When America Quits: The Hmong in the Mountain Jungles of Laos

Rebecca Sommer says her documentary, “Hunted Like Animals,” is “about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide — against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos.” Information about the film and clips can be found on Sommer’s website.

In an interview with Stephen Magagnini, Phiane Philakone, the Lao ambassador to the United States, said "there are "no human-rights violations" against the Hmong.

"I deny these things because we don't have people in the jungle -- it's only a rumor; it's not accurate information,’ Philakone said. ‘There are no more Hmong refugees (in Laos)."

[See my entries of Monday, June 25 on United States offers of aid to Laos on Yellow Rain, also June 25, and on “Moral Ambiguity?”]

The House of Representatives passed H.Res. 402 in May of 2004, which States that the House of Representatives urges the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the United Nations, the European Union, and the Association of South East Asian Nations to work for: (1) unrestricted access to Laos by international election monitors and international human rights organizations; (2) the rights of opposition political parties and their candidates to run for public office and for all adult citizens of Laos to vote; (3) the right of the citizens to assemble, protest, and to organize; (4) the cessation of all acts of violence against the Hmong population; (5) the release of those jailed in connection with the 1999 pro-democracy demonstrations; and (6) the promotion of religious freedom in Laos.>

Links to the full text of the bill, list of co-sponsors and all Congressional actions, can be found here.

When America Quits: Hmong Defense Asks for Bail

All eleven defendants have asked for bail in the alleged plot to overthrow the government of Laos. According to an article by Stephen Maganini in the Sacramento Bee, documents filed by their attorneys on Monday in District Court in Sacramento made the argument that, "their alleged scheme was so inept they pose no danger to others."

"’The alleged coup plot was never dangerous," the defendants' joint brief said. "It was, at most, a government-propelled fantasy, lacking any realistic planning, money or support.’

…

So far, seven of the defendants -- including 77-year-old Gen. Vang Pao, who suffers from diabetes, heart problems and other ailments -- have been denied bail pending trial because of the seriousness of the charges.

All the defendants are charged with conspiring to violate the federal Neutrality Act by planning to overthrow a country at peace with the United States, conspiring to kill and injure people in a foreign nation, conspiring to obtain firearms and destructive devices, and conspiring to export items with a U.S. State Department license.

Nine of the 11 are charged with conspiring to obtain missile systems designed to bring down aircraft, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years.

But the defense brief -- citing the affidavit filed by the undercover agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- said: "It was the government who suggested using explosives. It was the government who suggested using anti-tank rockets. And it was the government who suggested using Stinger missiles. ...

"The supposed coup plot never posed a danger to others or the community, because it was never more than a pipe dream the government itself breathed life into."

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said the prosecution -- which has until July 9 to answer – ‘will respond in the appropriate manner. I'm very confident we will rebut the allegations.’

The defense brief said the plot came to light when Harrison Jack -- a Vietnam veteran from Woodland sympathetic to the Hmong who are still hiding in Laos – ‘contacted a defense contractor (not an illegal arms dealer) and inquired about purchasing 500 automatic weapons to defend against the Lao government's genocide of the Hmong people. From that point, the government entered the scheme and orchestrated its every step.’

The undercover agent contacted Jack to discuss the 500 rifles but soon offered much greater firepower, including Stinger missiles, because "the persecution of the Hmong in Laos had taken an ominous turn, and the Lao government was using helicopters to spray 'yellow rain' on Hmong villagers ... a chemical weapon that causes bleeding, convulsions and death."

The Lao government has repeatedly denied persecution of any Hmong in Laos and claims there are no Hmong trapped in the jungles. But Amnesty International has reported that several thousand Hmong -- the remnants of the CIA-funded jungle army that fought the Lao and Vietnamese communists from 1961 to 1975 -- are hiding from the Lao military, which has mutilated and killed Hmong men, women and children foraging for food.

The defendants, who raised about $150,000 of the plot's estimated $9.8 million cost, may have intended to use the money for ‘humanitarian aid for the Hmong people in Laos whom the communist government is ruthlessly persecuting, the defense brief said.

The defense also filed a declaration by Bill Lair, the CIA agent who recruited Vang Pao to lead a CIA-funded Hmong guerrilla army against the communists during the Vietnam War.

Lair -- an expert in funding insurgencies -- said ‘the so-called plot described in the allegations never stood any chance of coming to fruition.’

Having spent more than 20 years working with Thai security forces, Lair said it would be impossible to transport weapons across the Thai border into Laos, as the plot and the undercover agent suggested.

Lair added that such a plot would need not only much greater funding but the cooperation of neighboring governments. He said he had studied ‘Operation Popcorn’ -- an 18-page blueprint for the overthrow of Laos drafted by defendant Dang Vang, an out-of-work consultant -- and called it ‘inept.’

Another flaw in the plan was infighting among the defendants, according to the documents. The defense brief cited a phone call intercepted by the government in which defendant Lo Cha Thao -- Vang Pao's alleged point man in the plot -- complained ‘the old people are trying to discredit’ him.

The defense team, which hopes to question the undercover ATF agent at a July 12 hearing, said the court must determine not whether the defendants posed a danger to others in the past. Instead, the question is whether they ‘would present a danger to the community or others in the future’ if they were put under house arrest with electronic monitoring and other restrictions.

Since the plot has gained media attention worldwide, ‘any possibility of danger has been eliminated,’ the brief said.”

See earlier articles in this series.

Lao Dissident Shot Dead

This recent story in the Nationmultimedia is of interest to those following the alleged plot to overthrow the government of Laos.

“On Tuesday night, a man alleged to be a Lao dissident was shot dead in his house in Ubon Ratchathani.

Judging from his faded identity card, Paitoon Malavan was an ex-soldier in the Lao Royal Army, the force loyal to the regime running the country before the fall of Vientiane in 1975, police in Ubon's Sirindhorn district said.

Paitoon, 61, was a close associate of Sisouk Sayaseng, a suspected leader of the attack on the Vang Tao checkpoint. Sisouk was shot dead by two masked men at his home in Ubon's Sirindhorn district in 2003.

Paitoon was allegedly part of the storming of the checkpoint and narrowly escaped return fire with a group of 29 who were arrested after they retreated into Thailand.

On May 11, Sukan Techakampu, a captain in the former Lao regime, and his wife Chantorn were killed in Ubon. Sukan was also a close friend of Sisouk.

Last week police arrested two suspects in connection with Sukan's murder and accused them of being involved in the assassination of Lao-American social activists Anouvong and Oulayvanh Sethathirath in Nong Khai on January 18. The couple, from North Carolina, claimed to be descendants of a Lao king.

Police said the two gunmen had been hired to kill all Lao dissidents in the Kingdom and had murdered 17 people so far.

Questions have also been raised about dissidence in Laos. Lao authorities reacted angrily after the United States Embassy in Vientiane alleged the Lao army suppressed ethnic Hmong dissidents.

The Lao Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned US Ambassador Patricia Haslach to protest strongly at a statement made by the diplomat over a crackdown on Hmong in Vang Vieng.

"The Lao government and armed forces have no policy to kill their own citizens," a statement issued yesterday by the Foreign Ministry in Vientiane said.

When America Quits: Long Term Problems

Who Wants to Buy Arms?

The affidavit filed by the undercover agent in the case of those charged with purchasing illegal arms to be used in violation of the Neutrality Act to overthrow the government of Laos, includes a statement allegedly made by Harrison Jack that others would be interested in purchasing arms.

“On April 11, 2007, I called Harrison JACK, at which time JACK asked if I could meet with him the following day to provide the updated inventory list. JACK said there was another Hmong party interested in buying weapons from me. JACK requested that I bring three copies of the inventory list, one for himself and one for each of the interested parties. JACK said he would meet with “Hmong leadership” on Friday, April 13, 2007, to forward the updated list and obtain additional information about the other interested party.”

. . . JACK told me he was going to Stockton, California the next day to meet with leadership, some of whom he would be meeting for the first time. I asked JACK to obtain information about the other potential customer at this meeting. . .”

According to the complaint filed on June 4, “Lo Cha THAO thanked the undercover agent for agreeing to handle payment in Thailand and told him that there were 120,000 Montagnards (indigenous mountain tribe people of Southeast Asia) in the Golden Triangle who also wanted equipment (weapons). MM (p. 25)

To what purpose would those arms have been put? Self-defense?—or other less worthy causes?

The Golden Triangle--Laos, Thailand and Myanmar [formerly known as Burma]--is widely recognized as a region of drug trafficking and production.

Laos has curbed production of opium, according to the United Nations’ “The World Drug Report.” The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa said, "Laos has made spectacular progress which has not received the attention it deserves.” The World Drug Report said, “Until the mid-l990’s Laos was the third largest illicit opium producer in the world, [but it] slashed opium cultivation by 72 percent in 2005 and is on the verge of becoming opium free.” However, this report deals with production, and The World Factbook notes that, “the massive drug production and trafficking industry centered in the Golden Triangle makes Laos an important narcotics transit country, and armed Wa and Chinese smugglers are active on the Lao-Burma border (2005).”

The charges are only allegations and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

When America Quits: Counting Totals

Hmong Leadership Conference Call and Rolling Thunder

The undercover agent states in his affidavit that at a lunch meeting with Harrison Jack,

“JACK advised me that approximately three weeks prior [to this lunch meeting on March 5, 2007] he organized and attended a conference call for all of the Hmong leadership in the United States. JACK said that they dialed into the call from Hmong Headquarters in Fresno, California. JACK said the meeting focused on strategic planning related to political issues in Laos and that following the conference call the group discussed the situation in Laos JACK said some of the “white folks” present during the meeting were becoming concerned because they could see that the Hmong were not content with only administrative efforts; they were looking at something operational. I understood this to mean that Neo Hom members were discussing the take over of the Laotian government in the presence of non-Neo Hom individuals.” [Emphasis added.]

Elsewhere in the affadavit the agent includes a discussion of attending the Memorial Day “Rolling Thunder” event, at which, according to the affidavit by the agent, “Lo said that all of the leadership of the Hmong community in the United States, i.e., all the clan leaders, were getting together. There was a plan to have a large ‘sit down’ demonstration at the Laotian Embassy in Washington on Memorial Day.”

Based on the work of the Hmong in support of America during the war, their rescuing American soldiers, a demonstration during Rolling Thunder would be understandable.

The Rolling Thunder just held its 20th Rally in Washington DC, in support of POW’s and those who are MIA. One explanation for the name is that one of the organizers said, “It will be the sound of rolling thunder coming across that bridge.”[Memorial Bridge in Washington.] Rolling Thunder was the name of the Strategic Bombing Campaign in Vietnam.

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

When America Quits: Laos Fallout

Aid Offer Rebuffed by Laos

On July 20, 2006 Admiral William Fallon, commander of the United States Forces in the Pacific, made his first visit to Laos, and, according to a news report by Al Pessin, offered the help of American military. However, “The Lao defense minister, Major General Duangchay Phichit says his country is not ready to take the kind of first steps other countries in the region have taken or are talking about. Those include allowing American military medical teams to visit and provide services in some communities and allowing military engineers to build schools, clinics, roads and other needed facilities.

...

Admiral William Fallon told the minister it is "not good" that U.S. and Lao military forces have had little interaction during the last 30 years and that it is time to change that.



But Minister Duangchay says Laos must first build its own capabilities before it might be able to work with the American military on such projects. He says he would welcome funds to build schools or clinics, but he says he does not want more U.S. troops on Lao soil, because of what he called lingering hostility toward the United States among some Lao people. The minister suggested further diplomacy to find the right time to move forward.
…


Laos already sends some officers for training in the United States. The admiral hopes that will increase, and that the working-level talks he hopes for will lead to other forms of cooperation.

"The leadership here is very remote. There's just no relationship between our countries, to speak of. We have an ambassador and a small staff here. She works at it. But the folks here are pretty reclusive, have not been very interested in doing anything with the U.S. And, so, we've had 30-some years since they took power here with virtually nothing going on. So, I made a real strong push to crack that ice, to take us forward in other areas."


Admiral Fallon also thanked the Lao government for its cooperation in the search for the remains of American troops missing from the Vietnam War era. There are four U.S. teams working at sites in Laos. The admiral visited one of them, Wednesday. Minister Duangchay says the government wants to continue that effort, which is a profit-making enterprise for Laos, as well as for Cambodia and Vietnam. But he says Laos does not even have the resources to exchange military attaches with some of its neighbors and, so, is not ready to expand military dealings with the United States.” [Emphasis Added]

An article in Asia Times Online by Richard S. Ehrlich, explains:

“The Hmong remain the biggest complication in improving bilateral ties. Laos, Thailand and the US are now investigating the new group's claims of political persecution, but so far have not reached agreement over who should be held responsible for the crisis. Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) last week prepared to send the mostly Hmong group back to Laos, after caretaker Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the ISOC to quickly resolve the problem. Thailand has long provided sanctuary to Hmong refugees as a favor to its US military ally.

The communist government in Laos, however, said it suspects some in the group did not originate in Laos, or might even be faking their CIA-linked role to win passage to America. The fresh batch of 4,500 began arriving last year in Thailand's Phetchabun province, about 300 kilometers north of Bangkok, after it was announced the US would be resettling the 15,000 that had long languished in Thailand.

"They came to Phetchabun only in the hope of resettlement to the US," Laos ambassador to Thailand, Hiem Phommachanh, said on July 13 at an economic forum in Bangkok. "We have had the Hmong problem for a long time ... and now in Phetchabun, and it is because of Vang Pao."

When America Quits: The Hmong Story Continued

This article was written by Four Inch Heels.

Community Fundraising

In an earlier post I mentioned some of the reports that Vang Pao had engaged in fund-raising activities from Hmong community members over the years, with promises based on returning to Laos, victorious. The complaint filed June 4 in the case alleging a plot that involved purchasing illegal fire-arms and violating the Neutrality Act to overthrow the government of Laos, includes an allegation, that Thao, on of the defendants, “said that the budget which he described as ‘standing by’ consisted of contributions from the community elders through clan leadership.”

The agent said Harrison Jack told him “that ‘they’ (Neo Hom) lost a shipment a couple of years ago that cost them eight hundred thousand dollars.”

If this is correct, then the plot was going on for a long time before Operation Tarnished Eagle began.

Air America and CIA: Financing? Advice? “Ready to Roll”?

The affadivit filed by the undercover agent on June 3, 2007 included statements that are especially interesting in light of General Vang Pao’s involvement in the so-called secret war in Laos.

“On April 12, 2007, I met with Harrison JACK at Hangar 17, a restaurant, …JACK told me his Hmong contacts had raised a lot of money through “Air America” but had not taken any money from the CIA. JACK said the CIA would only meet with Lo Cha THAO and two others and would not meet with JACK.” [51]

The agent said in the affidavit:

“ THAO said that his group had been consulting with a United States congressman and had received advice concerning “under table strategies” from military personnel like Harrison JACK and an unnamed “CIA guy.”

The agent’s affidavit includes a record of a phone call on May 4, 2007, in which, “Jack also told me [the agent]that, according to LoCha THAO, the Agency (which [he’ understood to be the CIA) was standing by and ready to roll. I understood his statement to mean that the CIA was preparing to assist the Hmong insurgency once the takeover of Laos had begun.”

By the way, the CIA The World Factbook says of the military in Laos: “Laos is one of the world's least developed countries; the Lao People's Armed Forces are small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced; there is little political will to allocate sparse funding to the military, and the armed forces' gradual degradation is likely to continue. . ."

Human and Drug Trafficking

The Affidavit of Randall Paranick, filed June 5, in the complaint against Nhia Kao Vang said that

". . .officers located the following documents of evidentiary value at the residence near his home computer in the master bedroom:

Documents that related to purchasing illegal weapons
Documents that related to human and drug trafficking in financial support of their “project”
“Minutes” of the meeting. “$100,000” was written in one of the “minutes”
Documents that stated he was the Administrator of the Lao Family Association” [Emphasis Added]

Cash and [Maybe] Gold Bars

In documents made public on June 14, agents property seized at the home of Chong Vang, son of Vang Pao. Court records include Chong Vang among those attending a Feb.7 meeting with an undercover agent who was showing weapons to a group charged with planning to overthrow the government of Laos.

"A document titled "Seized Property Log" lists 18 items taken, including "4 bars of suspected gold from light brown leather suitcase from master bedroom" and "4 bars of suspected gold from gray locker in master bedroom."

Federal prosecutors said the bars have not been tested to see whether they are gold.

It also lists various amounts of money seized from parts of the house, including $59,050 from a black leather briefcase in the master bedroom and $64,020 found in a brown leather suitcase in the same room.

Bee Yang, a Hmong cultural expert, could not speak to the specifics of this case, but said that in general, it is not an uncommon practice for some Hmong to keep large sums of money and gold at their homes.

"That's the only way some Hmong know how to save money," he said.

"They've never lived in a society that had banks. They are more comfortable knowing that their money is in their hands than at the banks."

Bee Yang also said some Hmong elders give their money to people they trust to hold on to, and in Hmong culture, silver and gold bars are sometimes used to rub and heal people who are sick."

Paula Yang agreed that the large sum of money taken from Chong Vang's home isn't unusual.”

Ms. Yang has an MSW, is at University of California Fresno and has been called as an expert witness in cases regarding Hmong customs, e.g., a case in which a family sued a cemetery for emotional distress.

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

When America Quits: What is Yellow Rain? Why Does it Matter?

This Article was written by Four Inch Heels.

The affidavit filed by the undercover agent in support of the criminal complaint in the alleged plot to stage an armed coup against the current Communist government in Laos, mentions the use of “yellow rain” against the Hmong people by the government of Laos.

"...[Harrison] JACK told me the Laotian government was engaging in genocide against the Hmong people living in Laos, and that the Hmong community was very sensitive about protecting their people. . .”

"[Harrison] JACK telephoned me on the afternoon of March 7, 2007. JACK called the cellular telephone I use for undercover operations, and I recorded this call. JACK told me he had spent the day with the Hmong leadership at the CHP [California Highway Patrol] Academy and that there had been some developments. JACK told me he had been in touch with Amnesty International and that they were interested in helping end the spraying. ...”

The affidavit was filed in conjunction with Complaint Charge. filed, June 4, United States District Court, Eastern District of California.

The charges are only allegations and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

”Ring Around the Rosie”

An incident reported by Anthony LoBaido illustrates the sad history of the Hmong with so-called Yellow Rain. While [Karen] LaSalle [a missionary] speaks with the village's women, the Hmong children gather and form a circle. Soon they are moving about in clockwise fashion and singing a familiar song in the French language.

"Ring around the rosie 
/ Pocket full of posies /
Ashes, ashes /
We all fall down."

While most Westerners might think of this ditty as a simple children's rhyme, it is anything but that to the Hmong.

"I learned earlier this year that another French missionary had taught the Hmong children this song. It is a very old song which dates back to the Black Plague in Europe. Nostrodamus helped to cure the plague by giving the sick rose petals to eat," said LaSalle.

"Everyone knows that the government of Laos used biochemical weapons sent by the Russians for use against the Hmong. And the missionaries have taught the Hmong children this rhyme as a part of an oral tradition aimed at remembering the biochemical genocide enacted against them," she said.”

That article was written in l999. Yet the in the affadavit, the defendants are reported to have expressed concern about Yellow Rain being used now.

The Department of State, Fact Sheet issued on October 1, 2005, posted a case study on Yellow Rain:

"Overview

Reports in the 1970s of Yellow Rain, alleged chemical/toxin weapons attacks in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, sparked the first large-scale investigation conducted by the United States into allegations of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) use. While the United States officially found that toxin weapons had been used in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, questions regarding use, agent composition and responsibility still remain. The Yellow Rain case study focuses attention on some of the difficulties that can arise during an investigation, including problems in obtaining good data, the challenges in confirming use and reaching an attribution determination in the absence of such data, and the consequences that flow from these difficulties.

Background

Starting in 1976 in Laos, 1978 in Cambodia (Kampuchea) and 1979 in Afghanistan, there were reports of chemical or toxin weapons use against the Hmong, Khmer and Afghans. The alleged attacks were often described as a helicopter or plane flying over a village and releasing a colored cloud that would fall in a manner that looked, felt and sounded like rain. The most commonly reported color was yellow. Thus the reported attacks in the three nations became known as ‘Yellow Rain’.

The similarities in the descriptions of attacks and subsequent symptoms in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan raised suspicions that the same agent was being used. All three locations were linked in some manner to the Soviet Union. In Afghanistan, the Soviets were directly involved in the war, and in Laos and Cambodia, they supported Pathet Lao and Communist Vietnamese forces.

Beginning in 1979, investigations by multiple countries and the United Nations were conducted into the allegations of chemical/toxin weapons use in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. In 1981, the United States Secretary of State announced that physical evidence had been found, proving that mycotoxins (poisonous substances produced by fungi) supplied by the Soviet Union were being used as a weapon against civilians and insurgents in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.

The United States determination that toxin weapons were being used was based on an investigation by U.S. government employees, who, with the assistance of volunteers and refugees from the affected countries, collected biomedical and environmental samples for laboratory analysis, acquired medical data on alleged victims, administered questionnaires regarding alleged attacks, and searched for other information that could confirm or refute aspects of the refugee reports. The United States continued its investigation through the mid-1980’s, collecting and analyzing pertinent information on the alleged attacks.

Not everyone concurred with the finding that Yellow Rain was CBW attacks involving mycotoxins. Some nations were unsuccessful in finding mycotoxins in their sample analysis, the United Nations found the evidence to be inconclusive, and an alternative hypothesis emerged, suggesting that the ‘yellow rain’ reported by the Hmong, Khmer and Afghans was actually just a naturally occurring phenomenon of a swarm of Asian honeybees defecating in flight.

Discussion of Obligations

Several international legal agreements and obligations under customary international law are applicable to the Yellow Rain case study.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol outlaws the use in war of any poison, and is deemed to cover any use of chemical, biological or toxin weapons. Under the terms of the Protocol, however, the parties agreed to be bound "as between themselves," and thus the Protocol applies only where belligerents to a conflict are also parties to the Protocol. While the Soviet Union was a party to the Protocol at the time, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Laos were not, and therefore the Protocol would not apply to the conflicts in those countries. However, based on developments since 1925, the U.S. took the view (shared by a large majority of states) that by the time of the Yellow Rain allegations, the prohibition on first use of chemical, biological and toxin weapons embodied in the Protocol had been recognized as part of customary international law and hence binding on all states regardless of adherence to the Protocol. Thus, even if the Protocol did not apply, first use of chemical or toxin weapons in any way by any state would constitute a violation of customary international law.

The 1972 Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BWC) specifically forbids the stockpiling, acquisition, development or transfer of biological or toxin agents for hostile purposes. The Soviet Union was a party to the BWC at the time of the Yellow Rain allegations. The Chemical Weapons Convention was not concluded until 1993.

Under this legal structure, if the agent in question were a chemical, it would fall under the prohibition in customary international law on first use of chemical weapons. On the other hand, if the agent were biological or a toxin, it would be subject to both the customary international law prohibition on first use of such weapons and the BWC prohibitions. Additionally, any use of a chemical, biological or toxin weapon against civilians resulting in larige scale morbidity and mortality is a human rights violation and a war crime.. . ."

For those interested in more reading on “Yellow Rain”— See this article by Robert W. Wannemacher, Jr. Ph.D. and Stanley L. Weiner, MD on Trichothecene Mycotxins, which includes a significant bibliography.

Tarnished Eagle and Operation Popcorn

This Article was written by Four Inch Heels.



“OperationTarnished Eagle” is the code name for the investigation into the alleged plot to overthrow the government of Laos. To carry out the overthrow would be a violation of the Neutrality Act and involve acquiring many illegal armaments, including some to take out aircraft and tanks. Agents made a series of arrests.

The first arrests were made pursuant to federal arrest warrants on June 4: Harrison Jack, Vang Pao, Lo Cha Thao, Youa True Vang, Hue Vang, Chong Vang Thao, Seng Vue, , Chu Lo, and Lo Thao. Subsequently Nhia Kao Vang was arrested and charged, and an affidavit filed also included Salen Tong Va Lor, Jerry Smith Vang, Noa Pao Vang, Gary George and John Does I through V. Vang Pao’s wife and son are also under investigation.

Vang Pao, commonly known as General Vang Pao, was a General in the Royal Lao Army in the 1960’s and 1970’s who emigrated to the United States in 1975. Harrison Jack is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and is a retired officer. Agents also executed search warrants at 14 locations simultaneously with the arrests.

Writing in the J[ournal] S[entennial] Online, Daniel Bice wrote of former Wisconsin State Senator Gary George:

[Alex] Flynn [George’s lawyer] said it was "impossible" that George could have committed any of these crimes. "Gary George is one of the most supervised people on the planet," he said.

George was sentenced in 2004 to four years in the federal pen for his role in a kickback scheme involving the Police Athletic League. He will serve only about three years because officials trimmed his sentence after he completed a substance-abuse treatment program last year.

Flynn told the AP’s Don Thompson and Garance Burke, “Gary George denies any allegations as defamatory and has as much interest in seeing the government of Laos overthrown as he does in the Klingons taking over the Starship Enterprise.”

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Twiss and Ellen V. Endrizzi, who are prosecuting the case, the criminal complaint alleges that the defendants conspired to acquire hundreds of AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, AT-4 anti-tank missiles, LAW rockets, claymore mines, C-4 explosive, and smoke grenades, which they intended to use to engage in the violent overthrow of the government of Laos.

A document filed in federal court listed David “Dang” Vang as the author of the l8-page plan.

"Operation Popcorn" outlined exactly how Laos could be transformed into an American-style democracy with free elections, freedom of speech, a new constitution and judiciary, and a congress including the Hmong and other ethnic minorities.

The mercenaries, armed with AK-47s, grenade launchers, machine guns and anti-tank weapons, would oust the current regime -- assassinating those who resisted -- and take over all radio and TV stations, airports, highways and transportation systems.

Government-controlled hospitals, businesses, bank accounts and food, fuel and water supplies would be seized.

. . .

The blueprint offers a virtual primer on the complex international politics that provoked the coup plot:

• It says that factions inside Laos include "pro-Vietnam, pro-China and Pro-Western Free World. ... Lao troops have a negative attitude toward Vietnamese troops (in Laos)" estimated at 16,000 strong.

• It notes internal conflicts between regional and ethnic groups, the old guard and the new generation of student and government leaders, government officials and the business community.

• It says the opposition party in Laos -- the Lao People's Movement for Democracy -- includes "more than 1,284 combat-ready troops and more than 10,000 unarmed cadres, ready to fight to overthrow the Lao government." And "75 to 80 percent (of Laos' 6.5 million people) ready to rise up ... waiting for support from the exile Lao leaders and the international community."

• The coup leaders would appoint a new government, including a president, congress and judiciary, and hold free elections within two years.”

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Alleged Plot to Overthrow Communist Government of Laos: Moral Ambiguity?

This Article was written by Four Inch Heels.



The photograph above [PHILIP BLENKINSOP/AGENCE VU] appears all over the web on sites about plight of the Hmong in Laos but without attribution. We provide the photo as a link to its original context in the Time Photo Essay, along with its caption: "Praying for Salvation: With government troops closing in, the ragged band of Hmong rebels anxiously await the coming onslaught. Weeping and kneeling on the ground, hundreds of Hmong rebels beseech the journalists who have arrived in their camp: "Please help us, the Communists are coming"

Moral Ambiguity?

When the alleged plot to overthrow the Communist government of Laos broke, I read the news articles. They motivated me to read a number of articles on the present condition of the Hmong in Laos, the Hmong as refugees in Thailand, and the role of the Hmong as American allies in the so-called “Secret War” in Laos, interdicting supplies to the PAVN coming down from the North—and rescuing American pilots who were shot down. [As noted by the U.S. Department of State “Although Laos was to be neutral, a growing American and North Vietnamese military presence in the country increasingly drew Laos into the second Indochina war (1954-75). For nearly a decade, Laos was subjected to extremely heavy bombing as the U.S. sought to destroy the portion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that passed through eastern Laos.”]

I obtained the text of charges and affidavits filed in court. In this series, I will refer mostly to the primary sources of court documents, but will also include references to news articles, websites and YouTube. In short, if any of these sources is to be believed, the condition of the Hmong who remain in Laos is wretched.

Among those arrested is 77 year-old General Vang Pao. [The General was hospitalized Thursday night, after having chest pains; when released from the hospital he is to be returned to jail.] The reports are that he is much beloved by many, for example, “"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."

Less positive views of the General, however, are easily found. For example, only two years ago, The Minnesota attorney general's office forced the Vang Pao Foundation to close and pay restitution after violating state nonprofit laws.

Writing in the Pioneer Press, Rick Linsk [February 28, 2005] describes the following:
"Some members of the Twin Cities Hmong community say their elders are being exploited by questionable fund-raising tactics, including the selling of political and military positions in a future Laos recaptured from communist rule.

The immigrants, some of them in poverty, have given hundreds or thousands of dollars to be named generals, mayors or other titles, according to the family members and others familiar with the practice.

Some of the letters bear the signature of General Vang Pao, the revered former military leader of Hmong forces in Laos during the Vietnam War. The documents take various forms, with some appealing for funds to help kinsmen who are still fighting in the jungles of Laos.

Aggressive fund raising and a lack of accountability have long been sore points among Hmong here. But as the campaigns have intensified in recent years, and come to include a controversial funeral home venture and lofty economic initiatives, more and more people have wondered where the donations end up.



The concerns come amid at least three investigations that have unsettled the Hmong here, including FBI investigations of influence peddling in St. Paul City Hall and a separate look by Minnesota's attorney general at a prominent Hmong fund-raising organization.



A key figure in both investigations is Cha Vang, a local real estate developer who is the son of Gen. Vang Pao. Cha Vang runs the Vang Pao Foundation, the organization under scrutiny by the attorney general, and he is a major adviser to his father.

. . .

Several documents in circulation bear the letterhead of the United Lao National Liberation Front, also known as the Neo Hom, which was founded in the United States by exiled Laotian military leaders.



A copy of one certificate, provided to the Pioneer Press, is written in the Lao language script and promises that the bearer whose name is obscured will be the governor of a particular province in Laos. It is dated Jan. 15, 2003, and appears to be signed by Vang Pao, referred to as "prince liberator." Other letters include a "National Support Volunteer Form" that asks for monthly payments of $100 or another amount of the donor's choosing.

One Twin Cities man told the Pioneer Press that his father obtained a title for him that purportedly would ensure a ranking position in a new Lao government. Another told the newspaper that his father-in-law bought one for himself, but was dropped after he was no longer able to make monthly payments.


...

This is not the first time that fund-raising tactics have been questioned. In 1989, a freelance journalist reported in the weekly Twin Cities Reader and the Washington Post that a substantial number of Hmong families had paid $100 down and $10 a month to the Neo Hom. Some paid $500 for certificates that would entitle them to return to a future Laos, and others paid hundreds or thousands to be mayors, governors, police chiefs, colonels and generals."

Vang Pao has been accused of being a trafficker in heroin. An article in Asia Times Online by Richard S. Ehrlich explains

“Vang Pao, a gung-ho military collaborator for French colonialists, was selected by the CIA in 1961 to lead thousands of Hmong mercenaries to fight against Vietnamese and Lao communists who were competing for power in the country. The CIA's Hmong, which included child soldiers, were allegedly paid pennies a day.

Vang Pao was named as "a despotic warlord" in Alfred McCoy's authoritative book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, for smuggling opium on the CIA's Air America flights and operating a heroin factory in Long Tieng, Laos in the 1960s and 1970s - while commanding the CIA's Hmong during a widened US-Vietnam war.

Former US officials confirm the former general's controversial history.

"Vang Pao [would] ship his dope out, which was made into heroin, which was going to our [American] troops," CIA officer Victor Marchetti told PBS's Frontline TV news show in 1988.

"Vang Pao had a heavy hand in the production of heroin in that area," former chief counsel for the US House Select Committee on Narcotics, Joe Nellis, told the same show.”

In mid-December, 2006, approximately four-hundered Hmong surrendered to the Laotian Communist government. It was one in a series of surrenders.

As reported by the Associated Press, “The surrendering group’s chieftain, Moua Tua Ter, accompanied the 405 people — mostly children — to Ban Ha village in Phoukout District before returning to the jungle with a few of his guerrillas, according to the Fact Finding Commission, an organization that lobbies in the United States for recognition of the Hmong’s wartime service...”

And on June 11, 2007 the U.S. Department of State issued a statement about additional deporation of about 160 Hmong “who had fled from Laos in recent months. All of the individuals had been detained in prisons in Thailand for illegally entering the country... Unfortunately, continued allegations of human rights violations in Laos combined with the Lao government's refusal so far to permit monitoring of returnees cause concern about the well-being of those who were deported."

Philip Smith, who lobbied for Vang Pao, said that Vang Pao's influence dropped sharply after he met with Vietnamese government officials in 2003.

“Vang Pao and the Vietnamese secretly met in Amsterdam that November, Smith said. The Vietnamese wanted Vang Pao's support for normalized American trade relations with Laos, Vietnam's ally, he said. In exchange, according to the Star Tribune, Vang Pao wanted the Vietnamese to pressure Laos to stop persecuting Hmong still hiding in Laos -- a concern that never left him over the years.

Vang Pao publicly announced his support for normalized trade while he was visiting Minnesota.

Hmong war veterans felt betrayed, and Vang Pao's credibility with some of his most loyal supporters was seriously damaged.

"In the view of most of the veterans, this was a deal with the devil," Smith said.
"It was political suicide for him among his own people and among his supporters in the Congress. I think he was expecting his people to follow him, no matter what he did or said, because they had always done that." - For more detail see also Paul McEnroe and Tony Kennedy’s news story in the Star Tribune

The charges are only allegations and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Some readers/viewers might classify the sites below as having propagandistic characteristics, but I believe they are, nonetheless, useful in understanding the background of this situation.

Time Photo Essay: Welcome to the Jungle April 2003


The three articles by Anthony C. LoBaido published in l999

Apocalypse Now
The Great Betrayal: Laos’ Hmong tribe faces death in forced repatriation


‘Killing fields’ mines and martyrs


Fear and Loathing in Vietnam


Kate McGowan
Laos’ Forgotten Hmong

Hmong Surrender
CBS News Action 12
December 12, 2006 [added to YouTube]

Paul Cha, Video, Part II, The Hmong Journey

USA and the Hmong Tragedy by Patrick Chase and Ryan Schmidt

and the BBC series by Sommer Films
“Hunted Like Animals”