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SAN FRANCISCO - United States prosecutors charged 10 people, including an ex-Laotian general, yesterday with seeking to topple the Government of Laos in what they described as a 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 US Attorney-General Kenneth Wainstein said.
Most prominent among those charged is Vang Pao, 77, a California resident and ethnic Hmong. A general in the Royal Lao Army before the communists came to power in 1975, he led a US CIA-trained mercenary army during the war in Indochina.
A special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posed as a arms dealer who worked through Harrison Jack, 60, a retired US officer who was also charged.
The men wanted Stinger missiles, mines, automatic rifles and anti-tank missiles to ship to Thailand for eventual use in Laos - where prosecutors said they had planted spies to survey military and government facilities.
- REUTERS
