President Obama wrong on encryption, right on complexity of terrorist threat

In his recent address about terrorism, he dredged up a tired refrain: Let government poke through digital communications willy-nilly, he urged, and America will be safe again. Or at least safer.

For Silicon Valley, it was especially frustrating to hear Obama's use of the terrorist attack by two people who never were on law enforcement's radar as an excuse to amp-up the call for government access to any and all internet communications. The president must not let the terrorism threat destroy the principles that help lead to one of the greatest technological advances of the last century -- and to the freedoms we fight for today.