has
called him a "ringleader" of the bombing plot.

He was arrested in the United States in October 2001 after
returning from a trip to Bangkok.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/09/AR2007040901126.html