Obama's Secret Police: How a conspiracy theory traveled from the Tea Party movement to Congress

[marmar]

from Mother Jones:



Obama's Secret Police
How a radical conspiracy theory traveled from the Tea Party movement to the US Congress.

— By Stephanie Mencimer

Fri Feb. 5, 2010 3:00 AM PST


Does Obama want to impose martial law to shut down the Tea Party movement?

For months, much of the right-wing blogosphere has been fuming about Executive Order 12425, which Obama amended in mid-December. The one-paragraph document grants Interpol, the international law enforcement agency based in France, special privileges within the United States—mainly immunity from the Freedom of Information Act and from lawsuits over activity considered part of its official duties. It's no secret police conspiracy.

But thanks to Glenn Beck, the National Review, Newt Gingrich, and others, this obscure directive has fueled a firestorm of right-wing paranoia. Conservative activists warn that Obama intends to use Interpol as a "secret police" with the power to knock down doors and arrest law-abiding American citizens. No matter that Interpol agents don't even carry guns and have no right to arrest people, or that its American office boasts all of five people. And the hysteria over the executive order is not confined to the Tea Party movement. It has also reached the highest levels of politics—that is, the US Congress.

In January, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) introduced a resolution that would require a repeal of the order. "As a former FBI agent, I believe that giving INTERPOL blanket exemptions is dangerous," Rogers explained in a statement. "This change ties the hands of American law enforcement and prevents full access to information that could be crucial for on-going U.S. investigations related to criminal or national security activity. This is no time to be weakening the ability of law enforcement to defend our nation." ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/02/obama-secret-police

[liberal N proud]

1. You get 600 tin foil hats in a room and who knows what that does

to the magnetic fields.

Their conspiracy minds were on overload last weekend, then the queen of stupid showed up egging them on.

[marmar]

2. True dat.....

[thunder rising]

3. Rogers is in the running for the Michele Bachmann award. Michele must act to regain the lead

'Cause we all know, nobody threatens Michele Bachmann's tinfoil empire.

[marmar]

4. Not to worry. Michele rarely disappoints when it comes to amping up the crazy.

[COLGATE4]

5. Mike Rogers is a fucking idiot

He represented my district when we lived in Michigan and is widely viewed as an airhead whose only claim to fame is that he was once an FBI agent. This type of shit is typical for him.

[MinM]

6. That's my Congressman :o(

Rep. Mike Rogers(:crazy:-MI), aided by the 2000 Presidential Election, just barely squeaked into office by 111-votes over the very strong Dianne Byrum. Since then the only thing crazier than some of Rogers' proclamations, has been the fact that the Democratic Party here in Michigan has never run a serious candidate/campaign against him since. :wtf:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rogers_(Michigan_politician)

In June 2009, following a trip to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Rogers accused the Obama administration of secretly ordering the FBI to start reading Miranda rights to suspected terrorists held at U.S. military detention facilities in Afghanistan after witnessing it at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility...

[Demeter]

7. Based on Current Evidence, Obama Couldn't Run A Secret Police

not even if Cheney left explicit instructions.