Apple is pushing for the legal dispute over unblocking the San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone to be taken up by a Washington DC committee instead of being handled through the courts.

苹果(Apple)正在争取由华盛顿哥伦比亚特区的一个委员会（而不是法院）审理围绕解锁圣贝纳迪诺枪案凶手的iPhone的法律纠纷。

Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, wrote in an email to employees yesterday that the “best way forward” would be for the US government to withdraw its judicial order, issued last week.

苹果首席执行官蒂姆錠克(Tim Cook)昨日在一封写给员工的电子邮件中写道，“最佳出路”将是美国政府撤销上周发布的司法命令。

Instead, he suggested Apple would “gladly participate” in a “commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy and personal freedoms”.

他提出，苹果将“很高兴参加”一个“涵盖情报、技术和公民自由的委员会或者其他专家小组，讨论这件事对执法、国家安全、隐私和个人自由的潜在影响”。

The plan echoes a similar proposal for talks last month, before the latest row began, from Michael McCaul, chairman of the House homeland security committee, and Mark Warner, a member of the Senate intelligence committee.

该计划呼应上月（最近的争吵爆发之前）美国众议院国土安全委员会(House homeland security committee)主席迈克尔麦克考尔(Michael McCaul)和参议院情报委员会(Senate intelligence committee)成员马克茠纳(Mark Warner)提出的类似商谈建议。

Last week, the House energy and commerce committee invited Mr Cook and James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to testify over the “ongoing debate related to encryption technologies”.

上周，众议院能源和商务委员会(House energy and commerce committee)邀请库克和联邦调查局(FBI)局长詹姆斯科米(James Comey)就“正在展开的关于加密技术的辩论”作证。

“Apple is a uniquely American company,” Mr Cook said. “It does not feel right to be on the opposite side of the government in a case centring on the freedoms and liberties that government is meant to protect.”

“苹果是一家纯正的美国公司，”库克表示。“在一起围绕政府理应保护的自由的案件中站在政府的对立面，让人感觉不对劲。”

Mr Comey made an emotional appeal to Apple and the US public on Sunday in a blog post on legal site Lawfare, saying the case was “quite narrow” and not intended to set a precedent.

周日，科米在法律网站Lawfare的一篇博客文章中向苹果和美国公众发出情感诉求，称此案“意义相当狭窄”，并非意在设立一个先例。

“We can’t look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don’t follow this lead,” he said. “We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land.”

“如果我们不追查这条线索，我们就无法正眼注视幸存者或镜子中的自己，”他说。“我们不希望打破任何人的加密，或者是释放一把万能钥匙。”

He wrote the tension between privacy and safety “should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living. It also should not be resolved by the FBI, which investigates for a living.”

他写道，隐私和安全之间的紧张“不应该由以销售产品为生计的企业来解决。它也不应该由以调查为生计的FBI来解决。”

Instead, he said it should be settled “by the American people” and called for a “long conversation” on the matter.

他表示，相反，这应该“由美国人民”解决，并呼吁在这个问题上开展“长时间对话”。

Apple’s legal response is due this week in a case that began last Tuesday when a judge in California ordered it to create tools that would help the FBI unlock a device used by Syed Rizwan Farook before he killed 14 people in December.

苹果应于本周作出法律回应，本案始于上周二，加州的一名法官命令该公司创建工具，帮助FBI解锁去年12月杀害14人的赛义德里兹万法鲁克(Syed Rizwan Farook)在作案前使用的iPhone。

Mr Cook has refused to comply with the order, calling the demand for a “back door” into the iPhone an “over-reach” by the authorities that has “chilling implications” for its customers’ privacy. Several other Silicon Valley companies, including Google and Facebook, have supported Apple’s position.

库克拒绝遵守这一法庭命令，称要求开辟进入iPhone的“后门”是当局“伸手过长”，对苹果顾客的隐私具有“可怕影响”。谷歌(Google)和Facebook等多家硅谷公司已表态支持苹果的立场。