Friday, March 4, 2011

Interpol Issues "Orange Alert" for #Gaddafi and 15-Member Inner Circle

Questions: What's the business of Interpol in this? WTF is "orange alert"?

Let's start with the second question (in a fine day-old tradition of Prez Obama).

According to Reuters who reported the news, orange alerts and red alerts (they are called "notice", not "alert", by Interpol) issued by Interpol are not arrest warrants, but they are helpful notices to local authorities (fast disappearing sovereign states) to track down illegal assets or suspects.

By Interpol's own words, an orange notice is:

To warn police, public entities and other international organizations about potential threats from disguised weapons, parcel bombs and other dangerous materials.

Hmmm... That doesn't sound like a notice issued for "people", does it? If it's about people (like Gaddafi and his inner-circle), they could issue a red notice (which they issue the most - 5,020 in 2009) or a green notice (second-most issued notice, 1,139 in 2009).

Interpol's notices are color-coded, but unlike the alert system of the US Homeland Security, they don't correspond to the seriousness of the threat; rather, they simply depict different types of crimes covered:

  • Red notice - to seek the arrest of a wanted person (the most issued notice by Interpol)

  • Yellow notice - to help locate missing persons

  • Blue notice - to collect information about a person

  • Black notice - to collect information on unidentified bodies (hmmmm.)

  • Green notice - to provide warnings and criminal intelligence about persons who have committed criminal offences and are likely to repeat these crimes in other countries.

Interpol, an organization to facilitate international police cooperation and whose US branch is within the Department of Homeland Security, does not have the authority to issue arrest warrants, and its Constitution "forbids the Organization from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character". (See wiki for quick summary of Interpol.)

Well, that applies to Libya almost perfectly, doesn't it? Actively pursuing the Gaddafis with a red or green notice would mean Interpol taking part in political, military, racial (not sure about religious) intervention, which is forbidden in the Constitution of Interpol.

So an orange notice was issued, I think, because they couldn't issue a red or green notice without violating their Constitution.

But why do they get involved, to begin with?

Interpol is being set up to be the police of the UN, say some; the police of the NWO, say others. The current Secretary-General is an American, Ronald Noble, former Treasury Department official in charge of the US Secret Service, BATF, among others.

And as I wrote more than a year ago (after Prez Obama quietly gave Interpol the full diplomatic immunity), the US branch of Interpol is "co-located" within the US Justice Department, with its personnel actually the permanent employees of various US executive branch's agencies and departments. (I do recommend you take a look at my post from 1/3/2010.)

I suspect Interpol is, practically, a US operation, even though the name says "international". Much like the NATO is practically a US operation with a token participation from the "members".

By issuing the orange notice which is for weapons and dangerous materials instead of a red or green notice, Interpol (and so the US) may be setting the stage for a military intervention by an international coalition (the UN, the NATO, or select allies of the US) to eliminate Libya's "weapons of mass destruction".

We will find out soon enough.

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