FBI DIRECTOR FIRES BACK AT APPLE:“This Is About The Victims And Justice”

The director of the FBI has penned an open letter to Apple asking them to comply with a judge’s order for the company to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the "San Bernardino shooters."

Apple has so far refused the federal order, claiming it would undermine encryption by creating a backdoor that could potentially be used on other future devices.

But James Comey’s emotive letter posted on Law Fare Sunday calls on the tech giant to see beyond the supposed implications of the hack and reflect on the ‘context of this heart-breaking case’.

Comey writes that the FBI ‘doesn’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land’ and that the matter is ‘about the victims and justice. Fourteen people were slaughtered and many more had their lives and bodies ruined’.

James Comey 

The director of the FBI, James Comey (top) has penned an open letter to Apple asking them to comply with a judge’s order for the company to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. This comes after Tim Cook (right) wrote a ferocious refusal of the federal order Tuesday

Comey: ‘So I hope folks will remember what terrorists did to innocent Americans at a San Bernardino office gathering’. Pictured: Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook who killed 14 people in a December 2 shooting at a holiday luncheon for Farook’s co-workers

‘We owe them a thorough and professional investigation under law. That’s what this is. The American people should expect nothing less from the FBI.’

In response to the Apple CEO’s suggestion the order ‘has implications far beyond the legal case at hand’, Comey writes that the particular legal issue that the hack poses is ‘actually quite narrow’.

He explains that they simply ‘want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s pass code without the phone essentially self-destructing’ and do not want to set a ‘master key lose on the land’.

Comey ends the piece by saying that it’s not up to Apple – that ‘sell stuff for a living’ – or the FBI – ‘which investigates for a living’ – to decide on whether the proposed hack is right, it is up to the American people to decide how they want to be governed in a world of the ‘unknown’.

FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY’S LETTER TO APPLE IN FULL

The San Bernardino litigation isn’t about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice.

Fourteen people were slaughtered and many more had their lives and bodies ruined. We owe them a thorough and professional investigation under law. That’s what this is. The American people should expect nothing less from the FBI.

The particular legal issue is actually quite narrow. The relief we seek is limited and its value increasingly obsolete because the technology continues to evolve.

We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly.

That’s it. We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land. I hope thoughtful people will take the time to understand that.

Maybe the phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. Maybe it doesn’t.

But we can’t look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don’t follow this lead.

Reflecting the context of this heart-breaking case, I hope folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other.

Although this case is about the innocents attacked in San Bernardino, it does highlight that we have awesome new technology that creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure: privacy and safety.

That tension should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living. It also should not be resolved by the FBI, which investigates for a living.

It should be resolved by the American people deciding how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before.

We shouldn’t drift to a place—or be pushed to a place by the loudest voices—because finding the right place, the right balance, will matter to every American for a very long time.

So I hope folks will remember what terrorists did to innocent Americans at a San Bernardino office gathering and why the FBI simply must do all we can under the law to investigate that.

And in that sober spirit, I also hope all Americans will participate in the long conversation we must have about how to both embrace the technology we love and get the safety we need.

He emphasizes the delicate balance between ’embracing the technology we love’ and ‘getting the safety we need’.

Comey’s stirring words come as the matter escalated further on Friday, when the Justice Department demanded that a judge ‘immediately order Apple to give it technical tools to access the phone’.

Prosecutors declared that Apple’s refusal to comply ‘appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy rather than a legal rationale’.

Hours after the DOJ filed the motion, Trump called for a boycott on the company until it complies with the court order.

The company had already been given an order last Tuesday by Judge Sheri Pym to assist in hacking the phone, which illicited the fiery response from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who released a message to its customers explaining how the government wants to ‘hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers’.