Even so, it's of almost no advantage to Apple to publish a false such statement out of the blue, and it's very unlikely anyone would be compelled to start a new canary, as opposed to maintaining an existing one, so I'd say it's almost certain the statement was true at the time it was made. I'd view this as mostly an attempt to test the waters.
(to play devil's advocate / test out tin foil fashion) - it may simply be a red herring. Apple continues to position itself as palatable to tech and art communities while at the same time being the biggest NSA pushover. In exchange, Apple receives favorable IP treatment. Seems simple enough and quite far from "no advantage."
It’s a common realization of the idea that modern governments are somehow monolithic, and that NSA can somehow offer a preferential IP treatment in exchange for privacy breaches. Considering that (despite similarities) conservatives and democrats are both parts of said government and hating each other’s guts, that’s a somewhat ridiculous idea.
