Sunday, August 31, 2008 7:34 PM VIET “FREEDOM FIGHTER” FOILED
He’s got a flair for the dramatic, but even for self-styled “freedom fighter” Ly Tong, this story is quite the tale .
In a scene seemingly ripped from a James Bond movie, the 63-year-old South Vietnamese Air Force veteran is claiming that a week ago he was detained at a South Korean police station after a foiled attempt to drop 20,000 anti-communist leaflets over Seoul when Chinese President Hu Jintao was visiting the capital.
“I am so discouraged”, Tong said from a hotel in South Korea . “I spent too much time and energy trying to accomplish my mission.”
Tong, a notorious publicity seeker who this year staged a monthlong hunger strike in front of San Jose City Hall to show his support for naming a commercial strip “Little Saigon,” has a long history of aerial shenanigans.
In 1992, he hijacked a Vietnam Airlines flight, dropped 50,000 leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City and proclaimed himself the “commander in chief” of an anti-communist revolution. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released seven years later by Vietnam in a general prison amnesty. He has also leafleted over Cuba and escaped several communist prisons.
But the San Jose crusader was not quite so successful – defining success the way he does – this time . His original scheme was to fly over Beijing and drop leaflets during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but he said he couldn’t find a private airplane large enough to fly from South Korea to China .
Then he decided to drop fliers over North Korea but said the pilot schools in South Korea refused to let him fly because he didn’t have a Korean pilot’s license.
He finally persuaded a flight instructor to take him aloft by telling him he wanted to go “sightseeing.”
In the air, Tong said he made a move for a duffel bag with the leaflets, but the instructor – a large man – restrained him with a firm grip, suspecting Tong had a bomb . After what Tong described as a 20-minute struggle, the pilot landed and authorities were waiting . Tong was question but released.
The South Korean Embassy in Washington , DC. , hadn’t heard the story, and Tong’s recollection of the names of people involved was a bit spotty.
Oh, well. Even superheroes have setbacks.
“This is a failed mission,” Tong said .
