The following is an open letter from FBIAA President Reynaldo Tariche to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The letter is our response to Cook's letter to Apple Customers.
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Dear Mr. Cook:
Fourteen innocent people were killed in San Bernardino on December 2, 2015 in the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack since 9/11. Evidence relating to that crime might exist on the iPhone used by the terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. FBI Agents—thousands of whom I am honored to represent—are investigating this crime and others like it. In this case, you have refused to abide by a federal court order requiring Apple to assist the FBI with accessing the data on Farook’s iPhone pursuant to a warrant. Your decision reflects a blatant disregard for the work of FBI Agents and constitutes a threat to national security.
First, the open letter to your customers fails to acknowledge that your customers are also our customers. It is our sworn duty to keep our customers, the American people, safe. Our duty is undertaken while adhering to Constitutional provisions barring unreasonable searches and seizures, protecting privacy. Your job is undertaken while adhering to an economic principle: a return on investment. While profits may dictate your decisions, the Constitution dictates ours.
Second, your actions now will embolden criminals, providing a safe haven for their activities. This includes the cyber-criminals about whom you warn in your letter. It would be unwise to disregard established search and seizure procedures to give your products special treatment. Terrorists, child pornographers, and others criminals should not escape lawful warrants because corporations use the promise of secure communications as a marketing tool.
Third, while you now claim openness to public dialogue about your technology, your actions belie your words. In November 2015, the FBI Agents Association, the Attorney General of Ohio, the National District Attorneys Association, and the National Sheriffs’ Association jointly wrote to Apple to engage in the discussion you now seek. However, Apple did not bother to respond to that request. Rather, Apple and other technology companies have spent millions on lobbying and public relations, and have attempted to leverage the industry’s significant influence to derail Congressional debate.
Fourth, if you are unwilling to act, then we urge Congress to do so. There are ways to resolve this problem, and the solution is not based on the false choice between absolutely secure communications and a wide-open door. Apple has worked with law enforcement to extract data from iPhones scores of times previously, and we urge you to do so again. Absent this, Congress should enact legislation requiring companies to incorporate options into their technology that prevent smartphones from serving as barriers to lawfully-issued search warrants. Given existing technologies, this is a reasonable and practical request.
Finally, the ability to lawfully obtain the private records of criminal conspiracies is a time-tested and indispensable part of effective law enforcement. The papers and letters of the past are being replaced by the electronic data held on your devices. Apple is choosing to provide modern criminals with a tool that past generations of criminals never had: an impenetrable door that is booby-trapped to destroy evidence. A homeowner could not reject law enforcement officers executing a warrant by claiming they don’t want to unlock the door. Likewise, Apple should not be able to stonewall the FBI and the courts simply because the company has decided not to unlock its iPhones.
Mr. Cook, we applaud Apple’s innovative spirit and customer dedication. Please bear in mind that your customers are also our customers—customers who FBI Agents are sworn to protect from criminals and terrorists. Our customers deserve a means of ensuring that the drive for profits does not come at the cost of public safety.
Sincerely,
Reynaldo Tariche
President, FBI Agents Association
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Dear Mr. Cook:
Fourteen innocent people were killed in San Bernardino on December 2, 2015 in the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack since 9/11. Evidence relating to that crime might exist on the iPhone used by the terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. FBI Agents—thousands of whom I am honored to represent—are investigating this crime and others like it. In this case, you have refused to abide by a federal court order requiring Apple to assist the FBI with accessing the data on Farook’s iPhone pursuant to a warrant. Your decision reflects a blatant disregard for the work of FBI Agents and constitutes a threat to national security.
First, the open letter to your customers fails to acknowledge that your customers are also our customers. It is our sworn duty to keep our customers, the American people, safe. Our duty is undertaken while adhering to Constitutional provisions barring unreasonable searches and seizures, protecting privacy. Your job is undertaken while adhering to an economic principle: a return on investment. While profits may dictate your decisions, the Constitution dictates ours.
Second, your actions now will embolden criminals, providing a safe haven for their activities. This includes the cyber-criminals about whom you warn in your letter. It would be unwise to disregard established search and seizure procedures to give your products special treatment. Terrorists, child pornographers, and others criminals should not escape lawful warrants because corporations use the promise of secure communications as a marketing tool.
Third, while you now claim openness to public dialogue about your technology, your actions belie your words. In November 2015, the FBI Agents Association, the Attorney General of Ohio, the National District Attorneys Association, and the National Sheriffs’ Association jointly wrote to Apple to engage in the discussion you now seek. However, Apple did not bother to respond to that request. Rather, Apple and other technology companies have spent millions on lobbying and public relations, and have attempted to leverage the industry’s significant influence to derail Congressional debate.
Fourth, if you are unwilling to act, then we urge Congress to do so. There are ways to resolve this problem, and the solution is not based on the false choice between absolutely secure communications and a wide-open door. Apple has worked with law enforcement to extract data from iPhones scores of times previously, and we urge you to do so again. Absent this, Congress should enact legislation requiring companies to incorporate options into their technology that prevent smartphones from serving as barriers to lawfully-issued search warrants. Given existing technologies, this is a reasonable and practical request.
Finally, the ability to lawfully obtain the private records of criminal conspiracies is a time-tested and indispensable part of effective law enforcement. The papers and letters of the past are being replaced by the electronic data held on your devices. Apple is choosing to provide modern criminals with a tool that past generations of criminals never had: an impenetrable door that is booby-trapped to destroy evidence. A homeowner could not reject law enforcement officers executing a warrant by claiming they don’t want to unlock the door. Likewise, Apple should not be able to stonewall the FBI and the courts simply because the company has decided not to unlock its iPhones.
Mr. Cook, we applaud Apple’s innovative spirit and customer dedication. Please bear in mind that your customers are also our customers—customers who FBI Agents are sworn to protect from criminals and terrorists. Our customers deserve a means of ensuring that the drive for profits does not come at the cost of public safety.
Sincerely,
Reynaldo Tariche
President, FBI Agents Association
We celebrated Independence Day this week; the birth of our nation and our Constitution and laws; all to be forever in the history books that our top cops took a bribe and sold out our nation the very next day to ensure this no-longer-top-agency is now a political arm of the Democratic Party and political elite; fervently protecting those who have committed high-treason, and selling out our nation. This is worse than the San Bernardino incident. You will never be trusted again and have lost the confidence and trust of the American people who are not customers of yours, but citizens who have offered their trust without question, accepted your oaths, and rested comfortably at night for your protection. SHAME on the FBI. We now look the other way forever as your vows no longer have meaning. The oath has been destroyed; and the relationship damaged. The FBI are now damaged goods and a third-rate organization at best.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, FBI, but HELL NO! All you guys ever do is lobby to violate our liberty. You always lobby to strip away our liberties so YOUR job is EASIER. Well too damn, bad.
ReplyDeleteIt should not be easy to indict a citizen. Your job should be hard.
With the recent revelations about your corrupt leadership, thank GOD you people are shackled by the Constitution.
You need to look at it from OUR point of view, and not your Career's view. We could care less about YOUR career. This is not about YOU or YOUR career. This about America and it's principles. You are supposed to honor and protect the Constitution on behalf of me. THAT is your job. Not violating our rights just so you can get another person locked up.
I get it. The San Bernandino shooters were pure evil. But you CANNOT trade my liberty and my rights, just so you can catch criminals. My liberty is worth more than your job. It's worth more than catching a criminal, even it's a mass shooter. My liberty is not tradeable for ANY reason. I would rather live free, with a mass murderer on the loose, than to give up my freedom for safety and security.
I would rather every citizen take their security into their own hands, and protect themselves than to give up one single ounce of my liberty.
So you guys trying to violate our liberties, to make your job easier, even though you are trying to catch terrorists, is sick and no different than communist Russia. Honor your Oaths. And stop trying to make your job "easier" by violating my liberty. Freedom is dangerous, DEAL WITH IT!