This story has been simmering slightly under the radar for about a week and a half. In fact, Obama’s signing of the executive order on Dec 17, would seem to have been purposely timed to coincide with the busiest time of the year – Christmas crunch time, when most people are shopping, attending Christmas concerts, going to parties, etc. In short, too busy to pay attention to an executive order passed quietly in the night.
Andrew McCarthy explained that previously, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was “constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans, which is what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical”.
This is no longer the case for Interpol:
On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations. That is, Interpol’s property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.
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?
Anthony Martin posits that this executive order essentially turns the US into an international police state:
What, exactly does this mean? It means that INTERPOL now has the full authority to conduct investigations and other law enforcement activities on U.S. soil, with full immunity from U.S. laws such as the Freedom of Information Act and with complete independence from oversight from the FBI.
Oh, this doesn’t look good at all. But perhaps there’s an innocent explanation for what Obama’s done? Frances W. Porretto pointed me to this choice Mike Hendrix rant (which pretty much answers that question):
Obama is not a good man to whom bad things are happening. He is a bad man, doing bad things to our country, and doing them in the most underhanded and deceitful way imaginable. He isn’t a swell but naive guy who’s been hoodwinked by the bad people he’s surrounded himself with his entire life; he is one of them, through and through. Obama is Jones is Ayers is Dorn is Wright is Holdren is the whole psych-ward circus of cracked, left-wing-revolutionary clowns. He may present a pretty face, a pleasant smile, and a courtly manner when he wishes to, but underneath the mask he’s all authoritarian degeneracy and collectivist rot. Based on what we’ve seen and heard from him, there is simply no other conclusion to be reached; anything else is just wishful thinking and/or misguided courtesy.
Just in case there was still any doubt…
Even the left is waking up to the fact that the man is a slick snake-oil salesman who will lie to your face as soon as look at you.
All of this was easily discernible before the 2008 election.
On a related note, Thomas Del Beccaro at Big Government listed Obama’s 6 worst policy decisions. How he was able to whittle it down to a mere six is a testament to his self-editing skills.
Just another powerful reminder that the “change”, (or transformation from a freedom based society to a Big Government run society) Obama is bringing to America is not what most people bargained for when they voted for him.
MORE:
Good Lord. They don’t even care. They don’t even care.
