Exactly. This entire tragedy was exactly what they needed to make sure that Americans had the proper amount of fear to begin giving up more rights. They made sure that the request was public so they could use this event as an anchor against Apple when they refuse to create backdoors.

"Apple wouldn't even use their technology to get the information off of the phone that the terrorists used" will make a powerful headline when the FBI and NSA are asking for the rest of the backdoors they want.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/technology/how-tim-cook...