Accuracy in Media

Washington, DC ? Accuracy in Media has learned that the District of Columbia has handed over significant amounts of security data to the International Action Center (IAC), a protest group that maintains ties with FARC and the National Liberation Army―both described by the State Dept. as “terrorist.” In addition the founder and leader of the IAC is Ramsey Clark, who just joined Saddam Hussein’s defense team. The data was handed over per a court order arising from a lawsuit filed by the IAC in 2001.

D.C. has given the IAC in excess of 1,000 pages of documents, 38 videotapes and numerous photographs and audiotapes related to D.C. police tactics, training and planning and the 2001 presidential inauguration. The data 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 Resum? for the Inauguration Day intelligence teams; and

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

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

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

The IAC, is staffed by members of the Workers World Party. They jointly publish articles in support of FARC activities including “spectacular” raids on U.S.-trained battalions in Colombia and communiqu?s 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.

Sherrie Gossett, author of a special report on the subject said, “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.”

To schedule an interview with AIM Editor Sherrie Gossett, contact Anne Tyrrell at
(703)739-5920 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Read the associated Special Report here.

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