Does Interpol have freedom from control in the US?

[Sudden]

This article says INTERPOL is now above the law.

From Pajamas Media:
At ThreatsWatch.org, Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton have dug up the bizarre and unsettling issuance of an executive order recently signed by President Barack Obama. Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425, signed December 16 and released a day later, grants the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) rights on American soil that place it beyond the reach of our own law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-s...ecutive-order/

[dbrowne1]

This article says INTERPOL is now above the law.

From Pajamas Media:
At ThreatsWatch.org, Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton have dug up the bizarre and unsettling issuance of an executive order recently signed by President Barack Obama. Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425, signed December 16 and released a day later, grants the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) rights on American soil that place it beyond the reach of our own law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-s...ecutive-order/

Doesn't look all that scary to me. INTERPOL doesn't have any LE powers (arrest, subpoena, etc.), or any real powers at all to speak of, and it sounds like all this change accomplished was a sort of diplomatic immunity given to them such that they can't be FOIA'ed or investigated by our domestic LE. Much like diplomatic personnel from other nations, if they or somebody there becomes a problem we just kick them out.

[Dienekes]

Interpol is pretty much just a phone number an agency can call (via the state dept., as I recall) where you hope for a helpful contact. Hardly the stuff of movies and fantasy.

[Sudden]

It looks like they provide information to member nations. I'm not sure why they may need protection from investigation. Or why they may need to be investigated.

[VAKafir]

My buddy emailed this: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op...-80291137.html

Obama gives Interpol free hand in U.S.

Examiner Editorial
December 30, 2009


(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
No presidential statement or White House press briefing was held on it. In fact, all that can be found about it on the official White House Web site is the Dec. 17 announcement and one-paragraph text of President Obama's Executive Order 12425, with this innocuous headline: "Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities."In fact, this new directive from Obama may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties. No wonder the White House said as little as possible about it.

There are multiple reasons why this Obama decision is so deeply disturbing. First, the Obama order reverses a 1983 Reagan administration decision in order to grant Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, two key privileges. First, Obama has granted Interpol the ability to operate within the territorial limits of the United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Second, Obama has exempted Interpol's domestic facilities -- including its office within the U.S. Department of Justice -- from search and seizure by U.S. authorities and from disclosure of archived documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by U.S. citizens. Think very carefully about what you just read: Obama has given an international law enforcement organization that is accountable to no other national authority the ability to operate as it pleases within our own borders, and he has freed it from the most basic measure of official transparency and accountability, the FOIA.

The Examiner has asked for but not yet received from the White House press office an explanation of why the president signed this executive order and who among his advisers was involved in the process leading to his doing so. Unless the White House can provide credible reasons to think otherwise, it seems clear that Executive Order 12425's consequences could be far-reaching and disastrous. To cite only the most obvious example, giving Interpol free rein to act within this country could subject U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence personnel to the prospect of being taken into custody and hauled before the International Criminal Court as "war criminals."

As National Review Online's Andy McCarthy put it, the White House must answer these questions: Why should 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 that will be beyond the scrutiny of Congress, American law enforcement, the media, and the American people?

Don't bother flaming me if someone already posted this, because I'll be busy working on my foil hat.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

So Obama basically imported Gitmo tactics onto us soil for use against US citizens? Abdullah Bombonaplane get Mirandaized, and these jokers can run wild? I hope that a local LEO would take a long time checking these guys credentials while they cool their heals in a holding cell. I know it may be easy to read too much into it, but if they can stretch the commerce clause as far as they have, anything almost become possible.

Be interesting to get a Reagan era guy to talk about why Reagan did the first change, and what this one really means. So glad to see that the President can sign away my rights.

[Lumpy196]

So Obama basically imported Gitmo tactics onto us soil for use against US citizens?

That's a little dramatic.

[Outlander Systems]

...grants the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) rights on American soil that place it beyond the reach of our own law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Maybe I'm shot-out from not having my late night coffee break, but this seems like an excellent way for foreign intelligence agencies to create a cover to operate in the US, and circumvent the FBI's counterintelligence programmes.

Just sayin'.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

That's a little dramatic.

Crap, I was going for a lot dramatic.

That's why I'd like to hear a little more about it. I can't say that any of it sounds good, unless it is a way to take foreign bad guys offshore/home to face the music, which Obama has been against. I guess the WH should have to answer why this was so important, what problem does it fix, and how are out rights guaranteed against any kind of infringement.

It just kind of flies in the face of a lot of the things that Obama has talked about, especially in the area of foreign cooperation and law enforcement. ACLU chime in on this yet?