SteveGrenard
5th June 2007, 06:19 PM
We have a Federal Neutrality Act? I wonder if prosecutors start looking whether they discover anyone else who has violated it?
WASHINGTON - Former Gen. Vang Pao and other Hmong hardliners earned a Capitol Hill reputation for both power and persistence.
They've befriended lawmakers - particularly in California, where nearly half of the approximately 103,000 foreign-born Hmong live in the United States, according to the 2000 Census - bottled up trade bills and dominated congressional hearings. Doggedly anti-communist, Vang Pao in particular has been a force to reckon with.
Now he's in jail, a sharp reversal of fortune for a man long cultivated by CIA operatives and members of Congress.
"The contributions that General Vang Pao has made to the Hmong and Laotian people of California have been invaluable," Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., declared in a House of Representatives statement on May 8, 1996. "He has made a lasting impression on those individuals with whom he has been associated. I am pleased to have him as a constituent."
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17328062.htm
Former state Sen. Gary George was not among 10 people arrested Monday in California in raids by federal agents. But the lead agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court affidavit that "probable cause exists to believe" that George was part of a conspiracy to stage a coup in Laos.
George is suspected of conspiring to violate the federal Neutrality Act and conspiring to kill or injure people in a foreign country, among other accusations, according to the undercover agent, whose name was redacted in the affidavit obtained by The Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/05/BAGPEQ97K24.DTL
The defendants also attempted to recruit a mercenary force that included former members of the Army special forces or Navy SEALs.
http://www.my58.com/news/13440983/detail.html
Sounds like they were taking a page out of the Iraq book.....
WASHINGTON - Former Gen. Vang Pao and other Hmong hardliners earned a Capitol Hill reputation for both power and persistence.
They've befriended lawmakers - particularly in California, where nearly half of the approximately 103,000 foreign-born Hmong live in the United States, according to the 2000 Census - bottled up trade bills and dominated congressional hearings. Doggedly anti-communist, Vang Pao in particular has been a force to reckon with.
Now he's in jail, a sharp reversal of fortune for a man long cultivated by CIA operatives and members of Congress.
"The contributions that General Vang Pao has made to the Hmong and Laotian people of California have been invaluable," Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., declared in a House of Representatives statement on May 8, 1996. "He has made a lasting impression on those individuals with whom he has been associated. I am pleased to have him as a constituent."
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17328062.htm
Former state Sen. Gary George was not among 10 people arrested Monday in California in raids by federal agents. But the lead agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court affidavit that "probable cause exists to believe" that George was part of a conspiracy to stage a coup in Laos.
George is suspected of conspiring to violate the federal Neutrality Act and conspiring to kill or injure people in a foreign country, among other accusations, according to the undercover agent, whose name was redacted in the affidavit obtained by The Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/05/BAGPEQ97K24.DTL
The defendants also attempted to recruit a mercenary force that included former members of the Army special forces or Navy SEALs.
http://www.my58.com/news/13440983/detail.html
Sounds like they were taking a page out of the Iraq book.....