Hmong:Still a Secret War!

[illhmong]

A little about Hmong youngsters living in the US after the War in Laos.

http://www.geocities.com/illhmong

Death is tough, but living is tougher.

[GWR]

Blimey! Some retirement for Gen. Van Pao:

Laos's resistance fighter; Gen Van Pao charged in US for Laos coup plot

San Francisco -- police arrested nine people charged with plotting to use rifles and rockets to overthrow the communist government in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a prosecutor in California said Monday.

The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the public prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement.

The "Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple (the) Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble," it said.

Targets allegedly discussed by the plotters included the Royal Palace in the Laotian capital.

Hundreds of federal agents swooped on the suspects in pre-dawn raids across California.

Those seized include the Hmong former general Vang Pao -- a veteran resistance fighter -- and Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army.

The nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during the covert investigation discussing plans to buy hundreds of rifles, rockets, mines, grenades and surface-to-air missiles and ship them to Laos via Thailand.

A 10th person was arrested but not yet charged.

Vang, 77, is a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the United States, a former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s who fled to the United States in 1975 after communists ousted Laos' royal rulers.

Harrison, 60, is a graduate of the prestigious West Point US military academy, the prosecutor said. Local media said Harrison served in the Vietnam War.

The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle."

Rights groups have accused Laos authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribe groups, former resistance fighters opposed to the state's communist regime.

The scattered groups of Hmong in Laos are remnants and descendants of former fighters of a CIA-funded "secret army" who from the early 1960s fought communist Pathet Lao forces when the war spilled over from neighboring Vietnam.

"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt their activities before their plot evolved into a coup against a country with which the United States is at peace," said one of the federal police officials who headed the probe, Michael Sullivan.

"These defendants posed a substantial threat to public safety abroad."

They each face life imprisonment if convicted.

Agence France Presse

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007...s_30036051.php

[GWR]

[Photo: The Nation]

Full entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang_Pao

General Vang Pao (b. c. 1931) was an American-allied Hmong military leader in the Second Indochina War. To this day, he remains an important figure in the Hmong community, and is considered to be the key leader of the traditional Hmong living in exile, or in Laos. In the past, he was known for his opposition to the human rights violations conducted by communist government of Laos, but since 2001 he changed his approach and released his Peace Doctrine. Vang was commander of the Secret Army, a highly-effective, American-trained and supported fighting force made up mostly of Hmong tribesmen. He fled to the United States after the communists seized power in Laos in 1975. Since then, he has been subject to several unsuccessful assassination plots, presumably ordered by the government of Laos or foreign communist forces.

Vang is considered by most Hmong to be a preeminent leader of the Hmong people in the United States and a hero of American-allied forces in the Second Indochina War. Although referred to as General, he only obtained the rank of Major General in the Royal Lao Army.

Vang is slated to have an elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin named after him.[1] The idea of naming a school after Vang has caused some controversy in Madison due to allegations of drug trafficking and war crimes during the CIA's secret war in Laos.[2] The school will open in 2008.

On Monday, June 4, 2007, Vang and nine others were arrested in California for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Laotian government[3].

[GWR]

The plot may have involved, not too surprising, the movement of large quantities of arms through Thailand:

Nine charged over Laos 'coup plot'
The group reportedly plotted a massive armed assault against the Laotian communist government [EPA]
Prosecutors in the United States have charged nine people with plotting a violent overthrow of the communist government of Laos.

According to investigators the group was raising money to recruit a mercenary force and buy enough weapons to equip a small army, including anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers

"We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Bob Twiss, an assistant US attorney, told a federal court in Sacramento on Monday.

Among the nine accused of leading the plot are a former Laotian general and a Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison Ulrich Jack, a retired California National Guard officer who reportedly served in covert operations during the Vietnam War.

Aside from Jack, the eight suspects are all prominent members of the ethnic Hmong community who have settled in California's Central Valley after fleeing South-East Asia.

All nine suspects face life imprisonment if convicted.

Speaking in court, Twiss said that while those charged were believed to be the main leaders of the plot, thousands of co-conspirators remain at large, many in other countries.

He said that as recently as May this year, agents acting on behalf of the plotters had been gathering intelligence about military installations and government buildings in the Laotian capital, Vientiane.

A statement from the California public prosecutor's office said the Hmong planned to use a range of rifles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to "reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble".

'Tarnished Eagle'

The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle".

According to police, the nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during covert surveillance discussing plans to buy hundreds of weapons and ship them to Laos via Thailand.

The plotters were also said to have met an undercover agent posing as an arms broker during which they agreed to pay $150,000 for a consignment of weapons.

"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt their activities before their plot evolved into a coup against a country with which the United States is at peace," said Michael Sullivan, the federal official who headed the probe.

"These defendants posed a substantial threat to public safety abroad."

Among the nine charged is Vang Pao, a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the United States.

A former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s and an ethnic Hmong, he fled to the US in 1975 after communist forces ousted the pro-American government in Laos.

Prosecutors say Vang Pao was the likely ringleader of the plot.

Rights groups have accused Laotian authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribe groups because of their association with resistance fighters opposed to the communist government.

Many of the scattered Hmong communities living in Laos are remnants and descendants of former fighters from a CIA-funded "secret army" which fought communist Pathet Lao forces when the war spilled over from neighbouring Vietnam in the early 1960s.
Source: Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...918EAC8AB0.htm

[GWR]

Vang Pao charged with Laos plot

(BangkokPost.com, Agencies)

Hmong General Vang Pao was arrested in California on Monday as the alleged mastermind of a violent plot to overthrow the Lao government with arms and equipment that were ready to be shipped to Thailand next week.

The indictments handed down in Sacramento culminated a six-month investigation that included meetings between undercover agents and the alleged conspirators to discuss transferring weapons to Thailand and Laos.

US prosecutors allege that Vang Pao was the mastermind behind the plot. Eight others were also arrested and charged; authorities believe there will be more arrests.

"We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Assistant US Attorney Bob Twiss said in federal court Monday.

All nine are charged with violating the federal Neutrality Act and face the possibility of life in prison.

"No matter how strongly held their beliefs, citizens of the United States cannot become involved in a plot to overthrow a sovereign government with which the United States is at peace," Drew Parenti, FBI special agent in charge of the Sacramento region said during a news conference following the defendants' initial court appearance.

The Associated Press says the case "reads like it was taken from the pages of a spy novel."

Since January, the Hmong leaders and Jack inspected shipments of military equipment that were to be purchased and shipped to Thailand. Shipments were scheduled for June 12 and 19, the complaint alleged. That equipment included hundreds of machine guns, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, mines and C-4 explosives.

During a news conference after the defendants' court appearance, prosecutors displayed photographs of the weapons involved in the alleged plot. They showed a light anti-tank rocket system, a Stinger missile, Claymore mines and an AK-47 assault rifle.

The defendants also attempted to recruit a mercenary force that included former members of the Army Special Forces or Navy SEALs, prosecutors allege.

The planning was disrupted after a six-month investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The criminal complaint said Vang Pao and the other Hmong defendants plotted an insurgent campaign to overthrow the Laotian government "by violent means, including murder, assaults on both military and civilian officials of Laos and destruction of buildings and property."

The defendants acted through the Lao liberation movement known as Neo Hom, led in the US by Vang Pao. It conducted extensive fundraising, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.

Also charged was former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack, a 1968 West Point graduate who was involved in covert operations during the Vietnam War. Jack acted as an arms broker and organizer of the plot, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court.

Vang Pao, now 77, led CIA-backed Hmong forces in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s as a general in the Royal Army of Laos. He immigrated to the US in 1975 and has been credited by thousands of Hmong refugees with helping them build new lives in the US.

Since then, however, he also has been plotting to overthrow the Laotian government, according to the federal complaint.

Seven others, all prominent members of the Hmong community from California's Central Valley, also were charged Monday in federal court. The criminal complaint identified them as:

- Lo Cha Thao of Clovis, a suburb of Fresno

- Lo Thao of Sacramento County, who is president of United Hmong International, which the complaint says also is known as the Supreme Council of the Hmong 18 Clans

- Youa True Vang of Fresno, founder of Fresno's Hmong International New Year

- Hue Vang, a former Clovis police officer

- Chong Yang Thao, a Fresno chiropractor

- Seng Vue of Fresno

- Chue Lo of Stockton, both of whom are clan representatives in United Hmong International

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstorie....php?id=119229

[GWR]

Laos welcomed on Tuesday the US action against high profile dissident leader, Gen Vang Pao and other eight Hmongs who were arrested in San Francisco with charge of plotting to overthrow the communist ruling government in Vientiane.

"We praise the US government as the group committed wrong doing against the Laos government which has good relations with the US," said Lao Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy.

...........

Meanwhile Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the Thai government was acknowledged on the arrest and charge on the Hmong in the US.

The Thai security concerned agencies would take care of investigation on the plot if there would be any arm smuggling via Thailand to neighboring country, he said.

"Thailand has a clear policy not to allow any party to use our territory as a lunching pad against our neighbors," he said.

Thailand sheltered more than 7,000 Hmong, many of whom claimed they were closed associates with the CIA secret fighters left over since the Vietnam War and fled from suppression at home. They hoped to have a chance to settle in the third countries like other Hmong fellows earlier.

Laos spokesman Yong said the Hmong in Thailand were victims of trafficking syndicates, not fighters. There was no active dissident group in Laos, he said.

"The arrest of Vang Pao and his group might not have direct impact to Laos as we have nothing to do with them but it would be a good news for Hmong minorities since the traffickers would have no excuse to lure them to Thailand to seek resettlement in the US with Vang Pao," Yong said.

Yong joined a Lao delegation to a meeting of General Border Committee (GBC) in Bangkok yesterday to discuss the border security and the Hmong issue. The two countries shared common agreement to deport the Hmong in Thailand to Laos, he said.

..........

Supalak Ganjanakhundee/The Nation
Agence France Presse

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007...s_30036051.php