(OT) ABC News Exclusive: Secretary General of Interpol Wonders Aloud If Armed Citizenry Is More Necessary Now, Instead of Gun Control

I don't believe this article got much coverage, given how it is under the Obama administration when it comes to armed citizenry.

For my record, from ABC News (10/21/2013; emphasis is mine):

Exclusive: After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders 'Armed Citizenry'

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month's deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Noble said there are really only two choices for protecting open societies from attacks like the one on Westgate mall where so-called "soft targets" are hit: either create secure perimeters around the locations or allow civilians to carry their own guns to protect themselves.

"Societies have to think about how they're going to approach the problem," Noble said. "One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you're going to have to pass through extraordinary security."

Noble's comments came only moments after the official opening of the 82nd annual gathering of the Interpol's governing body, the General Assembly. The session is being held in Cartagena, Colombia, and is being used to highlight strides over the last decade in Colombia's battle against the notorious drug cartels that used to be the real power in the country.

The secretary general, an American who previously headed up all law enforcement for the U.S. Treasury Department, told reporters during a brief news conference that the Westgate mall attack marks what has long been seen as "an evolution in terrorism." Instead of targets like the Pentagon and World Trade Center that now have far more security since 9/11, attackers are focusing on sites with little security that attract large numbers of people.

At least 67 were killed over a period of days at the Westgate mall, more than 60 of the dead were civilians. The Somalia-based al Qaeda-allied terror group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack as it was ongoing but investigators are still trying to determine exactly who planned the strike, where they are and what is next for them. U.S. authorities in Uganda, fearing another similar incident in Africa, issued a warning late last week.

Citing a recent call for al Qaeda "brothers to strike soft targets, to do it in small groups," Noble said law enforcement is now facing a daunting task.

"How do you protect soft targets? That's really the challenge. You can't have armed police forces everywhere," he told reporters. "It's Interpol's view that one way you protect soft targets is you make it more difficult for terrorist to move internationally. So what we're trying to do is to establish a way for countries … to screen passports, which are a terrorist's best friend, try to limit terrorists moving from country to country. And also, that we're able to share more info about suspected terrorists."

In the interview with ABC News, Noble was more blunt and directed his comments to his home country.

"Ask yourself: If that was Denver, Col., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly?" Noble said, referring to states with pro-gun traditions. "What I'm saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control. It makes citizens question their views on gun control. You have to ask yourself, 'Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?' This is something that has to be discussed."

"For me it's a profound question," he continued. "People are quick to say 'gun control, people shouldn't be armed,' etc., etc. I think they have to ask themselves: 'Where would you have wanted to be? In a city where there was gun control and no citizens armed if you're in a Westgate mall, or in a place like Denver or Texas?'"

Prior to the Westgate attack, the gun control debate has been ignited time and time again in the U.S. in the aftermath of a series of mass shootings, including one in a movie theater in Aurora, Col., a suburb of Denver.

(I think I can tell the answer by the majority of Japanese: they'd rather be in a city with the strictest gun control and absolutely no citizens armed when shooting starts in a big shopping mall...)

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Interesting History of Interpol

From Wikipedia entry:

The first significant move towards creating INTERPOL was in 1914 at the First International Criminal Police Congress. Police officers, lawyers and magistrates from 14 countries gathered in Monaco to discuss arrest procedures, identification techniques, centralized international criminal records and extradition proceedings.^[6] However World War I delayed this initiative and it was not until 1923 that Interpol was founded in Austria as the International Criminal Police (ICP).

Following the Anschluss (Austria's annexation by Germany) in 1938, the organization fell under the control of Nazi Germany, and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to Berlin in 1942. From 1938 to 1945, the presidents of Interpol included Otto Steinhäusl, Reinhard Heydrich, Arthur Nebe, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. All were generals in the SS, and Kaltenbrunner was the highest ranking SS officer executed after the Nuremberg Trial. Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech (Kubiš) and Slovak (Gabčík) patriots in 1942.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the organization was revived as the International Criminal Police Organization by European Allies of World War II officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Its new headquarters were established in Saint-Cloud, a town on the outskirts of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location, Lyon.

Until the 1980s Interpol did not intervene in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in accordance with Article 3 of its Constitution forbidding intervention in 'political' matters.^[7]

On 2 July 2010, former Interpol President Jackie Selebi was found guilty of corruption by the South African High Court in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth $156,000 from a drug trafficker.^[8] After being charged in January 2008, Selebi resigned as president of Interpol and was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner of South Africa.

SS officers, eh..?

1914. The year the World War I started, and one year after the US Federal Reserve was created. Interesting.

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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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More on Diplomatic Immunity to INTERPOL

More on the amendment of Executive Order 12425, done very very quietly by President Obama on December 16, 2009, as this blog mentioned in this post on December 31, 2009. The amendment, if you recall, will give full diplomatic immunity to INTERPOL.

Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America - Is The ICC Next? (Steve Schippert, Clyde Middleton, 12/23/09 ThreatsWatch.org)

The article, in its "Conclusion" section, has this to say:

"....... In light of what we know and can observe, it is our logical conclusion that President Obama's Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans' 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution and beyond the legal reach of our own top law enforcement is a precursor to more damaging moves.

"The pre-requisite conditions regarding the Iraq withdrawal and the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility closure will continue their course. meanwhile, the next move from President Obama is likely an attempt to dissolve the agreements made between President Bush and other states preventing them from turning over American military forces to the ICC (via INTERPOL) for war crimes or any other prosecutions.

"When the paths on the road map converge - Iraq withdrawal, Guantánamo closure, perceived American image improved internationally, and an empowered INTERPOL in the United States - it is probable that President Barack Obama will once again make America a signatory to the International Criminal Court. It will be a move that surrenders American sovereignty to an international body whose INTERPOL enforcement arm has already been elevated above the Constitution and American domestic law enforcement.

"For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL's central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with "inviolable archives" from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds." [emphasis is mine]

American law enforcement officers working within the U.S. Justice Department? That I had to check.

It turns out that the article is correct. Within the U.S. Justice Department, there is indeed the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL (USNCB). On its "Who We Are" page, they say:

"The USNCB is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, and is co-managed by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between the Departments.

"The USNCB is comprised of permanent employees of the Department of Justice and staff detailed from other agencies. Agents, including the USNCB Director and Deputy Director, are detailed to the USNCB from federal and state law enforcement agencies for specified terms. Agents at USNCB are assigned to work in divisions dedicated to specific investigative areas." [emphasis is mine]

The law enforcement agencies detailed to the USNBC are also listed, and they are:

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
• Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
• U.S. Department of State (DOS)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service
• U.S. Secret Service

(EPA and FDA?? Why not throwing in the rest of the executive branch? )

These American agents working for INTERPOL will now have full diplomatic immunity and won't be accountable under the U.S. Constitution.

(And since USNCB is conveniently located within the Justice Department, it would be very easy to move data/documents from the Justice Department to INTERPOL, thus making such data/documents protected by full diplomatic immunity. Oh but they wouldn't do such a thing, would they?)

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Holiday Gifts for Americans: Lumps of Coal

It looks like Americans got the proverbial lump of coal for the holiday gift from their government.

It started in the week before the Christmas week, but the news quietly spread on the Internet during the Christmas week.

Did Obama exempt Interpol from same legal constraints as American law-enforcement? (12/23/09 Hot Air)

The president of the United States did that on December 16 by amending Executive Order 12425 signed by President Reagan and removing the exceptions in the original Order. Mainstream media didn't report. It was bloggers who caught it.

"In Executive Order 12425, Reagan made two exceptions to that status. The first had to do with taxation, but the second was to make sure that Interpol had the same accountability for its actions as American law enforcement — namely, they had to produce records when demanded by courts and could not have immunity for their actions."

Now that's gone, thanks to the presidential signature. Interpol can do whatever it wants in the U.S., and they don't have to tell anyone why they are doing what they are doing.

Then, on Christmas Eve, we were greeted with two pieces of joyful news. First, in the very early morning,

Senate Passes Health Bill (12/24/09 Politico Live Pulse)

So now we have a new "right" - a right to health care insurance. And we don't have a right not to have health care insurance. And the right will be forced upon us with penalties and taxes and jail-time. (Much like spreading "democracy" at gunpoint.)

Then, after the holiday-shortened stock market was closed, Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner announced that the government was going to remove the $400 billion cap on aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the three wards of the state (the third one being AIG):

A Lump of Coal from Treasury (Mark A. Calabria, 12/29/09 Cato Institute)

The existing limit was $200 billion each, total $400 billion. Now the federal government will backstop the entire balance sheets of Fannie and Freddie, and that's over $5.5 trillion dollars. Cato Institute's article speculates that it is not for the support of the U.S. mortgage market but to support large holders (foreign and domestic) of Fannie and Freddie debt instruments.

On Christmas Day, a hilarity and ensuing dismay: a panty bomber struck and failed, and airline passengers get the punishment.

A son of a rich Nigerian banker was assisted by a sharply-dressed man at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam and boarded the plane without passport. Then, just before landing on Detroit, he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his underpants and failed.

As the result, all around the world, people are being subjected to lengthy and probably totally unnecessary pre-boarding checks and other potential intrusions into privacy like whole-body scan and behavioral profiling (whatever that means by this towering intellectual), and a bracelet that can zap you immobile if you are bad ("bad" defined by the panicky flight attendants?).

Then on December 30, a Bloomberg article revealed that Barney Frank's bill for financial overhaul (H.R. 4173) which passed the House include a generous help package for the too-big-to-fail banks: $4 trillion. U.S. taxpayers will have the privilege to pay for it one way (tax) or the other (inflation):

Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank (David Reilly, 12/29/09 Bloomberg)


Happy New Year.

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