| Except the American People also gave him the job to following any and every possible lead. There is a fundamental conflict with how law enforcement and intelligence does it's job and the way people communicate today. Period. If people want more secure communications they are going to have to tell the FBI in no uncertain terms "we are ok with you dropping leads." Apparently in this specific case that has happened as a mother of the slain said: “This is what separates us from communism, isn’t it? The fact we have the right to privacy,” Adams said to the Post. “This is what makes America great to begin with, that we abide by a constitution that gives us the right of privacy, the right to bear arms, and the right to vote.” Now, is it up to this mother to make that case? Yea, if the director is to be listened to. After all that is who he invokes when appealing his reasoning. So based on this statement it seems like they should back off, say shit happens, lets mourn our dead and move on. We need more of the victims to speak out and tell investigations their true thoughts. [1]http://fortune.com/2016/02/19/victim-apple-fbi/ |
Agreed. It's not like the investigators are totally in the dark here, either.
In addition to the rest of the FBI investigation, given the terrorist/national security nature of the case, it's likely that anything the shooters did online during the past few years was pulled and analyzed—including internet history, e-mail, chat and phone conversations—rendering a pretty good picture of both their interests and associations.
If the FBI didn't do this (they can if it's a national security case), then the intelligence community certainly did.