[NOTED: "Soon after these events Ambassador Michael Marine resigned
due to stress of the assignment, effective July 31. He will retire.
This has not been reported on the Embassy website nor that of the
State Department." ]

by Viet-Am Review on Tue 26 Jun 2007 10:42 AM PDT

Michael W. Marine refused to toady to VN communists; replacement
Michael W. Michalak nominated to Senate May 24.

Following the altercation in front of the Ambassador's
residence on April 5, 2007 between Hanoi police and Congresswoman
Loretta Sanchez and her guest, the wife of an imprisoned journalist,
Michael Marine resigned his post as Ambassador to Vietnam effective
the end of July. He can be seen in this extraordinary video
published two weeks ago by butvang (the editor of Anh Duong online)
promising the Vietnamese woman (through an interpreter) that he will
discuss her case with Deputy Prime Minister Khiem the following day.
http://youtube. com/watch? v=p1MbiAFvxrE&mode=related&search=

This meeting on April 6, 2007, was addressed in press
conference by Ambassador Marine, Congressman Ortiz, and Minister
Khiem seated at a table. The rest of the Congressional delegation,
including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Loretta
Sanchez, were seated at a table nearby.

During the press conference, the Ambassador was asked by an
English-speaking journalist (not American) about his viewpoint of the
police manhandling of Father Nguyen Van Ly "and these women." The
identity of the journalist is deliberately obscured in the Viet
Weekly published recording of the conference. Ambassador Marine can
be heard saying "We did not discuss the trial" in the Viet Weekly
recording. That is absent from their English language
transcription. They further state that Ambassador Marine was
referring to Father Ly's "noisy behavior" when he noted that "in
special circumstances" even in American courtrooms, someone who is
speaking out would be forcefully [restrained. ] Because of the
immediately previous language that "we did not discuss the trial"
from the Ambassador, it is evident that this relationship to Father
Ly's behavior in the courtroom is not sustained.

Statements of outrage by Ambassador Marine about the incident in
front of his residence as quoted by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez on
April 6, 2007 at the Hilton Hanoi press conference accompanied by the
Ambassador have been reported in the mainstream American and
international media. The Viet Weekly, traveling personally to Hanoi
(editor Le Vu) cut and pasted the Communist publications that said
Congresswoman Sanchez was "interfering with internal affairs of
Vietnam" by visiting the wives of the imprisoned journalists.

Strength of purpose in combating human rights violations in
Vietnamese courtrooms by Michael Marine at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi
can be seen with the June 20-21 2007 workshop at the Vietnam-U.S.
Legal Information and Consultancy Center (VULC) titled "Access to
Justice in the Legal System of Vietnam" on June 21-22 in Hanoi. Mr.
Pham Quoc Anh, President of the Vietnam Lawyer Association and
Director of VULC, and Mr. Jonathan Aloisi, U.S. Charge d'Affaires,
opened the workshop on June 21. The workshop is the final phase of a
research project on the right of access to justice in Vietnam, which
aims to review Vietnamese legal provisions relating to judicial
independence and the right of access to justice. The project
commenced in June 2006 and was funded by the U.S. Embassy-Hanoi with
a US$19,909 grant. http://hanoi. usembassy. gov/pr062107. html This
workshop was not acknowledged to the American press when President
Nguyen Minh Triet told them with great arrogance "we have our own
laws."

The most clear evidence on protest of the treatment of political
prisoners in Vietnam is the official press release of Ambassador
Michael Marine on April 5, 2007, which is published in full on my
Vietnamese American Achievement blog,
http://vietamreview .blogharbor. com/blog/ _archives/ 2007/6/15/ 3025254.ht
ml

Soon after these events Ambassador Michael Marine resigned due to
stress of the assignment, effective July 31. He will retire. This
has not been reported on the Embassy website nor that of the State
Department.

Mr. Michael William Michalak was appointed to the rank of
Ambassador to APEC by President Bush on April 07, 2007. His
nomination to Ambassador of Vietnam was sent May 24, 07: Department
of State Michael W. Michalak, of Michigan, a Career Member of the
Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of
America to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

This nomination was told to me as "an ordinary citizen who runs a
blog" by a State Dept. official. I found the above nomination in
U.S. Senate legislative reports. Looking for Michael Michalak among
White House nominations produces a blank ? not even a name record ?
and in another location his name brings up a person named Rose
McNally. Perhaps the White House should replace Barney as imbedded
webmaster. Biography for Michael Michalak,
http://www.state. gov/p/eap/ 53112.htm does not include the
Ambassadorial rank accorded him on April 07, 2007.

This White House muddling of Ambassador Marine's resignation and the
new nomination may have been the result of "executive embarrassment"
over the strong protests of Ambassador Michael Marine on the
imprisonment of Father Nguyen Van Ly and the Vietnamese police
manhandling of women trying to visit his residence and now allowed
inside. That is reported as the opinion of Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform
Party) leader Do Hoang Diem of San Jose interviewed in the Viet
Weekly of June 21, 2007. This interview was made before Mr. Do's
meeting with Congresswomen Sanchez and Pelosi in Washington on June
20, which is pictured on my blog, image courtesy the office of
Congresswoman Sanchez. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich was also present at this
meeting, you can find an excellent four-minute interview with him at
the protest of the visit of President Triet to the White House on
YouTube http://www.youtube. com/watch?
v=pGq4DcIUdg4&mode=related&search=

I would like to state once again, as an "ordinary citizen who runs a
blog" on Vietnamese American Achievement for which I absorb all costs
personally with my limited retirement stipend, that Viet Weekly is
pro-Communist. I believe manipulation is evident in the audio file
that the journal has published online. The biggest evidence is that
the audible statement by Michael Marine immediately following his
meeting with U.S. Congresspersons and Deputy Prime Minister Khiem "We
did not discus the trial" is missing from the Viet Weekly accusation
that Ambassador Marine criticized the noisy behavior of Father Nguyen
Van Ly.

Jean Libby, editor
VietAm Review

http://vietamreview .blogharbor. com