ntrisley wrote...
Yes, but they are not necessarily involved in the projects which created the Phantoms.
The thing is that your whole counter-argument to it hinges on the Alliance not being able to reverse engineer the equipment.
They should be able to do it without ex-Cerberus people's help. Just behead a Phantom and take her equipment for study. You'd at least be able to figure out the mind bullets, sword, and a few other things related to the armour. Any ex-Cerberus people would be able to help by understanding Cerberus tech, even if they have to piece it together like Brynn/Jacob's team did(Which the Alliance has that team if you did the mission)
You probably wouldn't get her biotic implants for things like hand of denial, but the Shadow doesn't have that ability.