One doesn't need to break any encryption if one has other means of accessing the plaintext. There's a difference between disinformation and misinformation. Even the truth, told selectively, can be disinformative.
One should be careful not to live in or spread in paranoia where everything is a plot to deceive. For anyone looking at the source material and judging reasonably, there was no deception. Perhaps some journalists got a little carried away, but I'd blame that on the pressures of their industry, not malice.
The original DEA slide that was leaked says something very simple: traditional interception techniques do not work on end-to-end encrypted message services (e.g. iMessage). They can't just ask (or get a judge to ask) a law-enforcement-friendly cellular provider to tap the line and CC them on anything someone does. This is true for BBM and WebRTC and many other ways of communicating, as well.
The original DEA slide that was leaked says something very simple: traditional interception techniques do not work on end-to-end encrypted message services (e.g. iMessage). They can't just ask (or get a judge to ask) a law-enforcement-friendly cellular provider to tap the line and CC them on anything someone does. This is true for BBM and WebRTC and many other ways of communicating, as well.