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Conservatives have long feared that America is losing its sovereignty to international organizations, dating back to the John Birch Society issuing warnings about “one world government” in the 1950s.

And perhaps nothing evokes this fear more than the possibility of an international police or military force with power over American citizens. A recent executive order signed by President Barack Obama dealing with the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, has reignited those fears.

During a Jan. 4, 2010, appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said: “The president recently signed very quietly an executive order that basically releases Interpol from all American constraints. Freedom of Information Acts don’t apply. All the constraints that you as a citizen could use against an American police force, based on a recent Obama-signed executive order, give Interpol, which has relationships with Syria, with Libya, with Iran, it gives them all sorts of extralegality in the United States in a way that has never ever before been offered to Interpol. And I’m very curious as to why the president is doing this. … What I’m told is that it could lead to a number of investigations by Interpol in the United States, potentially aimed at American officials. And the question I would raise is, why would the president of the United States give that kind of extralegal protection to an international police force?”

PolitiFact | Gingrich claims Obama’s order will let Interpol investigate American officials.

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