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DaffyDuck
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Thanks, IBFarang, for a good and short explanation - I guess China Sailor gabs a lot, but doesn't actually say much of substance (though he certainly thinks he does). It does appear the arms sale and hoarding was the main point of why they moved forward on this. I guess it's always better to stock up your personal arsenal in another country, and only do the planning in the US 
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:48 am on June 5, 2007
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CalEden
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I read in to days paper that they had 9.5 million budgeted for arms purchases. I wonder where the money was coming from? Cause most of the Hmong in the US are on the public dole.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 5:39 pm on June 5, 2007
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sai tai
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Quote: from CalEden on 7:24 pm on June 5, 2007
Gen. Vang owns a home in both California and another in Minnesota. He set up a base in MN as Minneapolis and St. Paul claim the largest urban population of Hmong in the U.S. and likely in the world.
And the Hmong are definitely not all on the dole. They didn't stay in frigid MN because of the nice change in weather. They have done well financially - jobs were plentiful.
As for the millions... this from the 2005 Minneapolis Star Trib story...
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The group's organizers came up with a plan -- they would sell military and civil service ranks to refugees, former Neo Hom members said in interviews.
If a refugee such as Blia Vang could make a down payment and keep current on lower monthly payments, he was promised that he could become a leader some day back home in a free Laos. It didn't matter if he had never held a command position before. All that mattered was coming up with the cash.
They worked out a system: City by city and district by district, Neo Hom representatives were assigned geographical areas from which to collect money by going house to house.
Over time, the organization raised millions of dollars, made in small individual cash payments, say authorities who have interviewed Neo Hom members.
Phil Smith, executive director of Lao Veterans of America, estimated that at one time Neo Hom was raising at least $50,000 a month this way. And without a paper trail, he said, there was no way to prove how the money was spent.
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Vang also set up a non-profit social service organization that was to assist newly arriving Hmong with integrating into American society, but was more likely a front...
Kao Thao eventually pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $70,000 from the agency.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:14 pm on June 5, 2007
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sai tai
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By the way... former Minnesota U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger is assembling the legal team to defend Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao.
Heffelfinger is currently in the news as one of the U.S. attorneys who was on the hit list to be fired. He resigned instead.
He was on the Republican hit list because of his work defending Native American legal rights who were seen as likely to vote Democratic.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 8:23 pm on June 5, 2007
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xyzxyzxyzd
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I really don't want to detract from this thread at all, because I think it's very important news. However, I just have to say that Sai Tai's avatar is possibly the most distracting thing in the universe.
I can't help it - now I'm going to go back into the topic and stare at it for another two hours, carry on with the political/strategic discussions.
BrianD
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 12:57 am on June 6, 2007
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China Sailor
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 10:33 pm on June 5, 2007
Thanks, IBFarang, for a good and short explanation - I guess China Sailor gabs a lot, but doesn't actually say much of substance (though he certainly thinks he does). It does appear the arms sale and hoarding was the main point of why they moved forward on this. I guess it's always better to stock up your personal arsenal in another country, and only do the planning in the US
I think I listed that reason Duck, however it does not detract from the point that whether a country is communist or not does not mean a hill of beans (or duck feed in your case) these days...
BTW: Interesting avitar, it looks like a Rorschach Test. Does it represent the functioning of a Duck's brain?
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:12 am on June 6, 2007
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Mel Gibson
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poor Duck,, different avatar,, same personality, still disliked as always: (, And now it seems he even lost his mate Porky.
Mai pen rai
Mel
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:42 am on June 6, 2007
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sai tai
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From the Star Trib, the Vang Pao timeline...
DURING THE VIETNAM WAR
1960s and 1970s: Leads CIA-backed Hmong army in a secret war against Communists in Laos during the Vietnam War.
1972: The book "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade," by Alfred McCoy, details Vang Pao's role in controlling the opium trade in Laos.
1975: Vang Pao flees Laos for California after Communists seize power. Becomes chief spokesman for the Hmong community in the U.S. Vows that Hmong in America will return to Laos some day.
INVOLVEMENT WITH NEO HOM
1980s: Forms a network called Neo Hom to raise money to aid insurgents in Laos. Over the years, the organization raises millions of dollars, much of it through small cash payments by refugees. Also forms a nonprofit agency, Lao Family and Community Inc., to assist refugees to navigate U.S. social service agencies.
November 2003: In a six-hour meeting at the Prom Center in Oakdale, Pao unveils an 18-page doctrine in which he supports normalizing trade with Laos. Pao's stunning change in position sparks months of protest and violence in the Twin Cities' Hmong community.
January 2004: Sen. Norm Coleman hosts a meeting between Vang Pao and senior State Department officials to discuss Vang Pao's efforts to bring peace to Laos, the humanitarian crisis facing Hmong living in Laos, and the refugee resettlement program for Hmong in Thailand.
LEGAL TROUBLES
1990s: California authorities investigate charges that refugees were shaken down for contributions to Neo Hom as a condition of receiving social services. Vang Pao's son-in-law, Kao Thao, pleads guilty to embezzlement.
2005: Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch closes the St. Paul-based Vang Pao Foundation after it was found in violation of multiple state charities laws. The organization, founded in 2000 was run by Vang Pao's son, Cha Vang, who agreed to an injunction prohibiting him from forming, volunteering or working for any nonprofit or charitable organization in Minnesota.
July 2007: Vang Pao and eight other men are indicted in California on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Laos.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:49 am on June 6, 2007
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Mel Gibson
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And the beginnings of all this was created by our ever loving FROGS,the French have a mighty lot to answer for ( not the individuals but the French rulers).
Mel
Laos Vietnam,, where have they been without death, destruction, murder and HATE.maybe it was those blue and white uniforms that made everyone so angry?
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 5:08 am on June 6, 2007
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FIB
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Quote: from Mel Gibson on 7:02 pm on June 6, 2007
And the beginnings of all this was created by our ever loving FROGS,the French have a mighty lot to answer for ( not the individuals but the French rulers).
Can't agree more with you, except on one detail - French rulers could not generally care less about what was going on in Indochina. So put that downs to the colons plus the military thugs that supported them. Such incompetence!
Clearly, if the French colons had killed 90% of the indigenous population like what was done by the rosbifs cons in Australia, all this later tragic history of indochina would have been avoided... Or more would have come down from China. How well...
That said, why oh why did the Americans continue on the same mistaken path and did not leave the region alone after the French failure was evident? Was it hubris? Pure historical incompetence?
Or as Churchill said "America will always do the right thing, after exhausting all other possibilities." And so they left in 75, having lost, as the French 21 years before, a legal war and an illegal one, as well as spoiled their reputation and soul in countless abuses, indiscrimate killings and bombings and war crimes. Not that the opposition was any better. Sad indeed. Who's going to finish the job then...
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:48 am on June 6, 2007
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