Musings of Wired Pig Archived

Executive Order 12425
Non-Person Status

Executive Order 12425

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. 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.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:59 a.m., June 17, 1983]⁽¹⁾

Executive Order 12425 was amended by Clinton in 1995 with EO 12971 ⁽²⁾ stating that, “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’’.”

In December 2009, Obama changed the document even more with EO 13524. Obama stated, “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.” ⁽³⁾⁽⁴⁾

Now we have, as amended, EO 12525  that reads -

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. 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.

As was pointed out in the Ron Paul Forums⁽⁵⁾ , “INTERPOL, an international law enforcement agency, has just been granted complete and utter “diplomatic immunity” within the borders of the United States, courtesy of Obama. They are not subject to any Constitutional limitations within the United States. Good luck filing for discovery, documents, witnesses or subpoenas against a police force that is operating outside of the Constitution in your own country! You can’t sue them. Their records can’t be searched. They are not subject to FOIA requests. You probably won’t even know the name of the agent prosecuting you if INTERPOL comes to visit. And they don’t have to tell you either.”⁽⁶⁾

By deleting any requirements that INTERPOL be exempted from any sections of the International Organizations Immunities Act⁽⁷⁾ , INTERPOL is – effectively – untouchable.

Non-Person Status

Also, in a recent Supreme Court non-ruling, the justices have let stand a lower court ruling that, aside from being labeled as Dred Scott Redux, is set to makes the lives of countless American’s virtually non-existent. The one line ruling was in a case brought by former British GitMo detainees against Donald Rumsfeld.

The Obama administration had asked the Court not to hear the case and the Court agreed. In doing so, it let stand “an earlier opinion by the D.C. Circuit Court, which found that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – a statute that applies by its terms to all “persons” – did not apply to detainees at Guantanamo, effectively ruling that the detainees are not persons at all for purposes of U.S. law.”

The lower court also dismissed the detainees’ claims under the Alien Tort Statute and the Geneva Conventions, finding defendants immune on the basis that “torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military’s detention of suspected enemy combatants.” (( Source for quote. ))

In this quote from Daily Kos, “The fear that many stated about what would happen if the Bush/Cheney doctrine that simply declaring someone an “enemy combatant” means that the President has ultimate power over EVERYONE, citizen and noncitizen alike, has actually come to pass with the Supreme Court jumping in and eliminating the purpose for their existence.  People can now literally be labeled “non-persons”(!!!!!!!!!!) on the word of the President and there is nothing that can be done about it.  No further jurisprudence is necessary and none is necessary to allow.  We are ALL now subject to the good graces of our Lord and Master, the President Dictator of Amerika.”⁽⁸⁾

And yet this is what Barack Obama — who, we are told incessantly, is a super-brilliant Constitutional lawyer — has been arguing in case after case since becoming president: Torturers are immune from prosecution; those who ordered torture are immune from prosecution. They can’t even been sued for, in the specific case under review, subjecting uncharged, indefinitely detained captives to “beatings, sleep deprivation, forced nakedness, extreme hot and cold temperatures, death threats, interrogations at gunpoint, and threatened with unmuzzled dogs.”⁽⁹⁾

How long before Patriot Act and other anti-terrorism laws are expanded to include what some would deem lessor crimes? How long before something a blogger writes or a protester says becomes “hate speech” or “enemy speech,” and said writer or speaker is deemed an enemy combatant, or, by the new definition, a non-person? Couldn’t happen in America right?⁽¹⁰⁾

---

All footnotes are for reference only. These have no bearing on the information presented above and may include: side thoughts, more links or just more scattered information. Read at your own risk.

---

1. Source of Text in original EO12425. [↩]
2. EO12971 PDF [↩]
3. Source for EO13971 quote. [↩]
4. EO13524 PDF [↩]
5. Source in the Ron Paul Forums. [↩]
6. BOLDING from the original author. [↩]
7. Source for International Organizations Immunities Act law. [↩]
8. Source for quote. [↩]
9. Source for quote. [↩]
10. Source for quote. [↩]

End Footnotes