The debate about the NSA wire tapping or detainee abuse or military tribunals is always framed as a choice between our safety and our civil liberties. The question is always, 'Should we give up our civil liberties for our security?' This is a false question. In fact, I would argue that giving up our civil liberties makes us less safe.

The problem before 9/11 was not that our intelligence agencies did not have enough raw data to prevent the attacks. The problem was that they did not have the resources (or the will, but that's a whole other entry) to analyze it, to sift through the mountain of raw data that they had to find the useful bits and put them together (dots and all that). When you broaden your intelligence gathering, you do so to diminishing returns. You get a lot more data, but less of it is useful. This makes the analysis problem worse. It increases the size of that mountain of data exponentially, while only increasing the number of useful bits by very little. This makes us less safe.

Two whistleblowers — one in Italy, one in Greece — uncovered a secret bugging system installed in cell phones around the world. Both met with untimely ends. The resultant scandals have received little press in the United States, despite the profound implications for American critics of the Bush administration.

Last month, Italian telecommunications security expert Adamo Bove either leapt or was pushed from a freeway overpass; he left no note and had no history of depression. Last year (March, 2005), Greek telecommunications expert Costas Tsalikidis met with a similarly enigmatic end. Both had uncovered American attempts to eavesdrop on government officials, anti-war activists, and private businessmen.

In this week's ClarkCast, General Clark discusses his views on General Hayden's nomination and the NSA spying program.

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