Back to Home > News > Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006 California & the West Posted on Wed, Sep. 06, 2006 ... Viet activist led 2 lives.

As Cong Thanh Do's family members burn the phone lines trying to secure his release from a Vietnam jail, they're also uncovering a double life about the husband and father they mostly knew as a Silicon Valley engineer who enjoyed baking pastries and reading Vietnamese newspapers.

Do, who was arrested in Vietnam on Aug. 14 for allegedly plotting to bomb the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, has since admitted to authorities in Vietnam that he's a pro-democracy activist who has been writing online articles under the pen name Nam Tran.

The news has sent his children scurrying around their three-bedroom San Jose home, looking for pieces their father may have written, hacking into his laptop's password-protected files searching for clues to better understand and help push for his release. So far, they've gotten into two of 10 accounts.

U.S. consular officials in Ho Chi Minh City have spoken with Do, according to the State Department. However, a government official would not elaborate on the charges against him.

After his arrest, Do announced that he is a member of the People's Democratic Party of Vietnam. It is a relatively new group with members in Vietnam and America that has been agitating against communist Vietnam's single party system.

Ngai Xuan Nguyen of San Jose had read articles by Nam Tran, but didn't realize Do was the true author. The cardiologist wasn't surprised that someone agitating for multiparty reform in his native country would be arrested. Nguyen, a member of a different democracy group called the People's Action Party, was arrested himself in 1999 during a humanitarian visit.

The People's Democratic Party of Vietnam mostly posts online articles, but has occasionally ventured into real-world protests. For example, its members have distributed leaflets calling for the government to drop a provision of the Vietnamese constitution that allows only the communist party to be in power, said Robert Nguyen Le, chairman of the Vietnam Human Rights Network in Westminster.

Le is suspicious of the terrorism charges, saying Do's group sponsors peaceful activities. ``Perhaps they had positive development inside Vietnam so the government decided to crack down on the group's activities,'' he said.

Bien Dobui said she's been talking with journalists worldwide who said they had been working with her father. She found articles on his computer, some dating to 2002, publicizing dissidents who had been jailed in Vietnam. The articles are signed Nam Tran.

There were few clues, said the woman who has been married to Cong Thanh Do for 25 years. When they arrived in America in 1982, they did what many refugees did: they attended anti-communist rallies, sang folk songs, went to vigils on April 30, the anniversary of Saigon's fall.

Later, they concentrated on work and raising children. Do frequently typed on his laptop, his family said, but that wasn't unusual for an engineer. ``Now we're understanding what he was doing,'' said Bien Dobui. The family name is a combination of Do's surname and his wife's maiden name, Bui.

She and her brother are getting a crash course in Vietnamese economics, politics and culture as they try to navigate their dad's secret world, she said. She's also learning another side to the 47-year-old man, who is now staging a hunger strike in jail halfway across the world.

She recalled a debate she and her father had about the 2004 election. She was upset that he, along with many in the Vietnamese community, voted for George Bush. She thought John Kerry would be better in the long run.

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