One of the principal reasons I launched WorldNetDaily and created its
non-profit parent company, the Western Journalism Center, is the fact
that there are precious few gutsy reporters like Anthony LoBaido, the
WND roving foreign correspondent currently sending dispatches to us
from Southeast Asia.
There was a day, in my lifetime, when young people yearned to be
journalists — especially foreign correspondents who would travel to
world hot spots and shine a little light in some of the dark corners of
the world where evil reigns.
But that was a different time. Today, the glitter and glamour of such
adventurous assignments is wearing thin for the journalistic class. Most
so-called journalists would rather see themselves on television,
mouthing off about stories they read in the New York Times or on the
Associated Press wire. There is very little real reporting going on any
more.
LoBaido is an exception. He’s a throwback to the kind of reporter I
knew years ago. He goes where he has to go to get the story — risking
life and limb, dodging minefields, creeping under the radar screens of
police states. He does it because he is compassionate — truly
compassionate. He does it because he has a sense of right and wrong. He
does it because he is driven to do it by something deep inside his soul.
He sure doesn’t do it for the pay.
LoBaido’s first investigative series for WorldNetDaily is an
eye-opener. He is giving us the first, front-line report on the
attempted extermination of the Hmong tribesmen by a combination of a
totalitarian Laotian government, malignant neglect by the U.S.
government and the active participation of the global cops in the United
Nations. Welcome to the New World Order, folks. This way to the
re-education camps.
The current crisis facing the Hmong, LoBaido reports, is the closure
of the Ban Napho refugee camp in Thailand by the U.N. All U.N. funding
for these people is set to end Dec. 31. The refugees from Laotian terror
and genocide are scheduled to be sent back to what they believe is
certain death.
These precious people put their faith in America. They were among the
U.S.’ most fiercely loyal allies during our country’s nightmare in
Vietnam. They fought alongside our Special Forces soldiers with courage
and distinction. And that is principally the reason they and their
descendants are so hated by the Communist government in Laos.
These folks have suffered enough. The Hmong lost one-fourth of their
entire population during and after the war. They now face the use of
Russian-made biochemical weapons by the Laotians. Despite their
dwindling numbers, the U.N. is enforcing radical population control
policies on them. And their one-time friends in the United States have
abandoned them under the regime of Vietnam War draft dodger Bill
Clinton.
LoBaido reports that between 10,000 and 15,000 Hmong dissidents —
freedom-fighters — have been brutally worked to death and murdered in
re-education camps since 1975. The deaths are reminiscent of the Khmer
Rouge-style “Killing Fields” genocide: They don’t waste bullets, just
kill victims with lethal blows to the heads.
Not only is the U.S. not lifting a finger to protect the Hmong
people, many of their leaders are convinced the U.S. Embassy in
Thailand, along with the CIA, State Department and U.N., are working
with the Communist Pathet Lao to undermine any anti-Communist resistance
movement among the Hmong.
But for those who think this persecution of a people is about
politics and justify it in your minds in those terms, consider this:
Most of the victims are children and young people. The others are
grown-ups, yes. But their victimization is predicated on their faith in
the American dream — on their desire for independence,
self-determination and freedom. All they want is to be able to govern
themselves and worship as they please.
These are the most fundamental and inalienable rights. If the U.S.
and U.N. can’t recognize them, they have no business meddling in the
affairs of other people around the world — in Iraq, in the Balkans, in
Africa, in Haiti, etc.
If you have been touched by the plight of the Hmong people through
the reporting of WorldNetDaily’s Anthony LoBaido, bring it to the
attention of other media outlets, your representative in the House, your
two senators. Do it fast. Time is running out for the Hmong.
Part 2: Killing fields, mines and martyrs
Part 3: Fear and loathing in Vietnam
Editor’s note: If you would like to read more of the front-line
international reporting of Anthony LoBaido, plus get more insight
monthly from J.R. Nyquist, David Bresnahan and more, subscribe to
WorldNetDaily’s Dispatches magazine.
