Barack Obama has signed an Executive Order that allows international police outfit Interpol to operate in the United States without any limitations from the Constitution.
Obama’s December 17th signing of an Executive Order Amending Executive Order 12425 reverses a 1983 Reagan administration decision in order to grant Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, two key privileges. First, Obama has granted Interpolthe 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 Executive Order was signed without any publicity other than the previously-linked announcement from The White House. Given the weighty issues it brings up, the Mainstream Media has surprisingly not given any coverage to its signing, either. Only conservative blogs and some conservative talk radio shows have discussed it.
The White House has not responded to any inquiries madeabout the Executive Order. 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?
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