FBI agents launch investigation into Orange County Vietnamese group

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) -- FBI agents have visited the headquarters of an Orange County group dubbed a terrorist organization by the Vietnamese government to learn more about its activities.

The probe launched this month involves Government of Free Vietnam, which gained notoriety earlier this year when some members were arrested in connection with alleged bombing plots at Vietnamese embassies in Thailand and the Philippines.

Federal investigators have focused their attention on one member of the organization, 41-year-old Van Duc Vo. They allege Vo planted a bomb next to the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok but the device did not go off. He was arrested at John Wayne Airport last month and charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction by a U.S. citizen in a foreign country. He pleaded not guilty and remains in jail awaiting trial.

After Vo's arrest, Vietnam officials demanded that the United States look further into the organization. FBI investigators declined to comment on the probe.

Free Vietnam consists of former South Vietnamese soldiers and leaders living abroad in the U.S., Europe and southeast Asia. The group has created training camps in the jungle along the Thai-Laotian border near Vietnam and has a budget of about $1 million a year. Membership estimates by the group range from 2,000 to 200,000.

Chanh Huu Nguyen, the group's president, said FBI agents have been to the organization's Garden Grove office twice and asked him questions about recent activities.

"I answered with the truth because I have nothing to hide," Nguyen said. "I am a freedom fighter for my country and I am ready to face any retribution, even if I will die."

Nguyen said he has not broken any laws and the attempted embassy bombing in Bangkok was done without the group's authorization.