I think “the County Guy†is a fictitious character. This just convinces me all the more that my hunch is right. The story says the password was changed pretty quickly. That just reinforces my opinion that this brouhaha with Apple is a ruse.
My theory is that CIA, FBI, NSA, et al, have code experts every bit as clever as Apple. I think they cracked that phone pretty quickly; Got all the info that was in it; That we’ve had agents in the ME for a month or more following the leads they got off the phone. And this public squabble is for the ragheads, to assure them that anything they put on an iphone is absolutely secure, encouraging them to put more secrets on their iphones, for our ongoing discovery next time we capture one.
The idea that computer systems worth million$ can be hacked and cracked by some doofus sitting in his parents’ basement, sucking on a roach; but a $500 phone is impregnable to the Nation’s top investigative agencies, is ludicrous. JMHO.
You make a lot of sense.
This matches my current approach:
First assumption: The govt is lying.