EO 12425

executive Order 12425

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Executive Order 12425

EO: AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.

Here's the text of 2(c), which this EO 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.

An INTERPOL branch in the US now cannot be searched, it's files are not subject to legal subpoena nor discovery. If any branch of government wants to keep documents out of the hands of the court system, just hand them over to INTERPOL until the smoke clears.

INTERPOL will now be able to maintain files on US citizens.

By this EO, Obama has conferred diplomatic immunity upon INTERPOL, exemption from being subject to search and seizure by law enforcement, exemption from US taxes, and immunity from FOIA requests, etc.

Obama just declared INTERPOL records immune from search and seizure -- "The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable."

Does INTERPOL have a file on Obama -- on his associations?

INTERPOL Not Limited By Constitution In U.S.

Chris Carter reminds us that in December, Barack Obama quietly signed an Executive Order that has elevated the international police force INTERPOL above our Constitution, allowing them to operate on American soil with impunity.

Signed on Dec. 16th and released on the 17th, the order designates INTERPOL as a public international organization effectively allowing it to "enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities" according to the United States International Organizations Immunities Act.

Language found in section 2(c) of that act is especially concerning:

"Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search […] and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable."

Just what "property and assets" could INTERPOL be hiding?

INTERPOL's U.S. headquarters is conveniently located in Eric Holder's Justice Department, so perhaps there will no longer be a need for Sandy Berger to raid the National Archives.

"Inviolable archives means INTERPOL records are beyond US citizens' Freedom of Information Act requests and from American legal or investigative discovery," writes Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton at ThreatsWatch.org. But why would the Obama administration want to allow an international police force to operate on American soil without constitutional restraints?

Obama's order actually amended an earlier executive order signed by Ronald Reagan in 1983. The original order recognized INTERPOL as an international organization therefore extending some immunities to the group, but also held the organization accountable to Fourth Amendment search and seizure protections and to the Freedom of Information Act that limit our own law enforcement agencies.

Essentially, INTERPOL is the enforcement branch of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as the FBI is to the Justice Department. While in office, George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from being a signatory to the Rome Statute -- the treaty establishing the ICC -- and refused the international court's jurisdiction over U.S. citizens and military members. However when questioned during the campaign, Obama did not oppose giving the ICC jurisdiction over American citizens.

Why is it that the Obama administration offers constitutional protections to self-confessed foreign terrorists who kill Americans, yet at the same time immunizes international police organizations from our Constitution?