Interpol Chief on Beck and Gingrich:'Not Within the Realm of Reality'
The chief of Interpol—the international police organization based in Lyon, France—is denouncing as “false and irresponsible” a conspiracy theory spreading through the right-wing blogosphere suggesting that President Obama has given the agency new powers to investigate and arrest U.S. citizens. The claim stems from an executive order Obama signed on Dec. 17 that gives Interpol the same “immunities and privileges” as other international organizations with offices in the United States. White House officials say the order is routine—and was actually in the works during the Bush administration. But in recent days, the idea that Obama has empowered a “global police force” to operate inside the country has gained new currency thanks to endorsements by several high-profile conservative figures, including Fox News host Glenn Beck and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In a spot with Bill O’Reilly last week, Gingrich said that Obama had “quietly” signed an order that lifts “all the constraints” on Interpol and gives it “extra” legal powers to investigate Americans. “This is not within the realm of reality,” says Ronald Noble, Interpol’s secretary-general, who formerly served as the Treasury Department’s chief law-enforcement official. What especially worries him, Noble says, is that the comments by Gingrich and others could undermine one of Interpol’s chief missions—helping the U.S. and other countries identify terrorists trying to cross international borders.
To some extent, the Interpol discussion is just the latest chapter in the wacky conspiracy wars that Obama’s presidency has spawned. (One right-wing blogger on Prophecy News Watch cited Obama’s order as further evidence he was the Antichrist and would use Interpol agents “with known ties to Muslim countries” to crush political opponents.) It has also been fueled by a misunderstanding about what Interpol does: it serves as a clearinghouse for police agencies around the world to share information, posting “red notices” about criminal suspects and maintaining a master database of stolen passports. “We have no authority to arrest anyone,” says Noble. The executive order Obama signed merely gave the employees of a small Interpol office in New York the same privileges that Ronald Reagan granted other international organizations in 1983, like exempting them from certain taxes and fees and protecting their files from the Freedom of Information Act. But by “scaring people unnecessarily,” Noble says, Gingrich will make Americans “hesitate” to share information with the agency. Gingrich, for his part, isn’t backing down. “Why does he need immunity at all?” he said when told of Noble’s comments. Obama’s executive order, he added, was mainly about advancing an agenda “on the left” aimed at using “international law to coerce Americans.”
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Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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