Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity. Some engineer probably told upper management they couldn't decrypt the phone because the software would erase all data. Maybe because they didn't know, or didn't want to, but still this has blown out of proportion.
To be clear I don't think apple should compromise the phone, just that this is not a long con by the FBI to compromise all phones.
There needs to be a corollary considered here, possibly something like "never invoke the stupidity out lane for those who have previously demonstrated their malice"
To be clear I don't think apple should compromise the phone, just that this is not a long con by the FBI to compromise all phones.