[molson]

"The first is the question it raises about who can make this type of demand. If the U.S. government can force Apple to do this, why can't the Chinese or Russian governments?"

I'd say it's because the FBI and DOJ are the agencies that has jurisdiction over investigation of the attacks. If you murder some people, the state or federal investigative agency gets to search those boxes in your garage, not China.

I understand the second concern about giving the feds the keys to the kingdom, but there has to be a way to get the information on this particular phone without giving up all of Apple's secrets. Sometimes there's situations where the government has a warrant to search a hard drive that also likely contains confidential attorney-client information. In those situations, the judge works out a common-sense solution - tech experts are appointed, confidential information is protected, the government agencies get what they're entitled to. Usually that works out just fine unless one or both of the parties have some ulterior motive, which may be the case here.