Saving itself a couple of news cycles of international embarrassment, Vietnam has denied a visa to Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who had been traveling in Asia and hoped to enter the country to meet with disgruntled citizens who say they are denied basic freedoms.
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“I am extremely disappointed that Vietnam's government decided to ignore my visa application,” Rep. Sanchez said in a press statement. “For years, Vietnam has promised to expand the civil, political and religious liberties of its people in exchange for a greater role in international politics. I strongly believe that elected officials from America and other democracies should have the opportunity to assess Vietnam's progress, or lack thereof, on these issues firsthand.”
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.