Two in U.S. charged with plotting Laos coup

updated 7:02 p.m. ET June 4, 2007

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."

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