By TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty
On December 16, 2009, President Obama secretly signed an Executive Order 12425 (EO) that gives Interpol unprecedented access in America to pursue and prosecute “criminals.” We may as well have given Interpol a badge with 666 on it.
The EO exempts Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) from being accountable to our own law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI.
Interpol is an international police organization that investigates crime and refers defendants for trial in foreign lands. The Interpol website describes its purpose as follows:
… it facilitates cross-border police co-operation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.
INTERPOL aims to facilitate international police co-operation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. Action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Nearly 200 countries work with Interpol, including some of the most ruthless Communist and Islamic tyrannies on earth.
The Obama EO removes the protections put into place by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 to protect Americans from being pursued by a foreign law enforcement agency within our borders. With this Obama EO, Interpol will operate outside of the constraints of the U.S. Constitution.
The current Secretary General of Interpol is Ronald Noble. He is an American who oversaw the Treasury Department’s review of the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. That massacre left nearly 80 people dead. Interpol has a history of being staffed by numerous Nazis from 1930 even into the 1970s.
Interpol’s new powers within the U.S. could be used to enforce arrest warrants for Americans who are charged with “war crimes” – including former Bush officials who prosecuted the war on Islamic terrorism. This could include American soldiers as well. Last year, TVC warned that Democrats were going to attempt to try President Bush for “war crimes.”
Interpol could refer individuals for arrest and facilitate their extradition to foreign courts for trial. One internationalist goal within the Obama Administration is to have America come under the authority of the International Criminal Court (ICC) headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. (In February, 2009, the Obama Administration began signaling that it was open to having America come under the authority of the ICC.) Former President George W. Bush made certain America did not come under ICC authority.
This is not just a theoretical possibility. Interpol went after 25 Israeli government officials at the request of the terrorist state of Iran. Interpol actually issued arrest warrants for 15 Israeli over their Gaza offensive several years ago.
While the Obama Administration is seeking to give terrorists constitutional rights in American prisons, he is working to strip Americans of those constitutional rights by giving Interpol police powers within our borders – powers that can be used to violate the protections of American soldiers and Bush officials who prosecuted a war against Islamic terrorism.
What Does Snopes Say?
Snopes is a web site devoted to debunking urban legends that are circulated on the Internet. One of the more recent postings is about the Interpol issue. Snopes has reacted to a memo about Obama’s Executive Order (EO) circulating on the net that is clearly a fake. The memo quotes the EO and then adds additional comments not in EO 12425. It then ends the memo with “Barack Obama” as though he had signed the entire statement. While the memo is not true, the threat from Obama’s Interpol EO order does create a real and present danger.
What Are Conservatives Saying?
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was on “The O’Reilly Factor” on January 4 and discussed the Interpol issue. He noted: “Freedom of information acts don't apply. All the constraints that you as a citizen could use against an American police force, based on a recent Obama signed executive order, give Interpol – which has relationships with Syria, Libya, with Iran – it gives them all sorts of extra legality in the United States in a way that has never, ever before been offered to Interpol.”
Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor for the conservative Washington Examineris deeply concerned about the Interpol Executive Order:
If there is nothing newsworthy involved [about the Interpol story], then why won't the White House answer these basic questions regarding the EO?
* Every other international organization granted such exemptions deals with mundane issues like fish - the International Pacific Halibut Commission - or disaster aid - the Red Cross. But Interpol is a law enforcement operation. Why does President Obama think it appropriate to give such exemptions to an international law enforcement operation, and what does he want Interpol to do here in the U.S. in the future with the exemptions that it cannot do now without the exemptions?
* Does the search and seizure exemption extend to the activities and documents created by U.S. Department of Justice employees working with and for Interpol in New York and Washington, D.C.? If these employees and activities were already exempt from coverage of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), why have FOIA requests concerning them been previously answered?
These are serious questions that the White House ought have no hesitation about answering, if indeed "there is nothing newsworthy here."
Andy McCarthy (formerly a federal prosecutor in the New York City blind sheik case) with National Review is also alarmed about the Interpol Executive Order. He has written:
Interpol works closely with international tribunals (such as the International Criminal Court — which the United States has refused to join because of its sovereignty surrendering provisions, though top Obama officials want us in it). It also works closely with foreign courts and law-enforcement authorities (such as those in Europe that are investigating former Bush administration officials for purported war crimes — i.e., for actions taken in America's defense).
Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize.
What Can Be Done?
The President has authority to issue Executive Orders, but these EOs can be nullified by Congress through legislation. An EO that violates a congressional law is illegal and must be rescinded. In addition, courts have determined that EOs are unconstitutional and have struck them down.
A lawsuit could result in the Obama Interpol EO being declared unconstitutional. The House and Senate could pass legislation ordering the repeal of the EO, but this would have to be signed into law by President Obama who wants international control over America.
The elections in November 2010, could change the balance of power in the House and Senate and give constitutionalists power once again to block liberal legislation – and to send a strong message to Obama that national sovereignty is not something to be given away to Interpol or the International Criminal Court – nor through climate change treaties or cap and tax schemes being pushed by liberals in Congress.
Additional Resources:
Obama Executive Order Cedes US Sovereignty, Citizen Rights to Interpol
Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law? - Andy McCarthy - The Corner on National Review Online
Obama gives Interpol free hand in U.S. | Washington Examiner
Obama May Place U.S. Under International Criminal Court - HUMAN EVENTS
Executive Orders and Presidential Directives
The Use And Abuse Of Presidential Executive Orders
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