Obama Gives Interpol Immunity from American Law

[SVPete]

As far as I can read it, it exempts their incomes from US taxation if they're foreign nationals, nothing more.

IF Interpol has no arrest authority, I'd like to find that comforting. But I have two problems:

1.) If tax-exemption were the purpose, this measure is like using a 12 gauge loaded with buck shot to take out an ant. IOW, the action is disproportionate to the supposed purpose;

2.) I'm haunted by a three-letter word - YET!

I hope Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Predator operators and veterans of Iraqi combat are well-armed.

[DumbAss Tanker]

They operated through the DOJ, which effectively put them under FOIA.  They will still be operating under the DOJ, and that worries me given the way Holder has acted.

Only for records held by DOJ.  The Interpol organization's own records, in their own possession, no.  Interpol is as hidebound and rule-governed as you can possibly imagine (As you would expect for something that is fundamentally an EU product), so anything they have ever done in the US has almost certainly been with the full knowledge and cooperation of DOJ to the point of being a joint operation, so most files on US operations would in effect have been reachable through FOIA to DOJ...of course DOJ has one of the major FOIA exemptions, they can withhold records of 'On-going criminal investigations' and (As is also true with classified material) can legally lie and deny the existence of any such record if divulging even its existence could compromise it.  The idea that FOIA serves as any kind of a check on DOJ is laughable for anyone who has worked with either the law or the agency, FOIA is a tool they use to embarass their political opponents by opening the files their predecessors (From opposite power blocks) kept from the public by 'Closing' the old investigation.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

So if they are an info-gathering organization and they are immune to US law does that mean they can be used to spy domestically?

[DumbAss Tanker]

So if they are an info-gathering organization and they are immune to US law does that mean they can be used to spy domestically?

Why would anyone interested in doing that screw around with getting a foreign bureaucracy, with its own rules and loyalties, mixed up in it, instead of just hiring 'Contractors' with cleansed money? 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Why would anyone interested in doing that screw around with getting a foreign bureaucracy, with its own rules and loyalties, mixed up in it, instead of just hiring 'Contractors' with cleansed money? 

Now you know me, I despise CT'ers as a rule.

But I look at Obama's conduct vis-a-vis the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case, the Gerald Walpin firing, his czars coming under increased scrutiny and all I see is a president trying to bully others and being thwarted by the US system.

Obama would fare much better among internationalists who would love to see America laid low and know Obama is the man to do it. He doesn't need to co-opt the entire organization, just one field office. Dear Dog in Heaven the Danes are saying he's bigger than Jesus!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Jake Tapper, the only journalist left at ABC has a good write-up of this issue:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/12/just-what-did-president-obamas-executive-order-regarding-interpol-do.html

SYNOPSIS: Obama has dithered doing what every president since Reagan has reinforced from a 1945 law.

[Eupher]

Live from DCI It's Saturday NIght!'s comments to Jake's article:

Hey Jake, did you forget to mention we are also strongly considering inclusion in the International Criminal Court? Add the Interpol new freedoms to that and what do you get?
Posted by: Libertarian Woman | Dec 30, 2009 3:50:01 PM

"In light of what we know and can observe, it is our logical conclusion that President Obama's Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans' 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution and beyond the legal reach of our own top law enforcement is a precursor to more damaging moves.

"The pre-requisite conditions regarding the Iraq withdrawal and the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility closure will continue their course. [M]eanwhile, the next move from President Obama is likely an attempt to dissolve the agreements made between President Bush and other states preventing them from turning over American military forces to the ICC (via INTERPOL) for war crimes or any other prosecutions.

"When the paths on the road map converge - Iraq withdrawal, Guantánamo closure, perceived American image improved internationally, and an empowered INTERPOL in the United States - it is probable that President Barack Obama will once again make America a signatory to the International Criminal Court. It will be a move that surrenders American sovereignty to an international body whose INTERPOL enforcement arm has already been elevated above the Constitution and American domestic law enforcement.
"For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL's central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with "inviolable archives" from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds.

"This is the disturbing context for President Obama's quiet release of an amended Executive Order 12425. American sovereignty hangs in the balance if these actions are not prevented through public outcry and political pressure. Some Americans are paying attention, as can be seen from some of the earliest recognitions of this troubling development here, here and here. But the discussion must extend well beyond the Internet and social media.

"Ultimately, a detailed verbal explanation is due the American public from the President of the United States detailing why an international law enforcement arm assisting a court we are not a signatory to has been elevated above our Constitution upon our soil." -Steve Schippert, ThreatsWatch dot org. 12/23/09

bolded text added.

Bottom line for this voter -- I don't trust the bastard (Obama) one iota. Every action he takes is calculated and is measured to elevate his own personal power and that of various international bodies like Interpol and the U.N. in the grand socialist tradition.

Go ahead -- call me paranoid.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Can't say I trust him an inch either, however while I'm sure he'd love to found the People's United Democratic Republic of the World, he is largely a cat's-paw with a pretty face for a set of old-school corrupt Chicago thugs who are very politically effective, mismatched with a bunch of World Socialists and Greens who have big plans and no way in Hell of making them work.  Using Interpol does not figure to come from the Chicago side which generally has an excellent idea what it is doing even when it's evil or even just graft.  As a plan, involving Interpol is needlessly complicated and fraught with risk since Interpol has its own program; the World Socialists might think it's a keen idea but it is overloaded with failure points, as evil plans go.     

[Oceander]

I wonder just how powerful this Democrat Admin. has come to think they are after all the things they have done in the past month or so.

You still have to wonder?  I don't, unfortunately.  They think they're the bolsheviks, and we the white russians.

[sully]

You still have to wonder?  I don't, unfortunately.  They think they're the bolsheviks, and we the white russians.

Sure is a scarey thought after someone mentioned the Brownshirts.