Friends Hmong Us

The best way to destroy the capitalist system
is to debauch the currency
--Vladimir Lenin

A lie can travel half way around the world
while the truth is putting on its shoes
--Mark Twain
________________

The Hmong, an ancient tribe who live in the hills of Laos, were largely hung out to dry after the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Since they were part of a C.I.A.-funded secret army, they were persecuted and slaughtered by the Lao government. A few thousand live today in dismal refugee camps in Thailand, some made it to the U.S., and maybe 1,000 still live in the Laotian jungles.

Their leader, General Vang Pao, was arrested last year with eleven others in a plot to overthrow the Lao government. One of his co-conspirators happens to be a former Army associate of Ranger's, Lt. Col. Harrison U. Jack. Ranger wondered where he'd gotten off to, until he read about him in the Times:

"The government’s case got under way early last year when an undercover agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms [ATF] placed a call to a 61-year-old retired United States Army officer named Harrison Jack at his home in Woodland, Calif., just west of the state capital, Sacramento. The federal agent, posing as an arms dealer, said his name was Steve Hoffmaster. He had received a tip, he said, that Jack was in the market for some AK-47 assault rifles to arm the jungle Hmong (General Vang Pao's Last War.)"

The story is straight out of a bad spy novel: a deep-cover Fed playing agent provocateur who pushes a conspiracy rather than unwinding one. This entrapment is standard operating procedure for the ATF. The story reaches a fantasy political and military "never never land."

"The plot proposed 'was not a serious plan by any stretch of the imagination,' Bill Lair, the C.I.A. veteran who was Vang Pao’s case officer and who spent more than 20 years training security forces in the region, said in a sworn affidavit in the case. 'To think that large amounts of weapons and explosives could be delivered and transported freely within Thailand and across the border into Laos is utterly naïve and unrealistic.'"

But, since the U.S. is all terrorism, all the time (a la shows like "24"), the government brought an indictment charging that Vang Pao led a conspiracy aimed at:

“'the overthrow of the existing government of Laos by violent means, including murder, assaults on both military and civilian officials of Laos and destruction of buildings and property' in the Laotian capital. The government charged that the defendants aimed 'to destroy these government facilities, to reduce them to rubble and make them look like the results of the attack upon the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.'”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the CIA is supporting the Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MEK] with the purpose of overthrowing the government of Iran. "If CIA money and planning support are behind [MEK's sabotage operations], the agency's backing constitutes nothing less than an act of war on the part of the United States against Iran (Acts of War)."

Unlike the Hmong, the MEK is not a friend of the U.S. -- "In 1979 the MEK had a central role in orchestrating the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and holding 55 Americans hostage for 444 days." MEK hates the U.S., but will accept our money, weapons and training, just as al-Qaeda and the Taliban before them.

When will the U.S. ever learn? The MEK may overthrow the theocracy of Iran, but that does not mean they will be our friends. The U.S. is using terrorists as a tool in our war on terror. Surreal.

So it is all perspective. The CIA is doing institutionally what Harrison U. Jack was personally trying to do, but they are heroes, while Jack is an accused criminal. I guess his cause is no longer chic, not that living up to responsibilities to allies has ever been very chic for the U.S.

It seems terrorism is bad, unless it's good.