RIM willing to share data with SC

Research In Motion (RIM), the Ottawa-based manufacturer of BlackBerry smartphones, has said that access to data might be given for court’s assistance, but vowed to defend the legal privacy rights of BlackBerry users after a judicial commission in Pakistan ordered copies of smartphone communications in the memo controversy probe.
“Like others in our industry, from time to time, we may receive requests from legal authorities for lawful access assistance,” the RIM said in a statement. “We are guided by appropriate legal processes and publicly disclosed lawful access principles in this regard as we balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining the privacy rights of our users,” it added.
A high-powered three-member judicial commission had asked the government to make the data of former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani’s BlackBerry device available.
However, some experts, who have gone through the documents presented before the apex court in the memo case, said while the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief and the Supreme Court had called for verification of the BlackBerry communications between Mansoor Ijaz and Haqqani, the alleged drafting of the memo was never discussed in any email or BlackBerry Messenger message from Haqqani’s side and Haqqani had never denied exchanging communication with Mansoor Ijaz periodically. They argue that the BlackBerry data would only prove communication between the two that was not in dispute, as they say that the real question is whether Haqqani asked Ijaz to write and transmit the memo or not.
Their opinion is that the manner in which Mansoor Ijaz’s statements were released through a section of the media, an impression was created that there was ‘incontrovertible’ evidence of Haqqani’s link to the memo Ijaz had sent to US Admiral Mike Mullen through former national security adviser General James Jones.
The 81-page affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court by Mansoor Ijaz made it clear that the only alleged link between Haqqani and the memo were handwritten notes made by Ijaz of a telephone call. None of the text messages and BBM messages included in the affidavit referred to the memo.