How feds infiltrated alleged Laos plot

It was mid-November, and the communist government in Laos was escalating military attacks on ethnic Hmong hiding in the jungles of the northern part of the country.

Detailed military plans and a Lao Defense Ministry decree fell into the hands of the Laotian Hmong outlining a strategy "to exterminate the Hmong-in-hiding completely."

And, as word of the renewed attacks seeped back to this country, Harrison Jack picked up the phone.

Jack, a Woodland resident and Vietnam War veteran, made a call to a defense contractor in Arizona that allegedly was part of a plan by a group of California men to overthrow the government of Laos.

These allegations are contained in hundreds of pages of intelligence reports and court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, where Jack and 10 other men have been indicted on charges of conspiring to violate the Neutrality Act with their alleged coup attempt.

All 11 are in custody and have pleaded not guilty.

Federal authorities say it probably is no coincidence Jack made his call just after word came to the Hmong community in America that the communists supposedly were escalating their attacks, and that Jack wanted to buy 500 AK-47 assault rifles.

The 60-year-old Jack, a graduate of West Point and the Army's Airborne and Ranger schools, served two tours in Vietnam. He has a lengthy history of assisting the Hmong expatriates in the United States, including Gen. Vang Pao, a co-defendant who had long talked of some day returning to a democratic Laos.

But the call from Jack was so disconcerting to the defense contractor he telephoned that he reported it to the Phoenix office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Documents spell out

government operation

Court documents since unsealed in the case lay out in graphic detail how federal agents began an undercover sting operation against the men:

The information about Jack's call rattled around in the ATF bureaucracy, and then was assigned as an investigation to the agency's Sacramento office.

In January, an ATF agent, acting undercover and with an alias, made a recorded phone call to Jack.

"I have the answer to your problem," was the agent's opening line.

"What problem?" Jack asked.

"The problem that you spoke to (the defense contractor) about."

Thus began the agent's four-month odyssey as an arms dealer and potential supplier of weapons and mercenaries to Vang Pao and his inner circle, the court papers allege.

During a series of phone calls and meetings from January through May -- all recorded and some videotaped -- the agent discussed with Jack and Hmong leaders the details of sending arms and mercenaries to Laos and Thailand.

The last meeting was a two-hour session in Sacramento on the evening of May 23.

His alliance with the agent was an uneasy one for Jack. The thought that he and the Hmong may have stumbled into a sting nagged at him. He even wondered aloud to the agent about the possibility.

But Jack also asked for a 5 percent cut of the $9.8 million weapons sale, and the agent finally agreed, although with a caveat.

"Let me one-up you," the agent told Jack. "I will go 5 percent, but I want to set up a deal with them so I can go to Laos and conduct military training for their special operations forces at a premium price."

The agent is a seven-year veteran of ATF. Prior to joining the agency, he spent 10 years as a member of the SEALs, the Navy's elite special operations unit.

Near the end of the sting the agent began pushing Jack and Lo Cha Thao, point man for Vang Pao in the negotiations, to give him a list of weapons they wanted in the first shipment and a delivery date.

But Thao would not be hurried, saying he was waiting for intelligence forthcoming from Laos before committing to an order and a date for delivery.

During that first phone call, the agent and Jack agreed to get together and, on Jan. 25, met for the first time and talked about Vang Pao's alleged wish to acquire AK-47 assault rifles.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Denny Walsh can be reached at (916) 321-1189 or dwalsh@sacbee.com.