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| Southeast Asia |
| 10 men charged with plotting to overthrow Laos government |
| 2007-06-04 |
| Ten men -- including a prominent Hmong general who commanded the CIA's army fighting communists during the Vietnam War -- were charged in federal court in Sacramento on Monday with plotting to overthrow the government of Laos. The men, including Harrison Ulrich Jack, a 1968 graduate of West Point who now lives in Woodland and operates a consulting firm, allegedly conspired to to obtain hundreds of AK-47s, Stinger missiles, anti-tank missiles, mines, rockets and C-4 explosive, as well as smoke grenades, to overthrow the Laotian government. All the suspects are in custody and were appearing before a federal magistrate judge in U.S. District Court this afternoon to hear the charges read against them. The charges stem from a six-month undercover investigation, dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle," that included a series of meetings with undercover federal agents during which the plotters allegedly discussed moving weapons into safe houses in Thailand and Laos. The defendants include Vang Pao, who is considered among the most respected Hmong leaders in the United States and who has vowed for more than 20 years to lead his followers back to Laos. Pao, who splits his time between homes in Minnesota and the Fresno area, is accused with the eight others of violating the United States' neutrality act by plotting on American soil to invade a foreign country. Jack, a former American infantry officer who retired in 1977 as a lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard, allegedly approached defense contractors seeking munitions for the plot, according to a criminal complaint unsealed a short time ago, and some of the suspects sought out former Army Special Forces and Navy Seal veterans to serve as mercenaries. The complaint charges that since January the suspects have inspected a wide variety of weapons, including AK-47s, Stinger missiles and Claymore mines. The group allegedly purchased "an initial installment of 125 AK-47 machine guns, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and crates of smoke grenades for a purchase price of $100,000, to be delivered in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 12, 2007," the complaint says. A $50,000 payment was to be made June 11, with the balance to be handed over the next day, when the weapons were to be received, the complaint says. A third payment of $50,000 was to cover the purchase of some Stinger missiles, the government contends. Jack allegedly met and spoke with an undercover federal agent several times to discuss weapons procurement, and had budgeted $9.8 million for the desired munitions, the complaint alleges. The money was to come from "contributions from community leaders through the clan leadership," the complaint says. Various discussions of the plot allegedly took place at Sacramento-area bars and restaurants, Doubletree and Hilton hotels in Sacramento and the parking lot of a K-Mart near Highway 99 in Stockton, the complaint says. In May, the complaint says, the suspects had "intelligence operatives" in place in Vientiane, Laos, "conducting surveillance of military and government facilities in downtown Vientiane." The suspects also "issued an operations plan to a contractor to conduct a military strike in downtown Vientiane," the complaint says, "against specifically identified military and civilian government personnel and buildings." The suspects told their mercenary force "to reduce (the targets) to rubble, and make them look like the results of the attack upon the World Trace Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001," the complaint says. McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District based in Sacramento, is scheduled to discuss the case at a 3 p.m. press conference today with Michael J. Sullivan, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Drew Parenti, special agent in charge of Sacramento's FBI office. |
| Posted by:Frank G |