Catch 22 National Security

       The Obama administration has made an interesting argument in its attempt to force Apple to create a permanent “back door” access to the last vestige of our constitutional rights of privacy which are protected by current encryption code technology. The FBI wants Apple to write a “workaround” to the existing code that would give them extended authority to circumvent all the known security features of today.

      The government assures us that it would only use the backdoor on this particular I-phone belonging to the two San Bernardino terrorists killed in that shootout.  It is a caveat that becomes laughable when laid alongside the government’s  40 year record of abuse and illegality in exercising such authority.  The reality is that once the “workaround” is out there it would work on any phone and the cliché of “no putting the genie back in the bottle”, would haunt us!

       Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority. The FBI logic is that even though the “1789”authors could not have imagined I-phones or encryption (any more than the 2nd Amendment forefathers could have foreseen the automatic fire arms of today) --- the “All Writs Law” reaches out to the future and compels Apple to force open the door.

       Therefore, Apple must create a program so the government can breach our national security program in order to protect our national security program.

        Ah, the almost perfect Catch 22. Thank you, Joseph Heller