The debate over the government’s authority to access private encrypted data on digital devices was amplified when the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray called unbreakable encryption an ‘urgent public safety issue.’

The National Security Agency’s silence in the Apple-FBI story is probably not so surprising. But that hasn’t stopped people from dragging the NSA’s name into the conversation. The latest to do so is Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism chair under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Clarke appeared on NPR with David Greene and said...