The greatest victory that the anti-freedom, anti-american terrorists won on September 11th, 2001 wasn’t the horrible death of almost 3,000 innocent victims. It was handing the keys to destroy the liberties of all Americans to our own government.
Magic Trump Card
Like a child learning to say “please”, the US government has learned that the word “terrorism” is a magic trump card that will get them anything they desire. Wether it be through specific anti-american legislation like the ironically named “Patriot Act” or by extremely broad and historically inaccurate interpretations of the “All Writs Act” the government has granted itself powers that run contrary to the constitution to such a degree that the founding fathers would surely revolt were they around today. But like boiling a frog the powers that be have eroded our constitutional rights so slowly that no one has taken notice. And they have done it all in the name of stopping terrorism.
Most likely these government agents have the best intentions. Hopefully they will never misuse or abuse that power. But how can the citizens trust a government that doesn’t trust its citizens? Should we really believe that every bureaucrat in the cog only has the best interests of the American citizens at heart? We would be fools if we did.
America was not founded on the idea that we trust government to do what’s best for us. America is founded on the idea of personal responsibility and personal control. The minute we turn over the keys to our lives to the government is the minute we cease being American citizens and start being wards of the state to be used and abused at its leisure.
The US Goverment doesn’t understand cybersecurity, cyber-terrorism, or cyber-warfare
So what’s the big deal? I can run my own life, why should I worry about the Government phone calls, hacking my cell phone, or any of the other rights they are violating without me knowing? For one, once the US government has that data, you can safely assume the Chinese government has it and every hacker, scammer, and phisher has it as well. Why? Well, the US OPM was hacked and over 22 million people’s personal information was leaked. A US arrest records database was hacked and information released. A fucking 4-year old hacked the FBI. And of course the IRS was also hacked.
If the FBI can’t protect itself from a 4-year old, how can it protect itself from China or professional hackers? It can’t. The US intelligence services were conceived, created, and refined it the era of cold-war, boots-on-the-ground and spy satellite pictures information gathering. They have not transitioned to thinking in terms of digital networks nor systemically can they. They are locked-in, all-in, doubled-down on their outdated intelligence methods and until sweeping changes are made, they will fail to adapt to the era of information technology. John McAfee pointed out beautifully that the US government is unwilling to hire the people necessary to protect us from cyberattacks. What our current leadership doesn’t understand is that you can’t fight cyber-warfare with diplomacy and actual warfare. The FBI and the rest of the government will continue to get hacked and leak information like a sieve because they do not know how to not get hacked.
Enter Sheri Pym
So, what does all of this have to do with Sheri Pym? The FBI wants Apple Inc. to create a back-door so they can decrypt and unlock any iPhone in existence. Clearly this is in line with their obscene constitutional overreach and their driving desire to violate the constitutional rights of every single American. The FBI has no constitutional ground for possessing a tool that will allow it to invade the rights of every American without so much as a warrant. Every single technical and security expert has said this is a bad idea. We know from past experiences that once the FBI has this tool every criminal and foreign government will also have this tool. But Sheri Pym ignores all this because terrorism. The FBI says “terrorism” and Sheri Pym says “how high?”. Clearly Sheri Pym doesn’t understand the technical and security questions involved, so why didn’t she either educate or recuse herself?
The FBI has proven time and again that it can’t protect itself from the simplest of hacking, so granting it a tool that can invade the personal information of millions of Americans against the advice of every security expert on the planet isn’t just obtuse, it gross negligence and criminal incompetence of the highest order.