. . . does anybody know for sure what is going on here?
Remember how absolutely vital to national security and the safety of all Americans it was that the FBI get the data contained on the Apple iPhone of the San Bernardino killers?
Well, they’ve got it! And, presumably the world has been saved and Americans can rest easy…or have they got it?
With this Justice Department, the likelihood that anything the American people are told has any relationship to truth is unlikely, at best.
Did they successfully “crack” the phone, with the help of an Israeli tech firm, or were they going to lose, in precedent-setting fashion, their case to force Apple to hand over the means to do so? If the latter, given how the Obama administration operates, they may have decided not to press this case to override private property rights and other related Constitutional privacy protections. They may have chosen to wait until they find a case allowing them to achieve such objectives much easier, perhaps the Baltimore case?
Finally, is there or was there ever any justifiable reason for the FBI’s all out offensive against Apple? With Obama, we may never know.
(Far fetched? Maybe but Andrew McCarthy has another brilliant column providing insight into just how the Obama Justice Dept. operates. Just a little background. Can anything they say or do be trusted?)
From The Register (UK)
US govt says it has cracked killer’s iPhone, legs it from Apple fight
It’s all over! Egg and FBI faces in perfect alignment
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) says it no longer needs Apple to help unlock the iPhone 5C used by one of the San Bernardino killers.
In a filing [PDF] made Monday to the Central California District Court, prosecutors say they have extracted data from the smartphone belonging to slain San Bernardino killer Syed Farook, thus avoiding a risky legal showdown with Apple.
“The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple Inc. mandated by the court’s order compelling Apple Inc. to assist agents in search, dated February 16, 2016,” the DoJ said in its request that the court order be withdrawn. The request is expected to be granted by Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym.
OK, but not to say they are incompatible reports but, why the push on Apple in the first place?
From macworld.com: DOJ knew of possible iPhone-cracking method before Apple case
The DEA filed a warrant request to use an iPhone cracking technology weeks before the FBI went to court against Apple
More reading:
Via Californiablog.org: Israeli firm Cellebrite is reportedly helping FBI crack San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone
Via Fortune: FBI Cracks Apple iPhone: What People Are Saying
Via BBC: Cracked iPhone: Should you be worried?
DLH
