Comment Exchange on EO 13524

John R. Houk
© January 1, 2010

Here is the exchange between myself and Inside Passage in the comment section of my Vox blog of the post “Thoughts on BHO Immunity Extended to Interpol”:

Inside Passage: ... you did read the relevant Order's text, right? And the links to it? Because honestly, the only thing in there that is worrisome is giving yet another foreign agency protection from search and seizure on our soil on properties it owns. They already have all the rest of the immunities, as provided in the Order signed by Ronald Reagan. In this day and age of terrorism, the last thing we need is yet another pack of foreigners with no oversight. We already have Blackwater and UN's powergrabbing garbage and we certainly don't need more.

The rest of the exemption removals are tax-code based, and hardly a concern.

Theway2k: I hope you are correct. I have little trust for the UN and President Obama's complicity with a seeming global UN agenda to marginalize American Constitutional issues.

Inside Passage: Oh man, absolutely DO NOT just take my word for it. You've got everything you need to look it up yourself. That's how I got that information - googled "Executive Order XXXXX", made sure I understood exactly what it was changing by repeated readings, and then check all the very useful linked text they provided on the relevant sections of text being updated.

That was the bulk of what was happening, certain tax code exceptions and the search and seizure exception were specifically provided in Reagan's order and those exceptions no longer exist in Obama's.

Like I said, though. Feel free to fact-check me. I got no problem with that, and you might even see something I missed. That's the soul of productive discussion - knowing the material, and then basing your take on it against someone else's.

Below is my own fact checking.

Here is the text of Executive Order 13524 of December 16, 2009 (unformatted from original web document):

[Federal Register: December 21, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 243)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 67803]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr21de09-119]


Presidential Documents


[[Page 67803]]

Executive Order 13524 of December 16, 2009

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. (Emphasis mine)

(Presidential Sig.)

THE WHITE HOUSE,

December 16, 2009.

[FR Doc. E9-30413
Filed 12-18-09; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3195-W0-P

Here is Reagan’s EO 12425:

Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983

International Criminal Police Organizations

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, including Section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (59 Stat. 669, 22 U.S.C. 288), it is hereby ordered that the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), in which the United States participates pursuant to 22 U.S.C. 263a, is hereby designated as a public international organization entitled to enjoy the privileges, exemptions and immunities conferred by the International Organizations Immunities Act; except those provided by Section 2(c), the portions of Section 2(d) and Section 3 relating to customs duties and federal internal-revenue importation taxes, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act. (Emphasis mine) This designation is not intended to abridge in any respect the privileges, exemptions or immunities which such organization may have acquired or may acquire by international agreement or by Congressional action.

Ronald Reagan
The White House,
June 16, 1983. (Source Democratic Underground)

Here is Clinton’s Amendment to Reagan’s EO 12425:

Executive Order 12971 of September 15, 1995

Amendment to Executive Order No. 12425

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities upon the International Criminal Police Organization (‘‘INTERPOL’’) it is hereby ordered that Executive Order No. 12425 be amended by deleting, in the first sentence, the words ‘‘the portions of Section 2(d) and’’ and the words ‘‘relating to customs duties and federal internal-revenue importation taxes’’. (Emphasis mine)

William J. Clinton
The White House,
September 15, 1995. (Source IBID.)

Inside Passage it is really important to understand that Interpol files cannot now be subpoenaed by U.S. Courts according to President Obama’s EO 13524. Sovereignty is diluted by the fact that Interpol is capable of keeping secret files on Americans which do not have to be divulged due to absolute immunity. As I said in the post “Thoughts on BHO Immunity Extended to Interpol,” the recent Interpol meeting under the auspices of the United Nations in Singapore alters or makes the possibility of altering Interpol’s own constitution pertaining to not overriding a sovereign nation’s sovereign prerogative.

JRH 1-1-09