Catch us live on BlogTalkRadio every



Tuesday & Thursday at 6pm P.S.T.




Monday, January 17, 2011

California - U.S. combat vet feels used in Laos coup sting

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Stephen Magagnini
Source: sacbee.com
Harrison Jack, among those charged with plotting the overthrow of Laos, says the events that led to federal accusations began with concern that Hmong were trapped and under attack in Thailand and the jungles of Laos. A federal agent, he says, channeled humanitarian concerns into a coup plan.

Lt. Col. Harrison Jack won two Bronze Stars leading teams of U.S. Army Rangers into fierce combat in Vietnam. Last week he erupted in tears after surviving the toughest battle of his life.
The U.S. government, whose uniform Jack wore proudly for 30 years, had branded him a terrorist, charging him and 11 other defendants with plotting the violent overthrow of communist Laos. If convicted, the West Point graduate from Woodland would have spent the rest of his life in prison.
In an exclusive interview at the office of his lawyer, Federal Public Defender Dan Broderick, Jack, 64, explained how what began as an effort to liberate Hmong trapped in communist Laos became an international terrorism case.
The charges that had hung over Jack for 1,315 days were dropped against all defendants last week "in the interests of justice," said Benjamin Wagner, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California.
A dismissal order signed by U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ended the investigation known as "Tarnished Eagle," an undercover operation led by Steve Decker, an ATF agent who told Jack and the other defendants that he was an arms merchant.
"I appreciate that the justice system did render justice," Jack said.
He and several Hmong immigrants living in California had been exploring ways to liberate about 5,000 Hmong hiding from communists in the Lao jungle – the remnants of the CIA-funded guerrilla army that battled the Lao and Vietnamese communists more than 35 years ago. Many had been led by the late Gen. Vang Pao, who was accused of being the leader of the Tarnished Eagle plot until charges were dropped against him in 2009.
Amnesty International has documented families in the jungle living off roots and bugs, without any schooling or medical care, and being shot at by the Laotian military.
Jack, who said that he "always championed the underdog," saw similarities between Hmong hill tribes and American Indians.
"My hero was Crazy Horse," he said. "His boys kicked Custer's butt. He always led his men into battle and had a reputation for being immune to bullets. Vang Pao reminded me of him."
The son of a Marine demolition specialist and a Spanish teacher, Jack said he's known as a problem solver both in combat and back home.
He earned master's degrees in public administration and personnel management and a doctorate in hypnotherapy. He was serving as Yolo County's ombudsman, handling employee complaints, the day he was arrested.
Helping young Hmong
In 1984 Jack joined the California National Guard. While working with at-risk youths, he said, he met Lo Cha Thao, who was running an after-school cadet program for 500 Hmong youths.
A high suicide rate among Hmong American youths and the plight of the Hmong back in Thailand and the jungles of Laos inspired Jack to create a nonprofit group called HERO, the Hmong Emergency Relief Organization.
The nonprofit considered selling bottled water under a Hmong brand name to raise money, and talked to Arizona entrepreneur Namon Hawthorne, who was peddling "kinesis water," which he claimed had special life-giving properties.
Through the nonprofit, Jack said, he also met Vang Pao, who told him he wanted to "bury the hatchet" with Laos to save the remaining Hmong in the jungles.
But in 2006, after word began to spread about a purported Laotian "genocide order" against the Hmong in the jungle, Jack and several Hmong leaders, including Lo Cha Thao, began exploring ways to get weapons to those in the jungle.
One option would have been to buy guns from soldiers in Laos, which wouldn't violate U.S. laws against transporting weapons, said Broderick.
But Jack asked Hawthorne, the entrepreneur, if he knew anyone who could get him some AK-47s.
In January 2007 Jack got a call from a man named "Steve," who told him he was an arms dealer who'd heard about the "problem in East Asia."
What Jack didn't know is that Hawthorne had contacted federal authorities and that Steve, the arms dealer, was actually undercover agent Steve Decker of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Thus began a series of conversations and meetings among the agent, Jack and the Hmong defendants who assumed Decker had ties to the CIA.
The first meeting was at Amarin Restaurant in Sacramento. Vang Pao was there. So were Jack and Thao and a handful of others.
Decker told the men he was a Navy SEAL.
He "looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger, well-built, tall," Thao said.
He also showed them a van full of weapons.
"We thought he was the next Bill Lair," the CIA agent who had recruited Vang Pao and the Hmong to fight the communists, Thao told The Bee last week.
Thao, a 38-year-old pilot with no military experience, was charged as the ringleader in the plot. He said the Hmong had no interest in the weapons but that Decker pressed them to come up with a plan to take over Laos.
They didn't have one.
So David "Dang" Vang, a struggling script writer in Fresno who was behind on his mortgage, was promised (but never paid) $5,000 to draft "Operation Popcorn (Political Opposition Party's Coup Operation to Rescue the Nation)." Military expert Timothy Naccarato told The Bee that Operation Popcorn sounded like the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
Decker held another meeting with Thao and four other Hmong at a local bar.
"He introduced us to Blue Moon beer," Thao said. "We drank like $200 worth of beer. He joked, 'You guys gonna rule. Lo Cha's going to be the prime minister.' He said he would provide us with mercenaries."
Thao said he remembers waving around a Stinger missile that Decker had in his hotel room. But when Decker asked them to come up with $1 million, the Hmong didn't think the real CIA needed to ask for money.
Jack said he later told Decker the Hmong decided they didn't want to use force.
Decker kept calling.
A traumatic arrest
Two months before his June 7, 2007, arrest, Jack said he had a violent post-traumatic stress disorder episode triggered by all the talk of genocide orders and covert operations.
"I woke up with my wife in a headlock and told her I was going to dispatch her," said Jack. "I went into combat mode and looked at the Hmong as allies we'd left on the battlefield."
On the morning of the arrest, Jack said, he and his wife woke up to see six agents, including Decker, "with Glocks pointed at my head."
"My wife flipped out," Jack said. "Steve kept asking, 'Where's the money, Harrison?'"
"We'd been stung," Jack said he realized.
"That they would take former allies and veterans and use them for their own gain was unconscionable," Jack said, "especially after they were told the genocide order was the primary motivation for contact with Steve."
Wagner, the U.S. attorney, said, "This case started because somebody was shopping for arms."
The government decided to drop all charges, he said, following "a lengthy reassessment of the case."
In court, a Justice Department attorney faced a tongue-lashing from Damrell three months ago, for what he called vague and contradictory aspects of the government's accusations. Then, two months ago, Damrell threw out much of the case, saying it was not supported.
Wagner said there were two major considerations to the decision to drop charges. One was Damrell's dismissal of a major portion of the case, including much of the conspiracy charge.
In addition, "At the time the arrests were made, we did not have full translation of 100 percent of the data we had," he said.
Jack, who spent 39 days in jail after his arrest, broke down as he thought of the Hmong in hiding.
He accepts some responsibility for what transpired. "It was a hell of an experience that I wouldn't want to go through again," he said.
"There is a Lakota Sioux expression, 'Mitakue oyasin – we are all connected,' " Jack said. "Government officials have to listen to their hearts, not their political agendas."
Then the old warrior came out.
"When people are backed into a corner like the Hmong are, they'll do desperate things," Jack said, steeling his shoulders. " Anybody whose family is threatened anywhere on this planet has a right to defend themselves."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/16/3327469/us-combat-vet-feels-used-in-laos.html#ixzz1BDXTerOw