Laos’ Secret Drug War Lives On
Vang Pao and the CIA

by Peter Dale Scott, Posted: Jun 12, 2007

The recent arrests of General Vang Pao, the former leader of royalist forces in Laos, and a retired U.S. army lieutenant colonel, Harrison Jack, for plotting to inflict al-Qaeda like terror on the capital of Laos, may seem like no more than a curious anecdote about a distant country. But their plot has potential implications for America’s drug problems, mostly ignored in the mainstream press.

American newspapers have paid little attention to what the London Daily Telegraph pointed out on Wed., June 7, that during the CIA’s “secret war” in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s, “Vang Pao’s forces, 40,000-strong at their peak, were largely funded by the heroin trade, with raw opium transported on the airplanes and helicopters of Air America, the private airline of his CIA supporters.”

During the Vietnam War Vang Pao trafficked with impunity through the CIA bases of Long Tieng, which eventually was home to a heroin lab, and Pakse in southern Laos. For years the American press turned a blind eye, until 1971, that is, when it was clear that his dope was reaching not just U.S. troops in Vietnam but the continental United States…

...U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Harrison Jack, who served as an Army Ranger during the Vietnam War, said that he had been working for Vang Pao for the past ten years. Will he eventually be cleared of any links to the last decade of Hmong terrorism in Laos? Once again, as in the past, reluctance to explore these questions involving the CIA and drugs could end up protecting and contributing to our national drug scourge.

Continued…

—————————————

Recent Talks by Peter Dale Scott;

Just What Was Cheney Doing on the Morning of 9/11?

JFK & 9/11: Insights Gained From Studying Both