Laura Poitras, 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference, Marriott, 10:54 AM by JONATHAN VALANIA
PHAWKER: What do you make of the so-called NSA reform legislation currently making the rounds of Congress?
LAURA POITRAS: It’s good that we are actually having this debate. Obviously, in a democracy we shouldn’t have secret laws and secret interpretations of laws that violate the Constitution, but [the reform legislation currently before Congress] doesn’t go far enough.
PHAWKER: What do you say to people who insist that we would have been right where we are right now, having this debate about the overbroad powers of the surveillance state without Snowden’s revelations, that they were unnecessary and destructive?
POITRAS: I think the answer is pretty self-evident. Obviously, that’s not true.