Bingo. There's no way these guys can truly believe that e.g., forcing Apple to decrypt iPhones on demand is going to put a big dent in terrorism. I guess they are a) hoping to get an upper hand on a few small-time/unsophisticated criminals and don't mind stretching the truth to sell it to the public, or b) they view this as the first of many long-term steps in killing encryption/privacy in the US altogether, or c) they plan to deploy this much more widely than they are letting on, possibly even internationally through things like trade agreements (in which case it could actually be useful for counter-terrorism.)