I don't totally disagree, although I think you are more than a little unfair in saying that “no one” in government follows the constitutional obligation to respect the will of the people.
But you've also omitted something important in "I expect them to be truthful with me".
Which one of the third of a billion "me" in the USA am I anyway? We are all part of the public. Some of us may not be worthy of knowing all "the truth" the government may be aware of. Not all the time, and sometimes maybe not at all.
That's leaving aside the interesting matter of what and when is “the truth” anyway. I don’t want to hear my government announce “terrorists just blew up a skyscraper” when it turns out three hours later that a gas leak caused by gradual corrosion is what happened. Meanwhile who knows what a pronouncement like that would cause citizens to do against their own eventual best interests?
I actually expect government to withhold certain information from the public at certain times for assorted reasons. I also expect government to realize that in a democracy, we the people ARE the foundation of our government... so some pushback, not to say tidal waves, are par for the course when the general public believes (or suspects) that withholding information has gone too far, or that trying to get information normally considered private has gone too far.
Bottom lines here, for me: I disagreed with the government's position on Apple's requirement to create a tool to open the phone in question (never mind provide precedent to ask for it again, or to reuse it). Nonetheless I also disagree with any who now suggest the FBI (or Apple, or the firm that the FBI says it hired to break the dead terrorists' work phone) has any requirement to disclose to the public how it was done or what it found on the phone. I’m willing to let the court(s) decide which if any parties have any further obligation to anyone else in this particular matter.
That's my opinion even though I would dearly love to know how the phone was broken and what if anything was on it. But that’s just my curiosity. I don't personally believe any of those entities have any obligation to inform us and I don't think they will (although it's possible some disinformation will be put out and about, or already is, by any of the parties).
If there was nothing on the damn phone, it could be viewed as proof that the government obviously wasted a lot of people's time and money getting to that realization. Still, not to try to retrieve any info could be seen as dereliction of duty. Life is not perfect. Everyone has tasks to assign or do and in the end all any of us can do is muddle through best we can. We posting in forums need to remember it's far easier to have an opinion than to be in government and take (or omit) actions that cause the rest of us to second-guess those actions.
Perhaps I was a bit robust in stating no one. I should rephrase and and say no one that has achieve any high ranking power in government. There are most likely lower level people that still take their oaths seriously. However, I am hard pressed to note anyone at upper levels that has not in some way been corrupted by the arrogance of power, the corrupting influence of money, or the self righteousness of their own ego.
I have often thought the best public servant would be found in the same way we find jury members. Someone competent yet forced to spend a short time representing their fellow constituents. I would rather see a reluctant legislator and executive doing their civic duty, than a politician seeking a life time in office forced to chase political contributions to stay in office.
As to being worthy of the truth, I believe every citizen is worthy of the truth, should expect and demand it from the people that represent and serve them. I do understand the need to not reveal information during an ongoing investigation for instance. Or battle plans to military action. I do not include 50 year sealed documents from investigations. Or lies to congress or courts. Nor unduly alarming the populace with threats of terrorist attacks to further funding efforts and abridge our our civil liberty in the name of safety.
Their are so many other threats to our lives that statistically are more likely to happen every day. The undue emphasis on "terrorism" over other more likely threats is a clear indication to me that their are agendas at work, far beyond keeping me safe.
As to the matter of how the phone was opened up, I am fairly sure to my satisfaction from reading the various articles and advertisements from Cellebrite, that a device was used to reset the attempt counter after each unlock try. Thus preventing the phone from every reaching the ten count erase feature if it had been set. This would allow the attached device computer to run through the 10,000 possible codes in less than a day, unlocking the phone.
You will note this is not a backdoor, but rather a device that resets the counter and brute forces by trying every possible code. FBI knew about this, has used it before as the previous $2M in purchase orders shows. So FBI director lied to congress when he stated they had tried everything and only Apple could help. Also note the phone in the video being unlocked is a 5c.
I further conclude, by the actions of the murderers in destroying their personal cell phones and hard drive, that very little if any actionable information was obtained the the Health Department issued phone. At most it would reveal GPS data regarding the 18 minutes the law enforcement lost track of them during the chase. This was disclosed as information law enforcement was seeking in an article early on in this debate.
I further anticipated that phones with chip enclave, 5s and newer, would not be susceptible to the device used on the 5c phone. Which the FBI has now even stated. This in no way prevents the FBI in trying to help other law enforcement agencies break into newer iPhones. Nor does it indicate their ability or success rate at doing so.
From all the statements and actions taken by the FBI, it is quite clear to me that this attempt was made, using this particular phone, to induce Apple to write code to break into their own phone. Once done, would no longer allow Apple the excuse that they themselves had no means to get into iPhones. This has been a sore point with law enforcement since iOS 7 and the 5s with enclave chip.
Since unlock code is kept on those phones and not transmitted to anyone even Apple. They were no longer able to provide phone searches on court ordered phones. People should note that Apple has always complied with court orders to unlock phones. And continues to do so with data backed up in the iCloud. As do all other device manufacturers and carriers.
Apple has announced they are working on making iCloud more secure. And they are always seeking methods both hardware and software to secure the phone itself. I have noted many respondents to this issue lump all iPhones together. In matters of security, which phone, what chip, and what software are critical as to how secure the phone is. If you own a 5s, 6, or 6s phone and wish to keep your data as secure as possible use the latest iOS software and at minimum an 8 digit or longer passcode.
The major battle on security vs. access by law enforcement is yet to be had. This will be happening over the next year or two as legislation to force manufacturers to include back dorm access will be attempted. The really ridiculous part to all this commotion is that there are numerous apps and third party software that can be used to encrypt emails and messages between any phones. Those truelly hiding something of a criminal nature make use of these. In the end legislating a back door will only make it possible for all our phones to be broken into by some governments or hackers as they will know it exists and will work to uncover it.
