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Oh Yeah, The Patriot Act Violated Our Civil Rights! Check THIS out!
Wow.
Just as I was finishing up my Holiday cheer session and was getting back to letting my anger stew over Lord Falderal’s security foibles, (for those of you just joining us Lord Falderal is my euphemism for Obama) a good friend of mine turned me on to this little tidbit of info that flew under the media’s radar screen:
_____________________________________________________________________________
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 17, 2009
Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425
EXECUTIVE ORDER - – - – - – - AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES
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.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE, December 16, 2009.
_____________________________________________________________________________
That’s not from The Onion, or Fox News, nor is it an excerpt from a Rush Limbaugh broadcast; this little piece of civil rights crushing verbiage comes directly from the White House’s Official Website. Here it is if you want to fact check it:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425
So, anyone hear about this yet? Probably, not. It was barely mentioned in any of those austere media outlets that were more than happy to jump all over the Patriot Act the second the toner dried on the White House Press Corp briefings.
One of the reasons you may not have heard of it is because Lord Falderal was basically signing this particular Executive Order with one step on the side rails of Marine One as he jettisoned himself to Hawaii for some body surfing and golf.
Far be it for me to deny even a slacker like Falderal, a nice vaca at the Holiday Season, however, it would seem to me this order would merit a little more coverage than some of his other Executive Orders such as: “Obama prohibits texting by Federal employees while driving to work”. That earth shattering Executive Order appeared in the New York Times on October 2, 2009. Good thing they reported that! Imagine the chaos had they not! And, to be fair, Bush could have won an extreme vacationing contest hands down. My point is that Falderal used the media hype of his Holiday to overshadow this ridiculous EO.
In case you’re not in the mood to go check exactly what Executive Order 12425 is, here is a down and dirty primer. Back in the 80’s President Reagan issued an executive order giving INTERPOL, the International Police Organization, the ability to operate on US soil with certain privileges. In fact, those privileges gave INTERPOL the same authority as our federal law enforcement agencies like the CIA, FBI and others.
However, the Order correctly and prudently bound INTERPOL to respecting the 4th Amendment search and seizure rights given to all American citizens under the Constitution, just like our American law enforcement organizations.
What Falderal has done is rescind the part of the Order that dictates INTERPOL respect our rights. In other words, INTERPOL can operate above the laws the CIA, FBI, DEA, HAS, etc, must abide by.
Here’s an example to drive it home:
Imagine if you will, somehow you wound up in a terrorist investigation. Maybe you were bouncing about the Internet and spent some time on an Al Qaeda website out of sheer curiosity and the FBI caught wind of it. Being the open kind of agency they are; they share that info with INTERPOL.
One sunny Tuesday afternoon a cadre of dark SUVs appear in the driveway of your suburban Cape. Out jumps an American FBI agent and a Yemeni Agent from INTERPOL. (Yemen is a member of INTERPOL) After politely ringing your doorbell, which of course plays the chorus of “God Bless America”, the FBI dude asks if he can search your house and take your hard drive down to the shop. After your initial panic wanes to a manageable terror, you ask if he has a warrant. For sake of argument, he doesn’t. You tell him to pound sand and close the door; already fingering the buttons of your iPhone and speed dialing your attorney.
Not so fast.
The Yemeni Agent walks right past you and starts tossing your Grandmother Biddy’s china around. He calmly walks over and has a look at your Internet browser and there is the website you spent two minutes on one night during a bout of insomnia.
Our Yemeni friend decides that’s enough to arrest you on, places you in cuffs and confiscates everything in your house including Biddy’s china. As you’re screaming at the FBI guy to help, he gives you a copy of Executive Order 12425. And, by the way, where you are going you won’t be playing tennis with Bernie Madoff. You will be begging for a good water-boarding session after they get done with your American butt.
Farfetched? Kind of, but not really. The players in my scenario are unlikely of course, but I think it illustrates the point rather well. Don’t kid yourself either, this kind of stuff does happen.
I honestly didn’t have a problem with the Patriot Act. You may say, but J, it’s the same thing you’re bitching about. No, it is not. The most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of is giving international law enforcement the right to operate in our country above our laws. Allowing our own law enforcement certain latitude when investigating known terrorists is certainly a horse of another color. I shouldn’t have to explain the obvious distinction here, if I do, you need to stop reading and go to the comics page of your local dying newspaper.
I really wonder what Falderal’s cult of personality supporters think of all this. Will they stay blind and stupid, or will they actually do something about it. Hopefully, they will see the light. Most of us who voted for Bush were able to admit we may have been wrong. But at least with that administration we enjoyed clear answers and clear follow through and not a bunch of useless drivel and rhetoric. Oh and at least they preserved our civil rights in as much as protecting us from foreign law enforcement.
My guess is this will fall down the same hole as the anti-war movement did. You know, like where are the protesters when Falderal ordered the extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan? (After three months of mental masturbation) Why wasn’t Cindy Sheehan hanging out in Hawaii protesting the war to Falderal? I guess Crawford, TX was easier to get to.
Here are some links to other blogs that reported on this story. Check them out and be amazed.
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