D.C. security data givento terror-tied protest group

In compliance with a lawsuit-inspired court order, the District of Columbia has handed over significant amounts of security data to the International Action Center, a protest group that maintains ties with two terrorist organizations and is a front group for the communist Workers World Party.

According to watchdog group Accuracy in Media, over 1,000 pages of documents, 38 videotapes and numerous photographs and audiotapes related to D.C. police tactics, training, planning and the 2001 presidential inauguration are now in the hands of IAC, which has ties to FARC and the National Liberation Army, both of which the State Department describes as terrorist organizations. IAC was founded by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is the most prominent attorney on Saddam Hussein's defense team.

Colombia's FARC has been accused of ordering an assassination attempt on President Bush when he visited the country in November.

The security information includes:

1. Lesson plans and handbooks on use of aerosol sprays, force and tactical batons;

2. Management of Mass Demonstrations, Civil Disturbance Units training documents;

3. Metro Police Department instruction on use of firearms and other service weapons;

4. Portions of "Operations Plan, Parade Manual and Civil Disturbance Unit Response Plan for the 54th Inauguration of the President of the United States";

5. All rooftop and street-level surveillance videotapes of the presidential inauguration;

6. Redacted logs from the Synchronized Operations Command Center and the running resume for the Inauguration Day intelligence teams; and

7. The identification of all plainclothes MPD officers who were detailed for the 2001 inauguration to intelligence teams.

In addition, D.C cooperated with a court order to reveal the identities of undercover officers who had infiltrated IAC and its related organizations. Lawyers for the District of Columbia strenuously objected to turning over the data, citing law enforcement privilege and potential security breaches.

The IAC also requested numerous other documents, including the "Intelligence Operational Plan" for the presidential inauguration.

IAC's 2001 lawsuit, which is ongoing, charges the U.S. government, the Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural Committee and the District of Columbia with various constitutional violations.

The International Action Center is staffed by members of the Workers World Party. The groups jointly publish articles in support of FARC activities, including "spectacular" raids on U.S.-trained battalions in Colombia and communiques signed with the slogan "Liberation or death." The IAC has sent delegations to meet with FARC leaders in the Colombian jungle and agitates in support of the group's goals.

Accuracy in Media's Sherrie Gossett is the author of a special report on the data transfer.

Said Gossett: "Given that videotaping a monument can get one arrested in the post-9/11 world, it's stunning to see that dozens of inauguration surveillance tapes and other data have been handed over by the court, and to a group that maintains ties with terrorist groups and whose leader is working for Saddam Hussein himself."

The Workers World Party and the so-called Anarchist Resistance both are extremely active in "counter-inaugural" activities and plan large protests of tomorrow's second inauguration of Bush.

The WWP has had a "violent orientation," according to a congressional study of the group, while Anarchist Resistance vows to "bring anarchy to the streets of D.C. to make resistance visible, and ring in the next four years with a smash!" It has advised its members to get on the parade route early in the morning. In 2001, the group claims, it "smashed a secret service checkpoint."

The Associated Press reports that the National Park Service "has agreed to give thousands of anti-war demonstrators a prime spot along President Bush's inaugural parade route that will allow them to protest during the procession."

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