President Obama has done it again.  He has taken yet another step toward reducing America’s sovereign greatness in the world so as to reduce us to being just another member of the community of nations.

 

On the night of December 16, while we were wrapping Christmas gifts and keeping an eye on the Senate’s healthcare debates, Obama signed an order granting INTERPOL, the international police force, immunity from American law.  This law enforcement agency is no longer subject to the fourth amendment to the Constitution, no longer subject to search and seizure of their US offices or archives, no longer restrained in their rights to search and seizure of suspects, and no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Obama quite obviously sees us as just another member of the international community.  This release of INTERPOL from Constitutional jurisdiction is consistent with his transnational view, as was the appointment of Harold Koh as State Department attorney.  Interestingly, Obama doesn’t want to talk about it.  As Andy McCarthy notes –

 

“This is surely another reckless gesture designed to eviscerate America’s special status and self-determinism — to make us just one of 192 other countries, no better, no different, no superpower. The president knows that Americans don’t share his view of America, which is a big reason behind his tumbling approval ratings. Saying out loud that we need to immunize Interpol — to put it above the U.S. Constitution — in order to be more like Kenya, Thailand, Zimbabwe, etc., would not go over well. That would bode ill for the administration’s agenda to subjugate the U.S. to such transnationalist schemes as the Law of the Sea Treaty and the International Criminal Court. Better to say nothing.”

 

All of Andy’s excellent analysis can be found here. 

 

INTERPOL had functioned in the United States since the Reagan administration, and opened a permanent office here in 2004.  If not for Obama’s transnational viewpoint, why is there justification for changing the rules of the game now?  Is this not consistent with the trying of war criminals in civilian criminal courts, or of closing Gitmo and returning the detainees to Yemen?  It’s certainly not consistent with protecting our citizens or our sovereignty.

 

Will it matter?  Maybe not, if INTERPOL continues to operate in this country with the respect and professionalism they have demonstrated since the outset.  But, quoting McCarthy again,

 

“If Interpol suddenly did start conducting operations that affected the liberty and privacy rights of Americans — whether on U.S. soil or overseas — it would now be immune from the provisions of law that can be invoked against, say, the FBI or the New York City Police Department. And if any American or official American entity — a private citizen, the FBI, a court, or Congress — wanted to inquire into what Interpol was up to, it would be unable to do so. The Obama order makes Interpol’s archives and other assets unreachable by search warrant, subpoena (administrative, judicial, or congressional), or the Freedom of Information Act.”

 

President Obama has released the chains that bound INTERPOL to respect our Constitutional rights as citizens.  In so doing, he has opened the doors to the possibility of their turning us into a police state.

 

Once again we must wonder what the man is thinking, and how much more of his “change” we can take.