Wired News: The Patriot Act Is Your Friend

Viet Dinh has been called a 'political pit bull' and 'a foot soldier' for Attorney General John Ashcroft. But the 36-year-old author of the Patriot Act prefers to be called an 'attendant of freedom.-- A must read interview!

An Excerpt:
Wired News: Is there anything that you would change about the Patriot Act in light of how it's been implemented?

Dinh: I think the overall answer is generally no. I do, however, recognize that the act has been mischaracterized and misunderstood and has engendered a lot of well-meaning and genuine fear, even if that fear is unfounded. The issue is not one of substance but one of perception. But perception is also very important because we do not want the people, however many of them, to fear the government when that fear is unfounded.
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Wired News: You once wrote that the rule of government was to maximize the zone of liberty around each person. You said, "Security without liberty -- it's not an America I would want to live in."

Dinh: I firmly believe that liberty should not be traded off for some sense of security. I think the harder task is to determine our best tools we can have in order to protect our security, while at the same time ascertain the safeguards that will be necessary in order to protect against abuse of that tool and misuse of it at the expense of privacy or liberty.