An activist judge has ordered the government to turn over secret inauguration security information to the International Action Center (IAC), a group involved in Thursday’s protests through Ramsey Clark’s A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition: Presidential Inauguration Security Information Turned Over to Anti-American, Terrorist-linked Group; D.C. Says Judge’s Orders Threaten Public Safety. (Hat tip: Ariana.)

The court orders were related to a lawsuit filed by the IAC in 2001 [International Action Center, et al., v. United States of America, et al., Case no. 01CV00072] against federal and local agencies that handled security for the 2001 inaugural. The IAC describes itself as a political association that fights racism, war and militarism, and the program of the Bush administration. In fact, it is linked through overlapping personnel to the communist Workers World Party (WWP), a group that came under investigation by the Congress in 1974 and the FBI.

IAC founder and director Ramsey Clark recently made worldwide headlines when he joined Saddam Hussein’s defense team. The IAC boasts of having a relationship to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army—both of which are labeled terrorist groups by the State Department. The International Action Center has sent delegations to meet with FARC soldiers and leaders in the Colombian jungle and lauds their military victories, including “spectacular raids” on U.S.-trained battalions. Last November Colombia’s defense minister claimed that FARC had targeted President Bush for assassination.

Despite its vocal support of and connections to terrorist groups, the IAC has succeeded in obtaining, by court order, large amounts of security data related to D.C. police operations and the presidential inauguration.

According to court documents, D.C. has already provided “thousands of 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 information provided by the D.C. Metro Police Department by court order to the IAC so far includes:

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

* Management of Mass Demonstrations, Civil Disturbance Units training documents;

* Metro Police Department (MPD) instruction on use of firearms and other service weapons;

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

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

* Redacted logs from the Synchronized Operations Command Center and the Running Resume for the Inauguration Day intelligence teams; and

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

The plainclothes intelligence officers identified by name were stationed at various locations along and near the presidential parade route in order to monitor the crowds and to report any information heard or observed concerning plans, attempts or actions that might disrupt Inaugural events and/or violate the law and to take law enforcement action, if needed.

Judge Gladys Kessler, who handled the case, issued the orders disclosing the security data. (Kessler was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in July 1994 by former president Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate.)