His technical background is clearly insufficient in that he doesn't understand the BASIC technical problems in his argument. Yet, he feels he's qualified to authoritatively call for radical government access to our data in a mainstream media publication.
He's changed his position to "need more information to decide". Well DUH! how about getting that information before scaring up a call to backdoor all of our data?
That said, he's got an MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford and a BS in mechanical/aerospace engineering from Princeton. If his technical background isn't sufficient to you, I'm not really sure what to do for you. It seems that you have mistaken him admitting that he doesn't know something as a sign that he is not technical.