Richard Clarke, a former senior counterterrorism official who served under George W. Bush, is siding with Apple against the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI), who have dragged the trillion dollar company into court for dubious, dishonest reasons. The FBI is seeking a court ruling to force Apple to unlock the iPhone of the main terrorist behind the San Bernardino attacks that occurred in December 2015.

Apple has resisted, as it would set a legal precedent allowing the FBI constant access to their computer systems, software and future innovations, for surreptitious spying purposes. This would greatly damage Apple, as the public would associate it with the FBI, an agency Americans historically hate and are rightfully suspicious of in many ways. Many articles and online comments reveal Americans hate the FBI. From the injustices of the civil rights era to the present, public contempt for the FBI has only grown. 

On March 14, 2016 counterterrorism official Clarke and others stated the same thing the Judiciary Report previously wrote days prior on March 11, 2016 in the "FBI Using San Bernardino Terrorist Attack As A Power Grab At Apple" article, revealing that the FBI does not need Apple to crack the iPhone of the terrorist. The reason I knew the FBI is lying about this matter regarding Apple is there is a mobile phone/internet shop in London I have used since 2012 to quickly access the internet while on the road and for 15 British pounds sterling, they unlock mobile phones in a few minutes to a half an hour. I've seen them do it. They ask a series of questions to ascertain ownership, then unlock the phone for the fee. It is not some clandestine shop. It is a licensed company providing many legal phone and internet services.

There are other companies like it. There are similar companies in America as well. So, in short, the FBI is lying about being unable to unlock the mobile phone of the San Bernardino terrorist ringleader. There are companies who do these things. Not that many, but they exist and are not hard to find.

The FBI just wants an illegal foothold at Apple to violate the privacy of American and global citizens, ranging from everyday folks to billionaires to influential domestic and international politicians all over the world, who have Apple products such as iPhones. The FBI would then share this illegal stranglehold and spying foothold with the NSA and CIA (among others). Essentially, it would damage Apple beyond repair, harming a viable U.S. business that employs many people and accounts for a significant amount of revenue in America.

The irony of it all is the arrogant psychopaths running the FBI and CIA are envious, ill willed, paranoid people resentful of those with valuable assets. The FBI and CIA can't replace the value of Apple once they damage and potentially destroy it with this madness. The FBI did not create Apple. The FBI are not intelligent enough to have done so, yet arrogantly think they should be in control of this company above their intelligence level and paid grade.

Exactly who do they think they are to be meddling in such an innovative, valuable company they do not even understand the inner workings of in any manner. Does the FBI realize how dumb they look to the public when they do such things. It's like watching a hyperactive, restless monkey take a paintbrush to a Picasso. You just know the painting is going to be irretrievably ruined and devalued.

But that's just it with the FBI, they are in their own strange world, detached from reality. Remember when the FBI arrogantly announced to the world they had come up with a new form of science to explain the anthrax case they stitched up and framed innocent scientist Bruce Ivins for, who ended up committing suicide due to severe FBI bullying, harassment and crazy threats from them against him, his family and friends (The FBI has been framing people for crimes: New Evidence Reveals The FBI Sent Innocent People To Death Row and Man Wrongfully Imprisoned For 28-Years Due To FBI and The FBI Still Framing People For Crimes and Wives Of Men Framed By The FBI Speak).

When the FBI tried to explain the insane garbage they came up with that the agency branded a new type of science, every credible scientist in the world worth their salt pronounced it nonsensical garbage and idiocy. And it should alarm everyone that a crazy federal agency went that far, spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, to justify framing up an innocent man for a crime he did not commit, to meet an arrest quota. But here they go charging into Apple with their deranged behavior, "Like a bull in a China shop." And make no mistake, the brainless bull is going to destroy some fine China. 

The FBI at Apple is the equivalent of a "Bull In A China Shop"

In a similar case, the FBI insanely destroyed a man's multi-million dollar internet company, Lavabit, when he had done nothing wrong, all in a crazy attempt at getting at NSA whistle blower, Edward Snowden. The FBI is constantly engaging in crazy, damaging behavior that is stripping a fortune in value from companies it meddles in. It is one of the stupidest things I have ever witnessed and Congress is negligent to let their Frankenstein agencies such as the FBI and CIA run loose with such terrible behavior destroying innocent people's valuable businesses. It certainly isn't in the name of national security, as all this invasive spying the FBI, CIA and NSA has been doing has not prevented a single act of terrorism. The federal government had to admit this in Congress.

They are destroying America with this madness. What kind of federal idiots do such a thing. It is an arrogant fool who thinks he or she is to play games with other people's valuable companies, property and assets they were not smart enough to build and earn themselves. There ought to be a law that if a government employee, including the head of state, engages in conduct that financially damages or destroys a valuable company, he or she should be promptly prosecuted, slapped with staggering fines equaling the financial loss/damage created by their arrogant conduct and sent to prison.

STORY SOURCE

Congress is disturbed by the FBI director’s lack of tech knowledge

Mar 14, 2016 at 7:45 PM - A couple of weeks ago, the FBI and Apple faced off in a Congressional hearing and answered various questions fielded by members of the House Judiciary Committee. Now it appears that members of the committee, from both sides of the aisle, aren’t happy with FBI Director James Comey’ grasp of technology.

According to Fast Company’s sources, members of the committee were unpleasantly surprised by Comey’s apparent unpreparedness to answer some of the more technical questions. On one hand, it’s great to see the chief of one of the most relevant law enforcement agencies in the world admit he’s not fully aware of all the technical aspects of encryption. On the other hand, Comey could have brought in aides to help him out with these questions, but he decided not to do it.

Comey declined to answer several questions, explaining he lacked the technical understanding to do it. But he also proved he knows less than some of the members of the committee. Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has a security background, asked Comey about the FBI’s attempts to crack the iPhone 5c that belongs to Syed Farook. Issa knew there are two ways to do it, one involving Apple’s help (disabling the security features of iOS), and one that can be done by removing the flash memory chip from the phone and mirroring its contents.

Issa wanted to find out if Comey knew for certain the FBI can’t break into the iPhone by itself, and Comey’s answers were not satisfactory. “We have engaged all parts of government to see if anybody has a way of doing this on an iPhone 5c running iOS 9, and we don’t,” Comey said. When asked about the mirroring technique, Comey seemed not to understand the question.

“If you haven’t asked that question, how can you come before this committee and before a federal judge and demand that somebody else invent something if you can’t answer the questions that your people have tried this?” he asked Comey.  “First, I’m the director of the FBI. If I could answer that question there’d be something dysfunctional with my leadership,” Comey said.

“I only asked you if your people have tried that, not whether or not it would work,” Issa continued. “Who did you go to to find out if you could do it yourself?” “I did not ask the questions you’re asking here today, and I’m not sure I even understand the questions,” Comey replied. “I have reasonable confidence, in fact, I have high confidence, that the federal government has reviewed all the options.”

“I’ve heard about mirroring, maybe that’s what you’re talking about. Hopefully, my folks are watching this, and if they hear any good ideas in what you’re talking about, we’ll let you know.” Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren admitted that Comey’s lack of knowledge is problematic for the entire debate.

“It’s clear he’s not up to speed on some of the technical issues, which he conceded during the hearing,” Lofgren told Fast Company. “And that might be part of the problem as to why they are pursuing the course of action they are pursuing.” “The director can’t be expected to be an expert on every subject but I didn’t see him [bring any help into the meeting], which I thought was interesting,” she said.

Other committee members did not comment on the matter. But committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told the site that “the House Judiciary Committee will soon announce its next steps on the encryption debate.” “As we move forward, the goal is to find a solution that allows law enforcement to effectively enforce the law without harming the competitiveness of U.S. encryption providers or the privacy and security protections of U.S. citizens,” Goodlatte added.

http://bgr.com

Counterterrorism expert says FBI isn’t being honest about iPhone hacking

By Buster Hein • 12:11 pm, March 14, 2016 - The guy that warned George Bush about an imminent al-Qaida attack before 9/11 is taking Apple’s side in the company’s fight against the FBI over whether it can be compelled to break into the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone.

Richard Clarke, who served as the senior counterterrorism official in the US for nine years, sat down for an interview this morning regarding encryption and the FBI’s efforts to hack the iPhone. Despite FBI Director James Comey’s insistence that the FBI has tried everything, Clarke says all it would take to hack the device is a call to Fort Meade.

“If I were in the job now, I would have simply told the FBI to call Fort Meade, the headquarters of the National Security Agency, and NSA would have solved this problem for him,” Clarke told NPR’s David Green on Morning Edition Monday. “They’re not as interested in solving this problem as they are in getting a legal precedent.”

This is not the first time Director Comey has been accused of trying to set a legal precedent for forcing Apple to weaken security on iOS. Apple’s top lawyer Bruce Sewell argued the same thing before the House Judiciary committee earlier this year, while CEO Tim Cook has made numerous public statement on why the FBI’s demands put all citizens at risk.

The FBI has insisted that it has no means to hack the iPhone 5c in question and that is only requesting help for one device. Apple has been asked to create a new version of iOS that would make it easier for the FBI to guess the terrorist’s passcode without the device auto-deleting its memory after too many failed attempts. Congress grilled Comey during his committee appearance about whether the agency has exhausted all its resources first. Clarke claims they’re not even trying to unlock it.

“You really have to understand that the FBI director is exaggerating the need for this and is trying to build it up as an emotional case, organizing the families of the victims and all of that,” Clarke said. “It’s Jim Comey, and the attorney general is letting him get away with it. Every expert I know believes that NSA could crack this phone. They want the precedent that the government can compel a computer device manufacturer to allow the government in.” ...

http://www.cultofmac.com
 
A Government Error Just Revealed Snowden Was the Target in the Lavabit Case

Date of Publication: 03.17.16. - Time of Publication: 5:30 pm. - It’s been one of the worst-kept secrets for years: the identity of the person the government was investigating in 2013 when it served the secure email firm Lavabit with a court order demanding help spying on a particular customer. Ladar Levison, owner of the now defunct email service, has been forbidden since then, under threat of contempt and possibly jail time, from identifying who the government was investigating. In court documents from the case unsealed in late 2013, all information that could identify the customer was redacted.

But federal authorities recently screwed up and revealed the secret themselves when they published a cache of case documents but failed to redact one identifying piece of information about the target: his email address, Ed_Snowden@lavabit.com. With that, the very authorities holding the threat of jail time over Levison’s head if he said anything have confirmed what everyone had long ago presumed: that the target account was Snowden’s.

The documents were posted on March 4 to the federal court system known as Pacer as part of Levison’s long battle for transparency in the case that ruined his business. They were spotted this week by the transparency site Cryptome and published online.  Here’s a quick recap of that case: On June 28, 2013, shortly after newspapers published the first NSA leaks from Snowden, FBI agents showed up at Levison’s door in Texas and served him with a pen register order requiring him to give the government metadata for the email activity of one customer’s account.

The case was initially sealed and the public didn’t learn about it and the fight over Levison’s customer until after he had shuttered his email service in defiance of the government. But even after he closed Lavabit and there was no hope of the government obtaining information about the account that it had been seeking, the target was never identified. When some of the documents in the case were finally unsealed in redacted form in October 2013, however, the unredacted parts left little doubt that the Lavabit case was about Snowden, who was known to be using a Lavabit account in the spring of 2013 when his first NSA leaks were published and when he was hiding in a safe house in Hong Kong. It was still an educated guess, however...

http://www.wired.com