The government is demanding Apple to create a program to hack phones under the excuse of “terrorism” as a threat to national security. The FBI in New York ordered Apple to unlock the phone of a local drug dealer, but Apple refused. On Monday, a federal magistrate judge in New York said no. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein denied the FBI’s request as part of the criminal case against Jun Feng, who had already pleaded guilty in October to drug charges. The FBI’s request as part of a drug case clearly shows what they are up to. The government wants to eliminate all encryption for anyone suspected of any crime, which would include taxes.

Apple is correct. There will be no end in sight if they create hacking software for the government. Once you establish a precedent, then they will apply it to every type of crime right down to just “investigating” if you owe taxes. There need not be any charges. All they would need to do is claim in court that they “suspect” there is a crime. That is how the system works.

In my own case, the government demanded I turn over all the tapes I had on the market manipulations by the New York banks. The excuse? Perhaps they might lead to missing assets. The bank later pleaded guilty and returned the “missing assets.” Of course, they never prosecute the banks in New York. They will say anything to get whatever it is they want, but they will NEVER say the truth. Apple is defending a major issue here and our freedom depends on it. This is NOT about a single phone in a terrorist case. They will expand this precedent to everything.