The Anchoress
I’m thinking that when Steve Schippert began his blog, which he calls Threats Watch, he never thought he would be tracking a threat from his own Executive Branch and Congress.
Does that sound a bit out there? Yes, I worry that it does. But this Executive Order, which Obama quietly signed while the world was distracted by Tiger Woods and weather, sounds pretty out there, too:
December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order “Amending Executive Order 12425.” It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other “International Organizations” as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.
By removing language from President Reagan’s 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Noisy Room spells it out:
Here’s the text of 2(c), which this Executive Order now has applying to Interpol:
(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.
This now says that Interpol is no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Their premises or staff can no longer be searched either. Their files are not subject to legal subpoena or discovery. Our government could just hand documents and files over to Interpol and Americans would no longer have access to them. Interpol can legally keep files now on all citizens of the US with no right to redress.
In reality, we have just handed over our sovereignty. Interpol headquarters in the US is currently headquartered in the Department of Justice. A ‘separate’ Interpol agency has been created in the DOJ – let that sink in for a moment. Interpol has been granted diplomatic immunity now by Obama – they have exemption from being subject to search and seizure by law enforcement, US taxes and immunity from FOIA requests, etc. This action could also be used to divulge American military secrets and a whole host of horrific practices having to do with going after our military. It’s the road to internationalism on steroids.
Rick hopes it’s all some sort of misunderstanding.
Color me cynical. As we watch the tyrannical Harry Reid (and an apparently fully-corrupted parliamentarian) bribe, lie and bully his way to passage of a ruinous healthcare bill (with the reprehensible Mrs. Pelosi waiting to do exactly the same in the House), as we watch the elected leaders of this representative democracy try to inflict legislation upon us which can never be rescinded, I don’t think there is any misunderstanding, at all.
A few days ago, I wrote: the Democrats are conspicuously unworried about upcoming elections. Perhaps they are not worried because they know something that all the angry voters do not seem to understand: that they no longer have to give a damn; they will not have to worry about future elections; they will not have to care what anyone thinks of their governance, and they have no worries about the press, either. There are no Woodwards or Bernsteins on their horizons.
Socialism, like the Chicago fog, creeps in on little cat feet. That doesn’t make it less nefarious.
Yes, it is true that sometimes negatives must be allowed to happen, so that positives may occur. I’m trying to be philosophical about all of this, on one level. But I am not sure we’re supposed to sit around and do nothing as our nation devolves.
I have never understood why the Jews in Germany and Poland and the Netherlands simply went along with what they were told to do by the Nazis: Oh, okay, we’ll go get our yellow stars and we’ll comply with this law that we must wear them. Oh. We’ll endure public hate and discrimination. Oh, we’ll just clean up this broken glass. Oh, okay, we’ll get on these trains. Oh, yes, let us have a shower…
Civil Disobedience is a good thing, sometimes -a force for good- we learned that from the very same spoiled-brat generation that now attempts to utterly corrupt our government, and our way of life, and who want us all to just sit down and shut up, as they do it.
I know it is very difficult to get anyone interested in this Executive Order, because the dishonest Obamacare bill is dominating the day. This is part of the problem: Obama and his team have started so many fires that while one is being fought in one place, another is taking hold, elsewhere. But the thing is, the fires are all connected, and they come from the same source.
I’ve linked to it a few times, lately, but I am going to fully repost something I wrote 4 years ago, about how to recognize a coup and stop it. If it is not too late, it is very nearly too late.
Yeah, file this under “remaking America.”
UPDATE: Andy McCarthy wonders: Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?
Ed Morrissey: has more:
. . .it appears to mean that Americans who get arrested on the basis of Interpol work cannot get the type of documentation one normally would get in the discovery process, which is a remarkable reversal from Obama’s declared efforts to gain “due process” for terrorists detained at Gitmo. Does the White House intend to treat Americans worse than the terrorists we’ve captured during wartime?
UPDATE, Dec 30: Michelle Malkin notes that the Obama administration is disinclined to answer questions about Obama’s EO. A most transparent administration. And a most incurious press. I remember when they used to call Bush “incurious.”
Jake Tapper: Looks into things a bit more deeply and says, Interpol story is no big deal, really.
Well, I am always willing to be corrected. Cynicism does wear one out. I just want to feel okay about it. ;-)
Lots more theorizing about this going on here.
Related:
Even CBS sees corruption
Iowahhawk: It’s a Wonderful Bill
Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt and ever-more corrupt
Melissa Clouthier: Podcasts
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