A new executive order gives INTERPOL license to operate with impunity within the U.S.
On 17 December 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order which extended to INTERPOL, the international police organization, an additional subset of the standard 'privileges, exemptions and immunities' granted to public international organizations by the U.S. under the International Organizations Immunities Act. President Obama's executive order was an amendation of one issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 which first applied the International Organizations Immunities Act to INTERPOL.While the fact of the executive order is real, the claims that it gives INTERPOL license to start conducting warrantless searches, arresting U.S. citizens, and violating other constitutional guarantees to due process are exaggerated.The common perception of INTERPOL as a global police organization that sends agents around the world to track down suspects, make arrests, and haul criminals before international tribunals (such as the United Nations) for trial is erroneous. INTERPOL has no police force, and it does not conduct criminalinvestigations or make arrests. It's merely an administrative organization that services its member countries (currently 188 in number) by facilitating and coordinating the sharing of law enforcement organization. If, for example, one country should issue an arrest warrant for a suspect currently residing in a second country, INTERPOL merely passes along the warrant and related information to the second country - it's completely up to the latter's government to decide if their laws justify an arrest and, if so, to send their own agents to effect it.As the New York Times noted, the granting of additional immunities to INTERPOL was prompted by that organization's opening a liaison office at the United Nations' New York headquarters in 2004 and was something first considered during the administration of George W. Bush:When public international organizations are operating on United States soil, a law allows the president to grant them certain rights and immunities, just as foreign embassies receive privileges. More than 70 organizations - including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Bank and the International Pacific Halibut Commission - receive those rights. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan extended some rights - including immunity from lawsuits or prosecution for official acts - to Interpol, which was holding its annual meeting in the United States. But Mr. Reagan's order did not include other standard privileges - like immunity from certain tax requirements and from having its property or records subject to search and seizure - because at the time, Interpol had no permanent office or employees on United States soil. That changed in 2004, when Interpol opened a liaison office at the United Nations in New York City. The office consists of five staff members, [Interpol spokeswoman Rachel] Billington said, and they have access to law enforcement information submitted by other countries with restrictions on who may receive it. 'When the office opened in 2004, we said look, we'd like to have the Interpol staff working in the office in New York afforded the same immunities as other international organizations,' Ms. Billington said. 'It's only for the New York office.' The State Department recommended approving the request, but the Bush White House did not complete the matter before its term ended, and so it rolled over.
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