Matt Davies for February 18, 2016

What backward-headed cartoon…Davies implies that Apple couldn’t have left the iPhone vulnerable (like all their competitors left theirs, to varying degrees) when Apple did this intentionally to respect and protect our privacy.What does the government think will be on these dead people’s phones that could be of value now? That’s the excuse they use, but what they really want is for ALL OF US to be vulnerable, terrorist or not. They’ve decided its better that millions of the innocent be unprotected than that one criminal go free – kind of the opposite of our traditional values.

As I recall, it was the Reagan admin that began the back door into every computer thing. The Reagan people stole the Inslaw program so they could raid computers. It was a big stink at the time, of course all the right wing Reagan worshippers have totally forgotten about it.

The Justice Department started sharing the illegally obtained PROMIS software with other agencies, including intelligence agencies where PROMIS was modified for intelligence purposes and sold to foreign intelligence operations in Israel, Jordan, and other places. Michael Risconsciuto of the Wakenhut security firm has testified that he was contracted to install a “trap door” in the software to allow the CIA to tap into PROMIS software worldwide. It appears that the original petty crimes of the Justice Department have led to the exposure of a sensitive national security operation.

As Casolaro continued his investigation he started to receive death threats. He told his brother, “if there was an accident and he died, not to believe it.” On August 11, 1991, Casolaro was found dead in the bathtub of a hotel room in Martinsburg, Virginia, where he had a meeting with a U.S. Army Special Forces covert intelligence officer.

According to sworn testimony before the Committee, high level Justice Department officials conspired to steal the PROMIS software and secretly convert it to use by domestic and foreign intelligence services.

Ronald LeGrand, Chief Investigator for the for the Senate Judiciary Committee told Hamilton and Richardson that a trusted Justice Department source had confided that Inslaw “was a lot dirtier for the Department of Justice than Watergate had been, both in its breath and depth.”

http://www.constitution.org/abus/inslaw/19960924_inslaw_scandal.htm

Hadron, Inc., a company controlled by Meese and Reagan-crony Earl Brian. Hadron, a closely held government systems consulting firm, was to figure prominently in the forthcoming scandal.

Edwin Meese, while presidential counselor and later as attorney general, and D. Lowell Jensen, a former assistant and deputy attorney general and now a US district judge in San Francisco, conspired to steal PROMIS.

“High government officials were involved,” the report states. “… (S)everal individuals testified under oath that Inslaw’s PROMIS software was stolen and distributed internationally in order to provide financial gain and to further intelligence and foreign policy objectives.”

http://www.wired.com/1993/01/inslaw/

Nonsense. Tim Cook did absolutely right. Remember Ben Franklin’s statements on liberty and security.

I have to side with Apple on this one, regarding having to create software, not just a “back door” keyless and out there to hackers. Which, remember when my agency was ordered NOT to install Windows 95, because Microsft had built a key in allowing them to confiscate for use developer software out there, being developed outside their profit zone.

The founding fathers wouldn’t have believed our automatic weapons possible when writing the Second Amendment, so how could they have possibly conceived of the potential of telephones and computers when calling for warrants on papers and property??

Interestinger and interestinger.

The only way to be sure whether the person who turns a key is good or evil is to not make a key.

I hope Apple is going to keep our phone information at least as private as is now, and not let the government jerk us around like they have so many times before.I used to think that the CIA was a government group, like the FBI. Since I learned that it is Not, I’m both a bit relieved and more fearful of the CIA. Who is in charge of the CIA?

Davies seems to be a bit of a Luddite. The iPhone is secure by design, not failure.

Excellent comments today (for the most part).

“Ferrari, you’ve made some great cars. Why can’t you make one with a square wheel?”