So, there’s stuff on the alledged terrorist’s phone that can’t be retrieved on the network, it’s only on the phone so the FBI is demanding that Apple give them the key in. It’s just a lock, why not have your own FBI cyber guys hack it, simple, get a bunch of phones just like it and practice, defeat this 10 time password thing, disable it, and move on in. You have to believe with government’s inexhaustible resources that they not only could do it, but probably already have.
But that’s not what they seem to want to do, it seems more important to the government to make Apple capitulate and so set the precedent of giving government the right to always be able to demand access to all built in privacy controls on devices. Let them have that what’s next, mandated tracking chips?(I think we already have those) or worse, whatever that could be? But with this precedent set it would make it simple, the gov simply asks and the device makers automatically comply, is that the kind of country we want? No, but is it the kind of country we need? Well, government certainly will always think so.