Viet Dinh Defends The Patriot Act

Grrr writes "Wired News has posted an interview with Viet Dinh, who worked on the PATRIOT Act for the Justice Department. In the past he said, "Security without liberty - it's not an America I would want to live in." And also, in this interview, "I think right now at this time and this place the greatest threat to American liberty comes from al-Qaida and their sympathizers rather than from the men and women of law enforcement and national security who seek to defend America and her people against that threat." Several of his replies are (predictably / necessarily / discouragingly) less than direct."

Comments

Wonderful---more P.R. bullcrap from the Government

[PM4RK5]

NO, they are wrong. There is a distinct difference between liberties and safety! I don't see how people can be duped into believing that terrorist groups affect liberties!

The only reason they affect liberties is because Congress passes things like the Patriot Act. Otherwise, all they affect is safety.

Terrorists affect SAFETY, Congress affects LIBERTY. Get it straight, and we can all stop falling for this crap coming from Washington. If they said these terrorist groups were the greatest threat to our safety, then I'd buy it. But they are, however, NOT a threat to our liberty.

The Patriot Act is the threat to our liberty, effectively nullifying the Bill of Rights when it comes to searches and siezures, and the right to a FAIR and SPEEDY trial.

Government disheartens me. So do the people who buy crap like this from them and cannot draw the distinction for themselves. Just my (flaming) two cents.

This isn't supposed to be flamebait, but mod it as such if you think it is.

BULLSHIT!

[Anonymous Coward]

The Patriot Act is now being used for non terrorist cases.

Re:The greatest threat to my liberty...

[MsGeek]

I did a speech about USA-PATRIOT for Speech 101 last semester. In doing the research for the speech, I found that some of the most damaging aspects of the act are built atop a law passed during the Carter Administration: the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. And during the Clinton Administration the Legislature and the Executive Branch was also quite busy coming up with anti-privacy regulations like the Clipper Chip and the DMCA.

Basically, what I'm saying is that neither party has been particularly good on matters of personal liberties and the right to privacy. The Republicans are just a lot more blatant about their intentions than the Democrats. And the Republicans tend to go a little farther and push a little harder than the Democrats do.

Just keeping this debate honest...