[exw]

Regardless of the merit of the FBI's request and Apple's refusal, this is rather hypocritical response from the FBI, since their insistence to make the request public is what triggered Apple's public response in the first place:

<<Apple had asked the F.B.I. to issue its application for the tool under seal. But the government made it public, prompting Mr. Cook to go into bunker mode to draft a response, according to people privy to the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity.>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/technology/how-tim-cook-be...

In this case, the Justice department is clearly the one with the bigger 'marketing strategy' agenda here by trying to market the merit of their request to the American public and congress.

(As a side note, most of the non-tech folks I talk to seem to be siding with the FBI's request, so at least at some level, the government seems to be winning the marketing battle.)

[gdghdfgsd]

Consider the possibility that the government is using this all as a means to convince the public phones can be secure, and that apple's cooperation actually matters.