Vietnam Vet Found Not Guilty of Assault on Vietnam Prime Minister
The vet now faces new charges after Communist Vietnamese complain about the verdict.

Khai, Vietnam's prime minister, was in the U.S. in June to meet with President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, Sen. John Kerry and other American officials and business leaders to discuss trade with the communist country.

Vietnam veteran Jerry Kiley, a longtime POW/MIA activist, threw a glass of red wine on Khai's vacated seat in front of Khai shortly after the prime minister rose to speak to diners in a ballroom at the Mayflower Hotel. The wine, which Kiley said symbolized innocent blood that continues to be spilled by the brutal and godless communist regime, splashed onto McCain, a former Vietnam POW, but did not strike Khai.

A U.S. court, after hearing over two days testimony against Kiley, ruled that the veteran did not assault Khai, as prosecutors alleged.

Pressure from the communist Vietnam embassy, McCain's office, and the U.S. State Department, however, may now result in new charges that Kiley illegally entered the ballroom where the reception for Khai was being held.

Neither McCain's office nor the Vietnamese embassy would comment on their involvement in the fresh charges.

The incident stemmed from a protest that began outside the White House and the Mayflower Hotel on June 21. Kiley, former vice president of the National Vietnam Veterans Coalition, and Ted Sampley, publisher of the online U.S. Veterans Dispatch, were among the leaders of the demonstrators. Over a thousand Vietnamese and concerned Americans joined together in protesting against trade with Vietnam while at the same time urging Bush not to embrace the communist leader.

Demonstrators reminded Bush that last year he promised Rolling Thunder President Artie Mueller that he never would abandon American prisoners left in Vietnam. Rolling Thunder is one of the largest veteran activist organization's in the country.

The U.S. initiated trade restrictions in 1975 after Vietnam violated the Paris Peace Agreement by rolling tanks and massive infantry from North Vietnam into South Vietnam. Communist troops captured all of South Vietnam.

Upon occupying the country, the North Vietnamese uprooted millions of non-communists from their homes, killed hundreds of thousands and threw others into concentration/reeducation camps. A lucky few escaped into the ocean and became known as the "boat people."

President Reagan sustained the embargo when North Vietnam refused to answer questions about the fate of American servicemen known to be alive in POW camps or reveal the location of others known to have died and whose bodies had not been recovered.

The Clinton administration, goaded by McCain, a former Vietnam POW and Sen. John Kerry (who after serving in Vietnam, vigorously protested the war and supported the communist terms for U.S. withdrawal), opened the door to trade and diplomatic relations.

McCain and Kerry worked closely with Virginia Foote, head of the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, and successfully lobbied Clinton and Congress to lift the embargos on trade and diplomatic relations, although both men knew about the existence of Americans still held captive by Vietnamese communists.

Human Rights Watch recently named Vietnam as one of the world's most egregious violators of human rights. Vietnamese, Mountanyard, Cambodians, and Laotian refugees continue to present evidence to the United Nations that Vietnam communists are systematically exterminating anticommunist and pro-religious groups in that country.

After the demonstration earlier that day, Kiley, a guest at the Mayflower Hotel, changed into a business suit and tie at the garage where his car was located to avoid suspicion of those hosting the Khai dinner. The gala affair was sponsored by the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, the U.S. ASCAM Business Council and the communist Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Court testimony during Kiley's trial revealed that a communist Vietnam representative was seated at every table. A Vietnamese woman from the Vietnamese embassy named Hung Young-Ahn Pham sat next to Kiley.

According to testimony, Kiley entered the Mayflower's Grand Ballroom after slipping past numerous Secret Service agents. He quickly found an empty chair and seated himself. The table at which he sat, he soon discovered was sponsored and paid for by Fortune 500 company Proctor & Gamble for $10,000.00. No one questioned his presence or asked him to leave.

McCain introduced Khai to the audience with a warm welcome. As the senator finished and sat down in a chair near the front of the stage, Khai walked to the podium.

Kiley left his seat and walked to the head table nearest the stage and where McCain was sitting. He flung a glass of red wine across the table toward Khai's now-empty chair, inadvertently splattering McCain's shirt and tie. Kiley yelled that Khai and his government were killers and then pointed to McCain and said "Senator you are a traitor to the American POWs and Vietnamese people we abandoned after the war."

Dinner guests, momentarily surprised, laughed nervously, as did Khai.

C-span cameras focused closeup on a visibly furious McCain who was obviously struggling to gain self control by attempting to force a smile. This action resulted in McCain's face appearing contorted as he twisted his mouth while rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

California Congressman George Miller and two Fortune 500 Executives quickly grabbed Kiley shoving him from the room.

Kiley's demonstration halted the momentum of the evening for less than a minute.

Afer Kiley was released outside the hotel by security, Secret Service agents intervened and questioned him. He cooperated and gave them permission to search him, his car and his hotel room..

Agents found nothing illegal or incriminating, but arrested him for assault. Kiley spent that night in jail and was released the following afternoon.

There was some evidence indicating that a throughly embarrassed McCain had demanded that the Secret Service Kiley arrest and charge Kiley.

Young-Ahn Pham, the communist representative seated at Kiley's table, later became a prosecution witness during the two-day trial. She claimed not to speak English, but Kiley's attorney, Kenneth M. Robinson, arguing that she was just trying to avoid being tripped up during cross examination, forced her to acknowledge that she had given a statement to the Secret Service in English, without an interrupter, and that her statement was put in writing by the Secret Service.

Foote was one of the main witnesses against Kiley. She testified that right after Khai took his position behind the podium, she heard a commotion and saw a "sprinkling of a liquid falling on the head table." She claimed she heard a "loud thud" as a coffee cup rolled down the table. She pointed to Kiley when asked who was responsible for throwing a coffee cup.

Foote said that the incident caused a serious disruption of the meeting and that Khai's face "went flat" out of concern for his security.

The defense countered by playing a C-Span recording of the incident which clearly showed Khai, and members of the audience laughing as Kiley was being pushed out. The defense then asked Foote to agree with the tape that Khai and the audience were laughing about Kiley's demonstration. Foote grew combative refusing to answer with a direct yes or no.

On nearly every defense question afterward, she attempted to avoid answering direct questions by rephrasing the questions. She attempted to twist her testimony against Kiley so seriously that Judge Debra Robinson (no relation to defense attorney Ken Robinson) warned her numerous times to properly answer the defense's questions.

The judge, apparently finally exasperated by Foote's continuous failure to follow the court's instructions, finally called a recess, and warned the prosecutor that continued obstruction by Foote would result in contempt of court charges.

A more subdued and cooperative Foote returned to the courtroom.

Prosecutors attempted to prove that Kiley had violated a new federal law forbidding the interference or harassment of foreign dignitaries while they are conducting official business.

The defense, instead proved that Khai was not on official business at the dinner, which was a private meeting. The defense also proved that the wine Kiley threw was at Khai's empty chair and did not strike Khai, thus negating the assault charge.

Anh Thu Lu, a Vietnamese American Defense Contractor, who became an American citizen in 1982, testified on Kiley's behalf. She said she had known Kiley for many years because of his unselfish participation in many "Freedom for Vietnam" and human rights demonstrations they both had attended. She said that Kiley is "a great man, friend and advocate for the Vietnamese people still suffering under a brutal communist government in Vietnam."

Also, testifying for  Kiley was; Mike Benge, a former Vietnam POW who is currently Senior Advisor for the Montagnard Human Rights Organization, Tom Burch, a Vietnam vet who founded the National Vietnam Veterans Coalition and is now a legal council for the Veterans Administration, Tuan Tran, a Vietnamese American pharmacist/business owner who is a long time "Freedom for Vietnam" activist, and "Freedom for Vietnam" activist Quyen Le, who organized and led the Le and Kiley Defense Fund Foundation. Supporting Kiley in the courtroom and outside the courthouse were dozens of members of various Vietnamese American communities.

McCain received a subpoena to appear in court and testify to the events. Kiley's attorney argued that McCain was not only present, but that the wine allegedly thrown by Kiley struck him, making him so angry that he insisted that Secret Service bring Kiley back into the hotel and charged with a crime. The defense also argued that McCain had unique information that the other 600 guests did not have, such as what the dinner was about, who was there, why; he introduced Khai, and why he was a target of some of the remarks Kiley purportedly made.

McCain avoided the subpoena. His legal counsel successfully opposed all efforts to have the powerful senator testify and submitted a statement that McCain was so embarrassed that he personally apologized to Khai for the incident. His counsel also argued that the subpoena was unreasonable and oppressive, and that it is unduly burdensome to require the Senator to absent himself from legislative proceedings to testify.

Communist Vietnamese representatives carefully monitored both days of the trial. When the judge found Kiley Not Guilty of the charges, the communists complained to the State Department.

The federal prosecutor launched an effort file new charges against Kiley of illegal entry to the ballroom where the dinner was being held.

A trial date has not been set on the new charges.

The Mayflower protest is the second time Kiley successfully slipped through Secret Service security to confront Khai. In October 1993, at the New York City Plaza Hotel, when the captains of American industry hosted a reception/dinner for then Deputy Prime Minister Khai, Kiley slipped into a reception line reserved for the captains who were being introduced to Khai.

When it came time for Kiley to be introduced, he put on his American Legion cap, handed Khai a small POW/MIA flag, grasped the communist leader's other hand in a "firm New York style" hand grip and began berating him about Vietnam holding live American POWS after the war and continued human rights violations in Vietnam.

It was that event in 1993 that prompted former congressman John LeBoutillier from Long Island, New York, to give Kiley the nickname "Stealth Activist" because of his uncanny ability to slip past security.

The Le and Kiley Defense Fund Foundation raised more than $55,000 in less than one month with fund raisers in Atlanta Georgia, Falls Church Virginia, and donations from Vietnamese communities around the world.

Kiley's defense cost for the three day trial was about $20,000. The remainder in the fund is set aside for Tuan Phuoc Le's defense by the same attorney.

Tuan Phuoc Le, 33, was arrested by federal authorities and accused of assaulting Nguyen Quoc Huy, vice chairman of the Vietnamese prime minister's office, outside the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel June 21, 2005. Huy was part of the delegation led Khai,

Tuan Le's arrest and possible deportation have sparked outrage in the Vietnamese community in the United States. He has become a cause célèbre, with supporters collecting thousands of dollars for his defense and collecting more than 900 signatures in an online petition.

"It's very sad, very miserable for him," said Duc Tran of Philadelphia, a spokesman for the Coalition for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in Vietnam, one of the organizations that led protests against Khai's visit. "His father was American. They should not send him back."

Le has lived in the United States since 1993 and has permanent residency. After the incident, he was held with out bond for weeks by immigration authorities in Virginia but has since been released and is back in Georgia working in construction.

Le's trial date has not been set, but it is expected to take place sometime in the first half of 2006.

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