Yasith Chhun often boasted to newspapers and magazines about masterminding an attack on government buildings in Cambodia and his plans to overthrow the Southeast Asian country's communist regime.
The U.S. State Department declared the group he headed, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a terrorist organization in 2001.
But that label didn't stop Chhun, 48, from gaining friends among GOP stalwarts, such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach and the National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises funds for electing Republicans to Congress.
Rohrabacher said he was aware of the State Department's concerns about the Cambodian Freedom Fighters but remained a supporter of Chhun and his allies because of their passionate efforts to topple the Cambodian government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
"The State Department quite often will worship at the altar of stability and not consider liberty and justice as part of the equation," the congressman said in a phone interview. When "you talk about a dictator like Hun Sen, you don't want stability, you want change. Let's hope our State Department is not condemning anybody who would act to eliminate Hun Sen."
As a Californian, I am shamed by Rohrabacher. That idiot has been a disgrace for years, but that's Orange County for you.
Sakphan Keam, an English-Khmer translator in Long Beach, said many of the city's Cambodian Americans equate the Republican Party with reform overseas, a belief that was strengthened by President Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Reform, indeed.
The upshot of the article is that the guy isn't being indicted for terrorism per se, but for raising between $100,000 and $200,000 for the terrorist freedom fighter organization on U.S. soil. I think it may be because he only raised $6500 for OC Republicans and gave the rest to furriners.
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