Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.
By removing language from President Reagan's 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates - now operates - on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Is this a step on the way to putting our troops under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court? A body the previous administration explicitly worked to protect our troops from? Or is this nothing to worry about at all. I just don't have the knowledge to judge, so I'll wait further reports to provide information.
But I do know that I worry about our troops being tried and convicted for fighting, simply because what was once hidden is now recorded:
When we have a battlefield where we see all of our troops and record all that they do, how will we treat our soldiers? Even in "good" wars that are universally agreed to be justified, such as World War II, we had our share of criminal actions and mistakes that cost lives. Civilians were killed or abused. Prisoners were shot or robbed or abused. Americans died from incompetent commanders or shoddy equipment or just bad luck.
Our military fights very clean based on any combat standards you want to apply--from a historical basis to a contemporary comparison. But war will never be completely clean. Even police commit crimes and abuse prisoners or detainees. Combat is far more stressful and so our troops will commit crimes or simply make lethal mistakes on occasion. How will we react to this? How will we make sure our troops fight even cleaner and how will we protect out troops from unfair prosecution?
If foreigners have access to this type of data and access to our country to nab veterans of our fights (or their civilian leaders), it would not take any stretch of the imagination to predict that the ICC will try Americans for what will be alleged are war crimes simply because those doing the prosecuting disagree with our war.
I don't think the American people would much like transporting our troops beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences. We haven't liked it before.
UPDATE: McCarthy isn't happy about this:
Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?
Why? I guess if you want to sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance, or perhaps subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation, it would be pretty handy.
And with Interpol's officers, offices, and records safe from our courts, this little bit of extra-territoriality granted to progressive foreign law enforcment will be immune to our constitution's checks and protections.
I don't like this. I can be persuaded that I'm worried for nothing. But right now, I'm worried.
