JOBSEEKER's DIARY: Federal Bureau of Incompetence?

Some of you have iPhones or know someone who does and so you probably know about an ongoing clash between Apple executives and the FBI, America’s Intelligence and Security Agency which has been “begging” Apple to help them unlock an iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California last December. A judge recently ruled in favour of Apple and so now they don’t have to comply with the Government and the FBI to provide software that can unlock the phone in question to enable authorities establish whether there were indeed other accomplices in the attack. Apple’s argument is that cooperating with the FBI will set a precedent that will lead to violations of its clients’ privacy in future and I understand that because at the end of the day, we all want our conversations and communications with friends, family or business contacts to stay private. However, I also think that there should be exceptions, especially where lives of other people are threatened. In this case, many people lost their loved ones and if there’re still people out there who helped plan or facilitate the attack, they should be held accountable, so in that sense, lawmakers should be able to access information they believe will lead to resolving this and related cases, from whichever device and at whatever cost, otherwise criminals and terrorists win. I blame the FBI for not only not having the capabilities to get past Apple’s security wall but basically letting the whole world know about this shortcoming. I don’t know if that’s because I’ve watched way too many Crime and Investigation Series where all it takes for teams to crack cases is a click of a button but don’t you all have this perception that the FBI is a super efficient agency that always figures things out, so for the FBI Director James B. Comey to issue statements like “We have no idea how to do this or how this happened” and so on is a big fail on their part. The saying “Some things are better left unsaid” comes to mind. The FBI better hope that terror masterminds won’t exploit their admission of these “weaknesses”. With a multi-billion dollar annual budget, surely the FBI could have paid someone to develop sophisticated software to enable them retrieve whatever data they want or even “bribe” someone in Apple to leak some codes or something. I’m also baffled by this fiancé visa process, which was how Farook’s accomplice, Tashfeen Malik, got into the US in the first place. If I’d known about this K-1 Visa arrangement that allows US Citizens to get their foreign partners into the US with very few background checks, I’d already be living my American dream. For years, we’ve been led to believe that getting a US Visa is such a tough and complicated process and so many people are reluctant to even try. Well, that won’t be the case anymore, not for me at least. Time to give online dating sites a try. Seems all I need is a few dollars and after answering a couple of basic questions, I will marry some random guy and days later, submit my visa application. Will let you know how that goes.

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JOBSEEKER's DIARY: Federal Bureau of Incompetence?