US arrests 10 it says plotted to oust Laos' govt

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US arrests 10 it says plotted to oust Laos' govt
05 Jun 2007 01:07:25 GMT

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged
10 people, including an ex-Laotian general, on Monday with seeking
to topple the government of Laos in what they described as a
dramatic cloak-and-dagger plot thwarted by an undercover agent
posing as an arms dealer.

"These defendants had developed an audacious plan to overthrow
the government of Laos, and were seeking to arm themselves with
automatic rifles, rockets and surface-to-air missiles," Assistant
U.S. Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.

Most prominent among those charged is Vang Pao, 77, a southern
California resident and ethnic Hmong. A general in the Royal Lao
Army before the Communists came to power in 1975, he led a
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-trained mercenary army during
the war in Indochina.

Pao remains influential among the more than 100,000 Hmong in
the United States; in April a Wisconsin school district voted
to rename a school after him.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04205591.htm

[Kagemusha]

1. Since when is plotting to oust a foreign government a US crime?

Didn't Berezovky (sp) proclaim his public intent to do just that to Russia from his location in the United Kingdom?

I'm curious.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. If that's a crime there's a whole lot of Cubans who are due for a

visit by the cops.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Haiti. Iran. Iraq.

And the list goes on and on and on.

The US government's business is ousting foreign governments.

[Kagemusha]

5. ...And which Americans were convicted of that again?

Since that's the side I'm citing here.

[Greeby]

3. Yeah, arrest them!

Overthrowing governments is our job! :sarcasm:

[saigon68]

6. Oops Looks like Vang Pao is in trouble

Since SEA now supplies lots of slave labor for US Corporations.

Its in the NEOCON interest to keep corrupt thug regimes in power.

I hear Nike makes most of its shoes in Viet-Nam, employing children at 15 cents an hour to do the assembly work.

[David__77]

7. I'm not sure we import much from Laos.

I think the problem is that this threatened to become an international incident. The coup plotters were probably doomed from the start; the US didn't want them to cause a problem. Even if they succeeded, Vietnam would never allow it.

[oldlady]

8. what's missing from this story

can be found here: www.rebeccasommer.org

Anyone else wondering why Viet Nam spoke up and wouldn't allow the video evidence of Hmong genocide in Laos be shown to the Indigenous People's Committee last week, and then this? hmmmm...anytime I see a retired CIA officer is in cahoots with a 77 year old guy we recruited to fight the 'secret war' in Viet Nam, I gotta wonder what's really going on. Anyone have any ideas????