Wired interviews Viet Dinh who helped draft the Patriot Act. I found the interview a major waste of words since it’s very obvious that the interviewer herself is strongly in the liberal camp as the way she asks questions it’s basically an accusation of the Patriot Act. These sharp questions bring on a rather gruff and defensive response from Mr Dinh.
Reading this interview just brought disappointment with both the left and the right sides back since both the interviewer and the interviewee seem to be spending more time word jousting than bringing up a meaningful conversation. Which is sad since I don’t follow politics that much. And having to slog through this just lessens my desire.
Here are some tidbits:
WN: Some critics have called you the purveyor of the most sweeping curtailment of freedom since the McCarthy era. Is that an exaggeration?
Dinh: I think it is very easy to employ sweeping rhetoric and personal denunciations. I think it is much harder to back it up with facts and concrete examples. I seek to engage in this conversation by giving as much facts as I can and letting the efforts of the Department of Justice, the administration and my own to be judged by the people, by history and by eternity. Where I err, I obviously am not hesitant in recognizing my mistakes. I wish people who criticize me would just pick up the phone and ask me specific questions, like we are engaging right now, so that we can isolate the issues of difference, so that we can engage in a constructive dialogue rather than a destructive dialogue.
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