Public Citizen sues the U.S.

We wrote before that the United States has claimed that the details of the compensation deal made in exchange for the U.S. withdrawing the gambling sector from WTO commitments are "classified in the interest of national security." That seems pretty ludicrous, no? Ludicrous enough, in fact, that Public Citizen, through our Litigation Group, are suing to force the Bush administration to make the details public.

Read our full press release here; here's an excerpt:

The Bush administration is illegally withholding the details of its offer accepted by the European Union to bind more sectors of the U.S. economy to World Trade Organization (WTO) jurisdiction as part of a settlement relating to a WTO ruling against the U.S. ban on Internet gambling, Public Citizen contended today in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

...The USTR claims the settlement is classified and cannot be released as a matter of national security. Public Citizen is representing journalist Ed Brayton, who filed a FOIA request for the compensation deal. The USTR denied Brayton’s request and his administrative appeal, contending that the settlement was properly classified in the interest of national security.

...The suit asks the court to find that the USTR is illegally withholding the settlement agreement and to order the agency to provide Brayton a copy of the agreement.