I think you are mixing up the law enforcement and intelligence community.
These request are coming from the law enforcement side of the government, not the intelligence community. Given their mission, the intelligence community has no interest in having a public discussion around backdoors, since the last thing they want is for the people they are targeting to be aware of any backdoors in their mobile devices.
The line between the two is gone today. The CIA now both collects information (spy drones) and acts on it (armed drones). The FBI both investigates crimes and acts as a go-between between federal and local agencies via fusion centers. Since 9/11 everyone is all about information sharing. That means law enforcement now give intel to the intel community and that the intel community does likewise. Even lines between military and civilian worlds are blurred as contractors bounce between the two. We really are slipping into a world where feds are feds and the letters on the hat no longer matter.
These request are coming from the law enforcement side of the government, not the intelligence community. Given their mission, the intelligence community has no interest in having a public discussion around backdoors, since the last thing they want is for the people they are targeting to be aware of any backdoors in their mobile devices.