Readers React: Lives are at stake in the battle against terrorism; Apple should appreciate that

To the editor: This debate over the FBI gaining access to a taxpayer-owned smartphone minimizes the deaths and injuries suffered at the hands of terrorists and turns it into a chess match over privacy versus safety. Based on what I’ve read and seen on the news so far, it appears that the San Bernardino shooter never had any right to privacy while using the taxpayer-bought iPhone. (“The conflict between Apple and the FBI has a long history -- and your privacy is at stake,” Feb. 19

Now that we have that issue out of the way, which of the privacy advocates is willing to sacrifice his or her own life so the miscreants of society can operate deviously?

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook is dead wrong to fight a court order to help the FBI unlock the phone in question. He needs to stop grandstanding over “what-ifs” and offer whatever assistance is needed to successfully bring this investigation to a conclusion.

People matter. Cook shouldn’t forget that while trying to make a buck in a free-market society.

Kimberlyn Hearns, San Bernardino

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To the editor: The same FBI that used secrets and dirt it had dug up on politicians as a hammer to get what it wanted is the same FBI that wants us to believe it will play only by the rules now.

The same government that can detain an American citizen indefinitely and without giving cause in the name of national security wants you to know it will never overstep legal boundaries.

The government does not have a leg to stand on when it asks us to believe it will act only in our defense and against the nation’s enemies. History has shown that when the government can name its own enemies, no one is safe.

Martin Wauson, Westminster

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