SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jun. 4, 2007
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(AP) A former Laotian military general and a former California National Guard officer were among nine people charged Monday with plotting a violent overthrow of Laos' communist government.
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, prosecutors said.
"We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Twiss said in federal court.
He said thousands of co-conspirators remain at large, many in other countries. Prosecutors said they believe all the leaders of the plot are in custody.
General Vang Pao, who immigrated to the U.S. in about 1975 and has been credited by thousands of Hmong refugees with helping them build new lives in the U.S., was accused of being the mastermind. He was charged with conspiracy to topple Laotian leaders.
Also charged was former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack, who was accused of acting as an arms broker and organizer.
Vang Pao had led CIA-backed Hmong forces in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s as a general in the Royal Army of Laos, while Jack is a 1968 West Point graduate who was involved in covert operations during the Vietnam War.
The arrests came after a six-month investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An undercover agent posing as a weapons broker met with Vang Pao and others, with Jack acting as an intermediary between the Hmong community and the agent, prosecutors said.
The criminal complaint said the conspirators agreed to pay $150,000 for the weapons in three installments.
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said thousands of dollars were seized in separate raids Monday but declined to elaborate on how much was recovered.
The attorneys for Vang Pao and Jack had no immediate comment after Monday's court proceeding.
Seven others, all prominent members of the Hmong community from California's Central Valley, also were charged with violating the federal Neutrality Act. All nine defendants face the possibility of life in prison.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly J. Mueller ordered the nine to be held in custody until separate hearings later this week.
Attorneys for the defendants who appeared in federal court Monday declined to comment, saying they had not had a chance to review the charges.
Another suspect from Rancho Cordova was arrested later Monday based on information obtained from the others.
The criminal complaint said Vang Pao, now 77, and the other Hmong defendants formed a committee "to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a military expedition or enterprise to engage in the overthrow of the existing government of Laos by violent means, including murder, assaults on both military and civilian officials of Laos and destruction of buildings and property."
The committee acted through the Lao liberation movement known as Neo Hom, led in the U.S. by Vang Pao. It conducted extensive fundraising, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.
As recently as May, people acting on behalf of the committee were gathering intelligence about military installations and government buildings in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, according to prosecutors. The defendants issued "an operations plan" to a contractor who was to conduct a military strike in the city and reduce government buildings to rubble, the complaint alleged.
Since January, the Hmong leaders and Jack inspected shipments of military equipment that were to be purchased and shipped to Thailand, shipments that were scheduled for June 12 and June 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-explosives.
The defendants also attempted to recruit a mercenary force that included former members of the Army special forces or Navy SEALs, prosecutors said.
Jack worked full-time doing strategic planning for the California National Guard after retiring from active duty as a lieutenant colonel about 10 years ago.
He recently established the Hmong Emergency Relief Organization, a nonprofit committed to supporting the Hmong community. He also is president of the nonprofit Youth Development Academies of America.
In March, Jack was hired by Yolo County, near Sacramento, as an ombudsman to help employees who have concerns or problems with county officials. He earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from West Point.
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Vang Pao “was born in Xieng Khouang, Laos, and was a teenager when the Japanese invaded the country during World War II. He was too young to serve as a guerrilla fighter in combat, so he served as a messenger and interpreter for the French. According to Keith Quincy, author of the book Hmong: History of a People, by the time the Japanese surrendered in World War II, he was accompanying French officers on military missions.
