I recently interviewed Bill Katovsky, author of the new book, Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out, and Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq. Patriots Act is an engrossing oral history of whistleblowers, dissenters, and others concerned about what is really going on in society, especially behind the closed doors of government agencies, where whistleblowing is treated as an act of treason rather than one of patriotism.
SB: What made you decide to write this book when some would say plenty has already been written about the problems caused by the Patriot Act?
BK: Actually, the book has little to do or say about the Patriot Act itself, but with how “patriots” should and must act, and why dissent must not be conflated with disloyalty. I used the term “Patriots Act” as the book title in an attempt to be timely, ironic, and tap into the emotional and political zeitgeist. The Patriot Act that was passed into law (and renewed) is an acronym for Providing Appropriate Tools for Responding, Intercepting, and Obstructing Terrorism. Leave it to the government to come up with something marketable and euphemistic like this.
It’s an Orwellian term, because those on Capitol Hill who opposed it were branded as being “unpatriotic and un-American.” Challenging the post-9/11 White House mindset that said "you are either with us or against us" represents the core thesis of my book. I wanted to interview Americans from all walks of life who dared to speak out at the risk of suffering reprisal.
Many of the book’s interviewees had nothing whatsoever to do with the "anti-terror" legislation that was recklessly shoehorned into law right after 9/11. But they were all patriots for defending free speech and their right to dissent. For example, I interviewed a young couple from Texas who were arrested for simply wearing anti-Bush t-shirts at a Fourth of July event in Charleston, West Virginia where the President was attending.
I also interviewed federal whistleblowers like former FBI agent Coleen Rowley who wrote a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller that lambasted pre-9/11 agency failures. Perhaps the terrorist attacks could have been prevented had the FBI reacted properly to critical intelligence it had, but it refused to do so, and yet Mueller and the FBI tried to whitewash the truth after the fact. Rowley’s memo later made the cover of Time magazine--and she was named Person of the Year in 2003.
Other interview subjects included Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in the early 70s to stop the Vietnam War. Today, he urges Bush administration officials to also step forward and tell the truth about the lies and distortions that surround the Iraq War.
Article comments
1 - gonzo marx
some really Good Stuff here...
excellent Interview and timely material...
"it's got a great beat, Dick, and I can bug out to it"
/golfclap
well done!
Excelsior!
2 - Lumpy
Sounds like another example of a good book on an important topic where serious analysis is sacrificed on the altar of leftist bias. I should really say partisan bias because right wingers are often just as bad.
But it was a good interview and made me interested enough to at least leaf through the book next time i'm in borders.
Did he really interview krugman? what qualifications he has on any topic relating to patriotism is beyond me.
3 - gonzo marx
one would think that ANY American can have a vlaid view about Patriotism...
that whole Individual thing
i'll hold off on Judgement until i can actually read the book
but the Interview, and the subject matter is very pertinent in today;s circumstances
any disagreement on that?
and one cannot Objectively state with any degree of accuracy that therehave not been numerous documented cases of some partisans labellign ANY dissent with the "anti-american" or "america hater" kind of labels
and THAT is the Point
Excelsior?
4 - Scott Butki
Glad you guys liked the interview. We had to cut it some and the original is here.
5 - Scott Butki
Take 2 - the full interview is at my blog site.
6 - Scott Butki
I was thinking about this interview today because of one comment that was in the interview that I cut out because of space limitations.
I'll post it in full below.
I mention it because of the death of journalist Oriana Fallaci, who Temple Stark wrote a good profile of.
7 - Scott Butki
The excerpt:
"Would I be correct in assuming Studs Terkel, one of the best practitioners of oral histories, was an influence? Who are some of the other influences on your writings?
Absolutely, I am in great debt to Studs. I was introduced to him as a freshman at the University of Michigan in 1975. I read Working straight through Thanksgiving weekend. I had never read something of that breadth before. I wasnt a journalist then. But his brand of reportage influenced me greatly. It just took awhile to germinate. I later went to Berkeley for grad school in political science. While there, I read Oriana Fallacis Interviews with History, which made me realize how much skill and insight are required to really get to the soul of one's interview subject. Shes the best in the game at this. The gold standard. I recommend anyone interested in interviewing a public figure to read her interview with then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger under Nixon. Listening to him talk, she wrote in her intro, is like a dull rain hitting the roof. She made Kissinger disclose how much he thought Nixon depended on him for his expertise on global issues; he compared himself to a Western gunslinger, the man in the white cowboy hat. The net effect of her interview--it first appeared in The New Republic--was twofold: Nixon was furious with Kissinger; and the interview became a major media event.