Treaties obligate American (and Americans) to adhere to agreements with another country. Treaties are supposed to be negotiated by the Executive branch (president) and approved by the Legislative branch (congress).
The President is refusing to release the text of a proposed treaty for "national security" reasons. This is ridiculous and contrary to the American form of Constitutional government.
Copyright treaty is classified for 'national security'
by Declan McCullagh
Last September, the Bush administration defended the unusual secrecy over an anti-counterfeiting treaty being negotiated by the U.S. government, which some liberal groups worry could criminalize some peer-to-peer file sharing that infringes copyrights.
Now President Obama's White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."
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