Some speculation regarding the FBI's problema with Apple encryption.

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Been mulling a long mull 'bout Mr. Tim Cook,

Wondering if he should give cops a quick look

At an iPhone refusing to give up its dead,

In a weird e-seance co-chaired by a Fed.

.

Our dear FBI may well have a point,

When they aver that this phone could anoint,

Some mid-level flunky or cool Qaeda club,

Where longbeards make cocktails and terror hubbub.

.

But watching the Bureau weep and gnash teeth,

I wonder if there's just not something beneath

Their interest in the phone of this low-level joe

Who where the nukes are ain't likely to know.

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Have they, besides Apple, no real recourse?

Supercomputers must be some resource.

I hear they can add and subtract in a jiff,

And mincemeat make of a spy's hieroglyph.

.

And what of their techies that languish on staff?

Or the ones they've arrested, hacker riffraff,

Who for cracking this phone can have liberty?

After all, just one phone, how hard can it be?

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No, there's something here that stinks to high hell,

And sounds to me like the barker's fast sell.

Does the Bureau merely wish to short-leash and tame

A firm whose encryption now cramps their game?

.

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Maybe so: as good ol' Ed Snowden's once riffed,

By your private code are the G-men much miffed.

But thinking it further, I see a new play,

Useful in keeping speculation at bay.

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Perhaps those smooth agents are just making a show

Of frustration with Apple when really they know

The whole code regime and can read any phone,

But why tell the world? Much smarter to moan.

Authors Website: http://www.philipkraske.com

Authors Bio:

For a recording of this poem, go to my website: http://www.philipkraske.com/kraske-fiction/