{"id":227898,"date":"2016-02-29T15:03:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T15:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/behind-fbis-data-access-fight-with-apple\/"},"modified":"2016-02-29T18:20:58","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:20:58","slug":"behind-fbis-data-access-fight-with-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/behind-fbis-data-access-fight-with-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind FBI\u2019s Data-Access Fight with Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"173.07570104706\">\n<p>FBI Director James Comey gained his reputation for integrity by standing up to George W. Bush\u2019s White House on a domestic spying issue but the fight was more tactical than principled, raising doubts about his current dispute with Apple over government accessing encrypted phone data, writes ex-FBI official Coleen Rowley.<\/p>\n<p>By Coleen Rowley<\/p>\n<p>Knowing even a little of James Comey\u2019s post 9\/11 background, it becomes rather hard to believe the FBI Director is sincerely leveling with the American public in <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/fbi-director-james-comey-urges-apple-comply-court\/story?id=37115952\">his latest quest to compel Apple<\/a> (and other encrypted communication companies) to create a mechanism for government access, that he is solely motivated by his desire to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfareblog.com\/we-could-not-look-survivors-eye-if-we-did-not-follow-lead\">\u201clook the (San Bernardino) survivors in the eye<\/a>\u201d and tell them the FBI has followed up on all investigative leads.<\/p>\n<p>It should be recalled that Comey gained his reputation for legal integrity based on one dramatic night (in March 2004), during his 20 months as deputy attorney general, confronting Bush Administration officials in Attorney General John Ashcroft\u2019s hospital room. Even though almost no one understood \u201cwhat the Ashcroft \u2018hospital showdown\u2019 on NSA spying was all about\u201d until a couple weeks after Comey was confirmed as FBI Director in July 2013 \u2014 see <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2013\/07\/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-showdown-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about\/\">this article<\/a> that seems to finally piece it all together \u2014 it was known that no Justice Department official, including Comey, generally opposed the illegal warrantless monitoring program that went into effect just days after the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9047\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/jamescomey.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9047\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9047\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif?82332e\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/jamescomey.jpg\" alt=\"FBI Director James Comey\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/jamescomey-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/jamescomey.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9047\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/jamescomey.jpg\" alt=\"FBI Director James Comey\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/jamescomey-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/jamescomey.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">FBI Director James Comey<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Except for a few whistleblowers, the only internal debate that developed was <strong><em>how<\/em><\/strong> to do it. In addition to the illegal \u201cPresidential Program\u201d monitoring of Americans, Comey supported and signed off on the George W. Bush Administration\u2019s torture tactics as well as years-long indefinite detentions that denied some American citizens their right to counsel and other constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>But Comey\u2019s reputation as a man of law, albeit mostly false, preceded him. Other than some grilling about the torture he had approved of, almost none of the hard questions I suggested in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/09\/opinion\/questions-for-the-fbi-nominee.html?_r=0\"><em>New York Times <\/em>opinion piece<\/a> for Judiciary Committee senators were asked of Comey during&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/02\/25\/behind-fbis-data-access-fight-with-apple\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FBI Director James Comey gained his reputation for integrity by standing up to George W. Bush\u2019s White House on a domestic spying issue but the fight was more tactical than principled, raising doubts about his current dispute with Apple over government accessing encrypted phone data, writes ex-FBI official Coleen Rowley. By Coleen Rowley Knowing even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-227898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire","7":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}