Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook said in an early Monday morning email to employees that the U.S. government should withdraw its demand that Apple help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack.

The message, subject-lined 'Thank you for your support,' is accompanied by an online question and answer page that reiterates many of the comments Cook made in a public letter after a magistrate judge's order last week.

His communication to staff also brushes aside several key government claims made in Friday's filing, including an assertion that the company was acting out of business interests in saying it would not cooperate with an investigation of the California shootings by the FBI.

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Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook (pictured December 9) said in an early Monday morning email to employees that the U.S. government should withdraw its demand that Apple help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack

The comments from Apple and its CEO cap a week of back-and-forth filings and statements involving the Justice Department, FBI and Apple, after a U.S. magistrate ordered the company to break its iPhone security protocols to assist federal officials probing the San Bernardino shootings.

The emerging legal fight has sparked a debate on government power, privacy, digital rights, public safety and security set in connection with the December 2 shootings.

The county-owned iPhone was used by Syed Farook, who along with his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people during the attack.

Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook killed 14 people in a December 2 shooting at a holiday luncheon for Farook's co-workers. The government wants Apple to hack into Farook's work phone so they may see who he was in communication with before the attack

Pictured above, the 14 victims who lost their lives in the attack. Another 24 people were injured in the shooting

Cook states in the letter to employees that the company has 'no tolerance or sympathy for terrorists' and believes abiding by the judge's order would be unlawful, an expansion of government powers, and would set a dangerous precedent that would essentially create a backdoor to the encrypted iPhone.

This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation, so when we received the government's order we knew we had to speak out.

'This case is about much more than a single phone or a single investigation,' Cook wrote, 'so when we received the government's order we knew we had to speak out.'

'At stake is the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding people and setting a dangerous precedent that threatens everyone's civil liberties.'

The question and answer posting acknowledges that it is technically possible for Apple to do what the judge ordered, but that it's 'something we believe is too dangerous to do.'

Apple points to the difficulty of keeping such a 'master key' safe once it has been created.

The government has said that Apple could keep the specialized technology it would create to help officials hack the phone - bypassing a security time delay and feature that erases all data after 10 consecutive, unsuccessful attempts to guess the unlocking passcode.

The director of the FBI, James Comely (pictured) penned an open letter to Apple asking them to comply with a judge's order for the company to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters

This would allow the FBI to use technology to rapidly and repeatedly test numbers in what's known as a brute force attack.

If the company's engineers were to do as ordered, Apple would do its best to protect the technology, but Cook said the company 'would be relentlessly attacked by hackers and cybercriminals.'

'The only way to guarantee such a powerful tool isn't abused and doesn't fall into the wrong hands is to never create it,' Apple states in the memo. The company has until Friday to formally protest the ruling in court.

Apple also on Monday called for the creation of a government commission or panel of experts on excryption to help resolve the stand off.

'Apple would gladly participate in such an effort,' the company wrote in a post on its website entitled 'Answers to your questions about Apple and security'.

Such an idea is not new. A digital security commission comprising technology, business and law enforcement experts has been proposed by Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, to help break the impasse over encryption.

The bipartisan pair is scheduled to unveil details of legislation that would create a panel at a Washington event on Wednesday.

FBI Director James Comey said in an online post Sunday that Apple owes investigative cooperation to the San Bernardino victims and said the dispute wasn't about creating legal precedent. The FBI 'can't look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don't follow this lead,' Comey said.

'We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That's it,' Comey wrote. 'We don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a master key loose on the land.'

In response to the Apple CEO's suggestion the order 'has implications far beyond the legal case at hand', Comey writes that the particular legal issue that the hack poses is 'actually quite narrow'.

Comey ends the piece by saying that it's not up to Apple - that 'sell stuff for a living' - or the FBI - 'which investigates for a living' - to decide on whether the proposed hack is right, it is up to the American people to decide how they want to be governed in a world of the 'unknown'.

Cook said the government should withdraw its demand to the judge and form a group to discuss the issues brought up by this case. He said Apple would participate in such an undertaking.

Apple said it has continued to cooperate and has tried to help the government since the Justice Department court filings.

Much of the rhetoric has focused on whether the Justice Department would actually focus its investigation on a single phone, or whether its move in court represents an attempt to set a precedent for technology sharing that would ultimately be used on multiple phones.

This high-profile case would not have existed if the county government that owned the iPhone had installed a feature on it that would have allowed the FBI to easily and immediately unlock the phone.

San Bernardino County had bought the technology, known as mobile device management from MobileIron Inc., but never installed it on any of the inspectors' phones, including Farook's, said county spokesman David Wert said. There is no countywide policy on the matter and departments make their own decisions, he said. The service costs $4 per month per phone.

The back-and-forth between Apple and the federal government has led to heated debate among the public.

One of the most surprising figures to weigh in on the issue though is former NSA Director Michael Hayden, who during his time at the agency, instituted the controversial surveillance program revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

In an interview with Capital Download about his memoir, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, the retired four-star general said he believes the creation of a backdoor to encryption is problematic.

'In this specific case, I'm trending toward the government, but I've got to tell you in general I oppose the government's effort, personified by FBI Director Jim Comey,' Hayden said. 'Jim would like a back door available to American law enforcement in all devices globally. And, frankly, I think on balance that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim's job a bit easier in some specific circumstances.'