The FBI vs Apple

A number of news stories have centered on the FBI and Apple fiasco as a triumph of civil liberties over national security.  That is a ridiculous assumption.  Civil liberties never win out over national security, but only here in the US can we openly discuss it. 

No place in the world has these kinds of discussions in the open courts where everything you do is public.  If the FBI couldn't get into the iPhone, that kind of case should have gone to the FISA court where the evidence can be classified.  Only this administration gets fixated on doing national security in public where any of our enemies can see what is going on.  They do that in the name of transparency which does not apply to national security issues like these - not just in the U.S. but in almost every other country in the world.  

If Apple can't get into the phone of a terrorist, the fact that it can't shows a vulnerability in the U.S. Law enforcement and Intelligence Communities that can be exploited by other terrorists.  Somebody must have misplaced the classification guides in the FBI to have this made public.  Having the fact that it can be done bantered about in the press is equally an advantage to our adversaries.   We don't hear the Russians, Chinese, French, Belgians, the Saudis or any of the other countries that have terrorists talking about what capabilities they have to undo the communications of their own.  None of them ask for Apple's help;  they demand it.  Inside their own countries they aren't making public statements about the level of help they get, or don't get, from Apple, or any of their other vendors, but they do counter terrorism operations much the same as we do.  

Apple is not being helped by all of this kind of open discussion, especially because it has opened the door for all of these little companies that do know how to crack the boxes to sell more products that help others do the job.  Their marketing people are probably writing stories that allude to those capabilities in their products.  Look at YouTube and see some of those results.  This is a problem that the customers of these kinds of devices need to correct.  Apple would like its customers to believe their data is safe, something that is good for the US.  

The FBI is not being helped by these discussions and that may be the main reason why the suit was finally dropped.  In a FISA court they would not have had to bring an action that was public and force Apple to take a stand on an issue that was transparently misguided.  The Director must have known that, since he came from that background.  I can't help but imagine he must have been pressured by somebody outside of the FBI to bring this case in an open court.  Whoever encouraged that needs to go.