I can't imagine Apple would fire an employee for refusing. AAMOF the
best publicity in the WORLD for them would be if they publicly declined
to discipline or fire an employee for refusing.

        "Apple’s engineers may refuse to write software to break into
        the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters if the FBI wins
        its court battle with the tech giant, according to more than
        half a dozen current and former employees."


    Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered
    to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the
    work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than
    undermine the security of the software they have already created,
    according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.

    Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the
    development of mobile products and security, as well as former
    security engineers and executives.

    The potential resistance adds a wrinkle to a very public fight
    between Apple, the world’s most valuable company, and the
    authorities over access to an iPhone used by one of the attackers in
    the December mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif.

    It also speaks directly to arguments Apple has made in legal
    documents that the government’s demand curbs free speech by asking
    the company to order people to do things that they consider offensive.

    “Such conscription is fundamentally offensive to Apple’s core
    principles and would pose a severe threat to the autonomy of Apple
    and its engineers,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in the company’s final
    brief to the Federal District Court for the Central District of
    California.

In full:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/technology/apple-encryption-engineers-if-ordered-to-unlock-iphone-might-resist.html?_r=0

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RR
"Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to pinpoint potential trouble-makers ... And neutralize them, neutralize them, neutralize them"