Policy laundering

A collection of civil liberties campaign groups have set up the Policy Laundering Project. From the website:

"The United States and to a lesser extent the European Union are trying to force international institutions as well as less powerful nations to adopt a wide variety of bad policies as part of the so-called “war on terror.” Often this includes trying to push unpopular and regressive policies that the U.S., the EU and its 25 member states cannot get imposed domestically through international organizations as a “back door” means of adoption.

In short, security officials across many nations are increasingly “going global” – not only striking cooperative agreements with each other but also working together to escape domestic legal and political controls by working through international organizations. It is vital that civil liberties organizations, privacy offiicials, and others with an interest in overseeing law enforcement learn to similarly operate at a global level lest officials succed in pushing through out-of-balance security policies that do not reflect other important values such as privacy and fairness.

This Website is intended to serve as a central clearinghouse of information and advocacy materials to help citizens, governments, and civil society groups to monitor international bodies and combat the strategy of policy laundering."

Thanks to Spyblog for the link.