Why ex-soldier got involved with Hmong 'I owe them my life,' says suspect in alleged plot

Fresh off a long and prosperous military career, 60-year-old Harrison Jack spent the past several months in headlong pursuit of a new goal. He wanted to help ethnic Hmong who had fought on the CIA's behalf in Laos only to see the communists take power, igniting a long refugee crisis.

Jack, who was an Army Ranger during the Vietnam War, sent an e-mail Feb. 14 to dozens of people, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, inviting them to take part in a conference call about what he described as an order by Laos to "exterminate the Hmong."

"I am writing this e-mail out of respect for and in tribute to those who valiantly served, rescued and protected American servicemen during the Vietnam era,'' Jack wrote. "I owe them my life."

U.S. authorities now say Jack went too far in his advocacy for the Hmong. On Tuesday, the white-haired resident of Woodland (Yolo County) sat in a Sacramento County jail cell accused of aiding at least nine Hmong in the United States, several of them leaders in the exile community, in a plot to violently overthrow the communist government of Laos.

In a criminal complaint, authorities said the men violated the federal Neutrality Act by lining up mercenaries and trying to buy machine guns, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment for a coup.

The complaint says Jack was hired by the other men because of his "contacts in the American defense, homeland security and defense contractor community."

Jack's arrest Monday was a jarring blow to friends and colleagues, who said they were struggling to understand what happened to a man with an immaculate military resume.

He graduated from West Point in 1968 and, after serving with the elite Rangers, rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard. Before he stepped away from the military in September 2005, he directed the state agency in charge of deciding how to reuse military bases.

He also served on the state's strategic committee on terrorism, a panel formed to gauge terrorist threats and the state's response.

"Everybody I know just can't believe it," said retired Maj. Gen. William Jefferds, who was the senior military adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis and supervised Jack in the National Guard. "It's out of character. He was always well-focused and professional -- everything you would expect from a West Point graduate."

After retiring, friends and colleagues said, Jack spoke of starting a military-style school for at-risk youth and an environmental consultancy, though the projects stalled. Yolo County hired him in March, for $90 an hour, as a contract ombudsman to help employees with workplace issues.

But Jack spent more and more of his time trying to help Hmong refugees inside and outside Laos, according to those who know him.

He established a nonprofit group in January called the Hmong Emergency Relief Organization, records show. He asked filmmaker Richard Jellerson, an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, to shoot a documentary about the Hmong.

Jack also developed relationships with exiled Hmong leaders, including 77-year-old Vang Pao, a former Laotian general who had been enlisted by the CIA to fight the communists during the war and who was also arrested Monday.

"We discussed these guys in numerous telephone conversations," said Rick Cardin, a former master sergeant in the Army's Special Forces who like Jack owns a consulting business in Woodland. "We discussed certain issues, but none of them dealt with overthrowing a particular government."

An undercover agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court affidavit that he began talking to Jack in late January about buying high-powered weapons after being tipped off by a military contractor who had spoken to Jack. The weapons were never delivered.

At one point, Jack said he knew a California Highway Patrol commissioner and wanted to plant Hmong men as recruits in the CHP, where they would receive training and then bolt for Laos once the coup was launched, the agent wrote.

Jack was not in court Tuesday, and his attorney did not return a telephone message. Jack and Pao are scheduled to be in court Monday, when a judge may consider granting them bail.

Stephen Martin, the ATF's agent in charge of the San Francisco field division, said he had taken note of Jack's West Point background, because Martin also studied at the academy.

"West Point has always been a place where our country's leaders are developed," Martin said. "What you do with it after graduation, that's up to you."

Source : www.sfgate.com