http://fortune.com/2014/12/21/why-cyber-warfare-is-so-attractive-to-small-nations/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/21/obama-cnn-hack-attack-north-korea-sony/20723053/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/12/21/obama-cnn-hack-attack-north-korea-sony/20723053/
The United States is not at cyberwar with North Korea, President Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday, and will "respond proportionately" as he accused that nation of the hack attack on Sony Pictures.
"I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said on CNN's State of the Union. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately, as I said."
Obama also said the United States will look at returning North Korea to the list of states that sponsor terrorism. The George W. Bush administration removed it from that list in 2008 amid nuclear negotiations.
"We've got very clear criteria as to what it means for a state to sponsor terrorism," Obama said. "And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day. We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."
CNN taped the interview on Friday (before the Saturday shooting deaths of two police officers in New York City).
Critics of the president said he is underestimating the cyber threat from North Korea and other places.
"It's more than vandalism," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also speaking on CNN. "It's a new form of warfare that we're involved in, and we need to react and react vigorously."
As he did during a news conference on Friday, Obama criticized Sony executives for canceling the release of The Interview, the satirical film about North Korea that prompted threats and the motive for the hacking. The plot of the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy involves an assassination of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has denied any involvement in the hacking.
Sony executives said they were disappointed in Obama's comments, saying they reacted to the concerns of theater owners who feared a terrorist attack if they showed the movie.
Asked about the criticism, Obama said he sympathized with Sony's business considerations. The president said he wished Sony had talked to him, and "I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was."
Pulling the film undermined the principle of free speech, Obama said.
"We believe in the right of artistic expression and things that powers that be might not like," Obama said.
The United States should not engage in self-censorship, Obama said, and the Sony incident could have ramifications for the news business. He noted that CNN itself has done critical stories on North Korea.
"What happens if, in fact, there is a breach in CNN's, you know, cyberspace?" Obama said. "Are we going to suddenly say, well, we'd better not report on North Korea?"
On other issues, Obama told CNN:
• The decision to normalize relations with Cuba gives the United States a better chance to push the communist nation toward democracy than the half-century of economic isolation has done.
"If we engage," the president said, "we have the opportunity to influence the course of events at a time when there's going to be some generational change in that country. And I think we should seize it and I intend to do so."
Some Republicans and other critics said Obama is providing benefits to Cuba without getting much in return.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on CBS's Face The Nation that Raul Castro's government in Cuba is "going to arrest people today. They arrested people yesterday. They're going to continue to crack down on opposition in the island."
• He still hopes to close the terrorist prison at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of his presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, saying Gitmo "is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world."
• That critics of his foreign policy don't see the long view, using the suddenly struggling Russian President Vladimir Putin as an example.
Not long ago, "there was a spate of stories about how he is the chess master and outmaneuvering the West and outmaneuvering Mr. Obama and this and that and the other," Obama said. "And right now, he's presiding over the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction — that doesn't sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America."
One of his critics, McCain, told CNN that Putin's problems are due to the fall in oil prices, and the subsequent drop in the value of the ruble, and even those have not curbed Russian aggression in neighboring Ukraine.
• His unique background — the son of a black father and white mother who lived in Indonesia when he was young — gives him unique insight into the nation's racial challenges.
"I've got a lot of cultural influences," Obama said, and "I assume the best rather than the worst in others. But it also makes me mindful of the fact that there's misunderstanding, there's mistrust and there are biases both overt and sometimes hidden that operate in ways that disadvantage minority communities."
Responding to critics who say he's been too reticent, Obama said: "I've seen change in my own life. So has this country. And those who would deny that, I think, actually foreclose the possibility of further progress rather than advancing it."
"I don't think it was an act of war," Obama said on CNN's State of the Union. "I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately, as I said."
Obama also said the United States will look at returning North Korea to the list of states that sponsor terrorism. The George W. Bush administration removed it from that list in 2008 amid nuclear negotiations.
"We've got very clear criteria as to what it means for a state to sponsor terrorism," Obama said. "And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day. We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."
CNN taped the interview on Friday (before the Saturday shooting deaths of two police officers in New York City).
Critics of the president said he is underestimating the cyber threat from North Korea and other places.
"It's more than vandalism," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also speaking on CNN. "It's a new form of warfare that we're involved in, and we need to react and react vigorously."
As he did during a news conference on Friday, Obama criticized Sony executives for canceling the release of The Interview, the satirical film about North Korea that prompted threats and the motive for the hacking. The plot of the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy involves an assassination of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un.
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On the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN, saying "We have not caved. We have not given in." VPC
Sony executives said they were disappointed in Obama's comments, saying they reacted to the concerns of theater owners who feared a terrorist attack if they showed the movie.
Asked about the criticism, Obama said he sympathized with Sony's business considerations. The president said he wished Sony had talked to him, and "I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what that story was."
Pulling the film undermined the principle of free speech, Obama said.
"We believe in the right of artistic expression and things that powers that be might not like," Obama said.
The United States should not engage in self-censorship, Obama said, and the Sony incident could have ramifications for the news business. He noted that CNN itself has done critical stories on North Korea.
"What happens if, in fact, there is a breach in CNN's, you know, cyberspace?" Obama said. "Are we going to suddenly say, well, we'd better not report on North Korea?"
On other issues, Obama told CNN:
• The decision to normalize relations with Cuba gives the United States a better chance to push the communist nation toward democracy than the half-century of economic isolation has done.
"If we engage," the president said, "we have the opportunity to influence the course of events at a time when there's going to be some generational change in that country. And I think we should seize it and I intend to do so."
Some Republicans and other critics said Obama is providing benefits to Cuba without getting much in return.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on CBS's Face The Nation that Raul Castro's government in Cuba is "going to arrest people today. They arrested people yesterday. They're going to continue to crack down on opposition in the island."
• He still hopes to close the terrorist prison at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of his presidency on Jan. 20, 2017, saying Gitmo "is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world."
• That critics of his foreign policy don't see the long view, using the suddenly struggling Russian President Vladimir Putin as an example.
Not long ago, "there was a spate of stories about how he is the chess master and outmaneuvering the West and outmaneuvering Mr. Obama and this and that and the other," Obama said. "And right now, he's presiding over the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction — that doesn't sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America."
One of his critics, McCain, told CNN that Putin's problems are due to the fall in oil prices, and the subsequent drop in the value of the ruble, and even those have not curbed Russian aggression in neighboring Ukraine.
• His unique background — the son of a black father and white mother who lived in Indonesia when he was young — gives him unique insight into the nation's racial challenges.
"I've got a lot of cultural influences," Obama said, and "I assume the best rather than the worst in others. But it also makes me mindful of the fact that there's misunderstanding, there's mistrust and there are biases both overt and sometimes hidden that operate in ways that disadvantage minority communities."
Responding to critics who say he's been too reticent, Obama said: "I've seen change in my own life. So has this country. And those who would deny that, I think, actually foreclose the possibility of further progress rather than advancing it."
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