EO 13524 is an amendment to Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12425, issued in 1983, which granted the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) many of the same privileges and exemptions offered to sovereign nations as outlined in the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945, with noted limitations regarding property, search and seizure exceptions and general accountability. President Obama's amendment removes those specific restrictions as noted below:

Executive Order -- Amending Executive Order 12425
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
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.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 16, 2009.

To put it simply, under the amended EO 12425, Interpol is authorized to conduct covert surveillance operations on U.S. soil and to investigate American citizens with no accountability whatsoever; no congressional oversight, no FBI involvement, no Freedom of Information Act requests, no documentation or justification required. What's more, Interpol operatives will function with complete and total immunity such as that granted to foreign dignitaries.

Andy McCarthy writes at National Review:

Interpol, however, is also an active law-enforcement agency, so critical privileges and immunities (set forth in Section 2(c) of the International Organizations Immunities Act) were withheld. Specifically, Interpol's property and assets remained subject to search and seizure, and its archived records remained subject to public scrutiny under provisions like the Freedom of Information Act. Being constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans is what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical.

Should this concern the average American? Surely only the guilty among us need to fear such actions.

While the constitutionality of the Executive Order itself is often debated, it should be noted that granting various immunities under the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 is not unheard of, and Mr. Obama is well within "accepted" constitutional authority to alter such immunities under that act. But the reasons behind granting such sweeping authority to an international entity and the ramifications for our own constitutional sovereignty are legitimate questions that must be raised.

Interpol is already well entrenched within our law enforcement systems and will most likely continue to work closely and openly with all American organizations. Investigations are generally carried out by the host nation's existing police force and should transgressions occur, a sitting President has the power to easily revoke these new privileges. It still begs the question as to why the amendment was necessary to begin with.

Conspiracy buffs are quick to point to such things as the recent acquisition of 200 million rounds of handgun ammunition by our own Dept. of Homeland Security or the following from The Liberty Voice:

Russian Military Analysts are reporting to Prime Minister Putin that US President Barack Obama has issued orders to his Northern Command's (USNORTHCOM) top leader, US Air Force General Gene Renuart, to "begin immediately" increasing his military forces to 1 million troops by January 30, 2010, in what these reports warn is an expected outbreak of civil war within the United States before the end of winter.

One would assume that such actions play into the grand "FEMA Camp" and Executive Order conspiracy as noted throughout the darkest corners of the Internet such as that found here.

While such distractions might make for an interesting read, I am by no means suggesting that our President is planning to enslave the United States population - at least not in the immediate future. We may be on a slow, inexorable slide towards eventual one world government, but that's a different post altogether.

One of the only possible explanations for the Obama amendment would have to involve the potential war crimes prosecutions of George Bush and Dick Cheney as the hard left has been salivating over for years. Bowing to a re-energized International law precedent also paves the way for a guiltless resolution to Gitmo and any potential future issues with enemy combatants, unless of course, they're captured on the battlefield, offered constitutional protections and flown to the U.S. for trial.