The once revered leader of Minnesota's Hmong and eight others were arrested in an alleged plot to overthrow the Laos government.
In an indictment sure to jolt Minnesota's large Hmong population, federal authorities in California charged Gen. Vang Pao and eight others Monday with plotting to overthrow the Communist government in their former homeland of Laos.
"We are looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Twiss said in court.
Vang Pao led Hmong soldiers who fought alongside the CIA and U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, paving the way for thousands of Hmong to end up in Minnesota. Once revered, Vang Pao has had his popularity and credibility decline in recent years. Two years ago, the Minnesota attorney general's office forced the Vang Pao Foundation to close and pay restitution after violating state nonprofit laws.
Vang Pao splits his time between homes in Minnesota and Orange County, Calif.
He was scheduled to be in St. Paul for next month's Hmong soccer tournament. He is now in custody after being arrested at his home in Westminster, Calif., on Monday morning.
"Some people have positive feelings about the general, some don't like him ... but this will come as a shock," said Ilean Her, director of the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans.
"I have to see some evidence," she said. "He's at the trail end of his popularity and I would say these charges would have had more credibility 10 years ago when he had much more influence, at least here in Minnesota."
Xang Vang -- who drives the general when he comes to Minnesota, including a trip for a veterans' celebration earlier this year -- said that despite the recent controversies with his foundation, Vang Pao remains highly respected in the local Hmong community.
"He's like George Washington to the American citizens," said Vang, who runs the Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association. "Without him, the Hmong would all be dead in Laos."
Vang Pao has long been unwavering in his promise to Hmong refugees that he would help them overthrow the Communist government of Laos so that they could one day return to their homeland.
He has reportedly raised millions of dollars in the past 25 years, often from impoverished Hmong families who make monthly contributions to a secretive organization called Neo Hom.
Her said the indictment will likely spark fear in the local Hmong community, which is considered the largest urban concentration of Hmong in the country. "Resistance fighting can now be labeled as terrorism by U.S. authorities," Her said. "The local community will want to see the evidence."
Six-month investigation
The nine men indicted, including Harrison Ulrich Jack, a 1968 graduate of West Point, allegedly conspired 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 appeared before a federal magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Placerville, Calif., on Monday 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.
Vang Pao is accused with the eight others of violating the U.S. neutrality act by plotting on American soil to invade a foreign country.
Jack, a former U.S. 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.
Some of the suspects allegedly sought out former Army Special Forces and Navy Seal veterans to serve as mercenaries.
125 AK-47s and 20,000 rounds
The complaint charges that since January the suspects have inspected a wide variety of weapons, including AK-47s, Stinger missiles and Claymore mines.
The complaint said the group 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."
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 said. 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 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, restaurants and hotels, and the parking lot of a Kmart near Hwy. 99 in Stockton.
Reducing targets 'to rubble'
In May, the complaint said, the suspects had "intelligence operatives" in place in the capital city of 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 said, "against specifically identified military and civilian government personnel and buildings."
It said 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 Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001."
Staff writers Howie Padilla, Paul McEnroe and the Sacramento Bee contributed to this report. Curt Brown • 651-298-1542 •
Two in U.S. charged with plotting Laos coup
Ex-general, ex-officer accused of plan to 'murder thousands and thousands'
Sacramento, Calif. - A former Laotian military general who helped the CIA wage covert war in Southeast Asia more than 30 years ago and a former officer in the California National Guard were charged Monday in federal court with plotting a violent overthrow of Laos' communist government.
Gen. Vang Pao, a prominent Hmong leader who lives in Orange County, was charged with conspiracy to topple Laos leaders in a case that reads like it was taken from the pages of a spy novel.
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 U.S. District Court.
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 allege.
"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 Monday.
He said thousands of coconspirators remain at large.
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 emigrated to the U.S. about 1975 and has been credited by thousands of Hmong refugees with helping them build new lives in the U.S.
Since then, however, he has been plotting to overthrow the 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 and Chue Lo of Stockton, both of whom are clan representatives in United Hmong International.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly J. Mueller ordered all nine defendants to be held in custody until separate hearings later this week.
Vang Pao, of Westminster, was the alleged leader of the anti-communist plot, while Jack acted as the arms broker, according to the complaint. The attorneys for Vang Pao and Jack had no immediate comment after Monday's court proceeding.
The criminal complaint said Vang Pao 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.
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 machine guns, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, stinger 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.
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 in 1968.
Vang Pao has been a source of controversy elsewhere.
In April, a dispute erupted in Madison, Wis., over a proposal to name a new elementary school after him, a move intended to honor the area's large Hmong population. Dissenters said a school should not bear the name of a figure with such a violent history.
In 2002, the city of Madison dropped a plan to name a park in his honor after a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor cited numerous published sources alleging that Vang Pao had ordered executions of his own followers, of enemy prisoners of war and of his political enemies.
Spokesmen for Vang Pao and his followers denied the charges at the time.