| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| Krutzed-up judge |
| 2005-01-20 |
| Truncated for length As the nation's capital prepares itself for the presidential inauguration by going into lockdown mode and placing portable Stinger missile launchers throughout the city, Americans may be stunned to learn that the District of Columbia has been forced by a federal judge to hand over intelligence data on police tactics, training, and strategies from the last inauguration to an organization with documented ties to terrorist groups and Saddam Hussein. The District of Columbia was forced by court order to turn over this information to the International Action Center (IAC), a group involved in Thursday's protests of the second Bush inaugural through the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition. The anti-Bush groups expect as many as 100,000 will converge on the nation's capital and they intend to get as close to the presidential motorcade as possible. Some media pundits have expressed surprise that the District has offered protestors "prime real estate" along the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue. But this is largely because of legal pressure exerted by the protesters and their radical law firms. Given that videotaping a monument can get one arrested in the post-9/11 world, it is stunning that surveillance tapes and other security data can be handed over by court order to an anti-American pro-terrorist organization. But that is how extreme the federal courts have become. The portrayal of the U.S. as the foremost human rights violator in the world is a familiar theme of the IAC. Days after 9/11, IAC leaders (along with their current attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard) gathered with other activists to announce a demonstration in the capital to protest the "criminal conduct" of the United States. Speakers suggested the U.S. had invited the 9/11 attack. Then the beauzeaux's lips fell off. Additional concern is generated by the fact that the IAC is linked to Colombian terrorist groups now said to be involved with Islamic terrorists. Terrorism experts cite the secretive tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, where Colombian and Islamic terrorists are said to be coordinating their activities. Other reports suggest the presence of Islamic terrorist groups in Venezuela, where the anti-American regime headed by Hugo Chavez is also said to be aiding and providing sanctuary for Colombian terrorists. Here Comes the Judge 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. S says that the police force will make a number of stupid mistakes. 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 |
| Posted by:Korora |
| #2 Congress can impeach any judge. It by its own actions, to impeach, defines what constitutes bad behavior. Our representative, both parties, have no guts. Its easier for them to default to someone sitting, defacto, for life to make decisions than really do their own jobs. |
| Posted by: Don 2005-01-20 12:50:34 PM |
| #1 Fire her ass. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-01-20 8:05:29 AM |