"The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

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"The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby Nordic » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:03 am

Surprised there's not a thread on this already.

I can't believe the outrage I'm seeing across the board regarding Sony pulling this stupid movie. Like anally raping innocent people in a mass organized torture/rape program is just ho-hum business as usual, hey what do you want for Christmas?

Fucking bizarre.

But then this story comes along with massive cyberwar on a major media company, what was exposed from that, and finally physical threats against movie theaters resulting in Siny shelving the movie.

Mass outrage! Citizens united! Rights are being violated! Much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth.

But check this out:


http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/12/18/stat ... interview/

Emails Reveal US State Department Influenced Sony’s “The Interview” so as to Encourage Assassination and Regime Change in North Korea

Dec 18th, 2014 @ 10:21 am › Dan Sanchez

Sony’s decision yesterday to cancel its release of The Interview after being hacked and threatened by a group that may or may not be tied with the North Korean government has been the top story in the media ever since. Decidedly less-covered, and almost completely obscured by the cancellation, is another revelation made yesterday about the movie that is actually far more important.

The Daily Beast reported yesterday on leaked emails from the Sony hack which show that the United States government was involved at high levels with the content development of The Interview, especially its controversial ending depicting the assassination of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un. As the report’s headline states, “Sony Emails Say State Department Blessed Kim Jong-Un Assassination in ‘The Interview.’” The emails also reveal that a RAND corporation senior defense analyst who consulted on the film went beyond “blessing” and outright influenced the end of the film, encouraging the CEO of Sony Entertainment to leave the assassination scene as it was (in spite of misgivings at Sony) for the sake of encouraging North Koreans to actually assassinate Kim Jong-Un and depose his regime when the movie eventually leaks into that country. According to the Sony CEO, a senior US State Department official emphatically and personally seconded that advice and reasoning in a separate correspondence. The emails also reveal that the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human-rights issues also consulted with Sony on the film.

While a tiny nation state possibly being involved in scuppering a movie premiere by hacking and threatening a Hollywood studio by proxy may be more novel and sensational than yet another psyop by the US Regime Change Machine, the latter is far more important. The United States, as part of its “Asian Pivot,” made an explicit push for assassination and regime change in yet another foreign country under the cover of art and commerce, and the North Korean regime and its ally China are both now 100% aware of it. That has huge implications for politics in the region, for US relations with those countries, for the character and integrity of American art and media, and for the mischievous, generally havoc-wreaking way our government is secretly using our tax dollars.

Imagine how the U.S. and its CIA would respond if a major movie studio anywhere in the world were to make a film centered around the assassination of a sitting U.S. President: especially if a foreign government was involved, pushing for just such an assassination. That North Korea, or any state, might respond with speech-suppressing attacks and threats is not to be excused, but it should be no surprise either. Yet the US was more than happy to help foment a predictable crisis like this, thereby putting its own people at risk. And it did so by surreptitiously penetrating Hollywood to steer it toward using “artistic” existential threats to taunt a nation-state that is such a basket-case that it would only be dangerous to Americans if made desperate by such existential threats. That shows what little regard our “security force” has for our actual security, as compared to pursuing global power politics.

On a side note, this makes one wonder if the State Department also pushed for this other memorable dictator-detonating scene from Charlie Sheen’s 1991 comedy Hot Shots, depicting regime-enemy Saddam Hussein catching a bomb in his lap while sipping a cocktail in his poolside lounge chair.

Here are the key passages from the Daily Beast report (emphasis added):

“The Daily Beast has unearthed several emails that reveal at least two U.S. government officials screened a rough cut of the Kim Jong-Un assassination comedy The Interview in late June and gave the film—including a final scene that sees the dictator’s head explode—their blessing. (…)

A series of leaked emails reveal that Sony enlisted the services of Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation who specializes in North Korea, to consult with them on The Interview. After he saw the film, including the gruesome ending where a giant missile hits Kim Jong-Un’s helicopter in slow-mo as Katy Perry’s “Firework” plays, and Kim’s head catches on fire and explodes, Bennett gave his assessment of it in a June 25 email to Lynton, just five days after North Korea’s initial threat.

“The North has never executed an artillery attack against the balloon launching areas. So it is very hard to tell what is pure bluster from North Korea, since they use the term ‘act of war’ so commonly,” wrote Bennett. “I also thought a bunch more about the ending. I have to admit that the only resolution I can see to the North Korean nuclear and other threats is for the North Korean regime to eventually go away.”

He added, “In fact, when I have briefed my book on ‘preparing for the possibility of a North Korean collapse’ [Sept 2013], I have been clear that the assassination of Kim Jong-Un is the most likely path to a collapse of the North Korean government. Thus while toning down the ending may reduce the North Korean response, I believe that a story that talks about the removal of the Kim family regime and the creation of a new government by the North Korean people (well, at least the elites) will start some real thinking in South Korea and, I believe, in the North once the DVD leaks into the North (which it almost certainly will). So from a personal perspective, I would personally prefer to leave the ending alone.”

That same day, Lynton responded saying that a U.S. government official completely backed Bennett’s assessment of the film.

“Bruce—Spoke to someone very senior in State (confidentially),” wrote Lynton. “He agreed with everything you have been saying. Everything. I will fill you in when we speak.”

The following day, June 26, an email from Bennett to Lynton—as well as several other forwarded emails—revealed that Robert King, U.S. special envoy for North Korean human-rights issues, was helping to consult on the film as well through Bennett and addressed the June 20 threat by North Korea.

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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby NaturalMystik » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:26 am

That certainly adds some interesting insight or potential motive into the Sony hack overall...
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby Belligerent Savant » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:35 am

.

The misinforming/history-scripting is chugging right along... Dumb movie with the stamp of 2 twits ostensibly at the helm, production 'consulted' by the US State dept.

All par for the course.


http://defamer.gawker.com/leaked-watch- ... 1671454669


Did Sony Get Hacked Because of This Kim Jong-un Death Scene?

If there was one thing that triggered the embarrassing and fascinating Sony email leak, it might have been their decision to go forward with killing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in James Franco and Seth Rogen's The Interview in the most gory way allowable. Now, you can watch exactly why some think North Korea may have hacked Sony.

The exact specifics of Kim Jong-un's death have required a long back-and-forth between the movie's creators, Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and Sony executives in two continents. On Sept. 26, Rogen sent an email to Amy Pascal, SPE's co chairman, and Doug Belgrad, the president of SPE's Motion Picture Group, regarding Kim's death. The subject is "Hey guys! New head shot!" and in it, Rogen describes some alterations to the climax (click "expand" to expand):

Image

"We took out three out of four face embers," Rogen writes of shrapnel set to hit Kim's face. "Reduced the hair burning by 50%, and significantly darkened the chunks of Kim's head." This, though, was far from the final alterations he would have to make.

A day later, Pascal consulted Sony's Japan-based CEO Kazuo Hirai about the shot described in Rogen's email, as was reported today in a New York Times article about input on the film from Sony's Japanese executives.

Disturbed by North Korean threats at a time when his company was already struggling, Sony's Japanese chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, broke with what Sony executives say was a 25-year tradition. He intervened in the decision making of his company's usually autonomous Hollywood studio, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

According to hacked emails published by other media and interviews with people briefed on the matter, he insisted over the summer that a scene in which Mr. Kim's head explodes when hit by a tank shell be toned down to remove images of flaming hair and chunks of skull.

In the emails, he also asked that even the less bloody shot not be shown outside the United States. A final decision on how the assassination scene will be rendered in overseas release has not been made, a person briefed on the film's international roll out said Sunday.
In an email to Hirai on Sept. 29, Pascal sent her boss three different versions of the crucial scene: one which Hirai vetoed, one which the filmmakers vetoed, and the one sent by Rogen three days earlier. Pascal also provided notes on the goriness of Kim's death, as well as how much pushback she believes Rogen and others will tolerate:

Dear Kaz,

In anticipation of our phone call, here are three different versions of the scene:

1. The version you saw in New York which was unacceptable (shot #268)

2. The version we hoped the filmmakers would approve but they rejected (shot #316A)

3. The final version from them after many iterations (shot #337)

In shot #337 there is no face melting, less fire in the hair, fewer embers on the face, and the head explosion has been considerably obscured by the fire, as well as darkened to look less like flesh.

We arrived at this shot (#337) after much cajoling and resistance from the filmmakers.

I think this is a substantial improvement from where we were, and if we can agree on this direction conceptually I believe we can push them a bit further.

If we force them to go with the version where there is no head explosion it will be difficult but survivable. They really believe this is what's necessary to make it play like a joke.

As you know, they have agreed to completely cut the head popping and reduce the violence generally in any international version of the movie.

I'm sorry this hasn't already been resolved, but you know we will do what you need us to do.
Hirai emailed back the next day approving "shot #337," which reduces "face melting," "fire in the hair," "embers on the face" and, of course, the "head explosion."

Image

Hirai, taking Pascal's lead, asks that she try and reduce the gore of the shot even further. He also, as the Times reported, asked that the scene not be shown outside of America.

Pascal responded to that email by telling Hirai that Rogen was "so happy" about his acceptance of "shot #337" that Pascal thought he might cry.

Image

Image

Image

This version of Kim's death was also sent to Hirai by Pascal, who notes that "although the head still explodes it is less intense."

Image

Hirai tells Pascal that he would like be notified of any further changes—this despite that he has never meddled in the business of the film division, according to the Times.

The final product looks sanitized, even without knowing the protracted back-and-forth required to get Rogen and his side to severely tone down Kim's death. There are far more gory moments on Game of Thrones every week.

Rogen's exasperation over the film's climax is unlikely to calcify into a grudge against executives at Sony, but it's probably safe to assume that, at this point, everyone involved will be happy to put The Interview behind them.


Image
Last edited by Belligerent Savant on Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:50 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby 82_28 » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:44 am

It makes perfectly no sense. This is indeed what do you call them? Double binds? There is no way to know. In some capacity the most pedestrian way to approach this is that the movie fucking sucks and will get the "Streisand Effect" out of it. I was looking at pictures of employees ripping down the movie posters thinking to myself, "I would so take this home".

However, what's the angle? Bad movie? Deep state plot? Both? It seems focused more on anything Americans would think than anything. I certainly wouldn't have lifted a finger to see it.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby Jerky » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:22 am

George Clooney weighs in on the mis-and-disinformation being spread about these events:

"Sony didn’t pull the movie because they were scared; they pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you’re going to be responsible."
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby Nordic » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:44 am

Jerky » Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:22 am wrote:George Clooney weighs in on the mis-and-disinformation being spread about these events:

"Sony didn’t pull the movie because they were scared; they pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you’re going to be responsible."



Well yeah. It's always the lawyers and it's always about liability.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby coffin_dodger » Fri Dec 19, 2014 4:47 am

This event strikes me as important - just as important as the blatantly overt, seemingly paramount and ongoing economic destruction of Russia and it's attendant implications.

Hollywood has had an extremely long run of pumping out pro-Western 'values', not only to it's indiginous population, but the rest of the World too. It looks like someone (and I don't believe it's the N Koreans for a moment, irony would dictate a disgruntled US citizen/s) now has the tools to stymie the demonization of other cultures at source. There must be some extremely sensitive documents lifted from Sony's storage that haven't seen the light of day yet to trigger the outrage from the US Gov't and the entire pulling of the movie, nationwide and globally. I read yesterday that the US Gov't has already blamed the N Koreans (no surprise there), but what did surprise me is the unashamed defense of Sony Pictures (a private company, with lax cyber-security) by the US Gov't - it's treating it as a 'National Security' event. This is a clear and unambiguous demonstration of the Corporatocracy's grip on not only the US Gov't domestic policies, but it's foreign policy as well.

The US's shaky hold on the hearts and minds of not only it's own, but non-domestic peoples also, is at an all-time low. A cornered tiger is not good for anyone in the vicinity.
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18.3 frames per second.

Postby IanEye » Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:42 am

.

We arrived at this shot (#337) after much cajoling and resistance from the filmmakers.

I think this is a substantial improvement from where we were, and if we can agree on this direction conceptually I believe we can push them a bit further.

If we force them to go with the version where there is no head explosion it will be difficult but survivable. They really believe this is what's necessary to make it play like a joke.

As you know, they have agreed to completely cut the head popping and reduce the violence generally in any international version of the movie.

I'm sorry this hasn't already been resolved, but you know we will do what you need us to do.
Hirai emailed back the next day approving "shot #337," which reduces "face melting," "fire in the hair," "embers on the face" and, of course, the "head explosion."

Image

Hirai, taking Pascal's lead, asks that she try and reduce the gore of the shot even further. He also, as the Times reported, asked that the scene not be shown outside of America.




Well, shot #337 certainly is an interesting one:


Image


It's funny how one sequence of shots can lead to another.


Image


.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby brekin » Fri Dec 19, 2014 2:26 pm

This "movie" looked like almost a satirical take on a complete propaganda film from the beginning. It just reeked of being produced first as propaganda then reverse engineered as an attempt at a screwball comedy. It was like the CIA had a production meeting and had the whole thing story boarded and then were like, "You know who would be great for this, those two guys from Pineapple Express! They could really sell this around Christmas!" I'm even befuddled that this is being framed as a free speech issue. I get having to defend the indefensible for the sake of the overall freedom, but it is a little hard to go to the barricades over "we should protect the right for the CIA to manipulate Hollywood to create inflammatory propaganda films which depict and condone (maybe even encourage?) the assassination of the heads of foreign governments as comedy". It would have taken two seconds to thinly veil who the real dictator that was referenced or even make him a composite of a few. This was a blatant provocative noogying of a young, not completely stable dictator who is influenced by popular culture and probably doesn't deal well with ridicule. And I'm no fan of NK's power structure, it would be probably the best thing if there was a change in leadership, but you don't want China going all Russian on the US after our recent indiscreet "liberations".

But since the film looks completely unfunny and the premise smells completely of originating from foggy bottom and not the Hollywood Hills, I can only guess it probably wasn't primarily intended to change the hearts and minds of anyone, but was designed almost wholly as a provocative gesture to get some type of belligerent response or reaction from NK, which would then get the American people to care about a piece of shit celluloid that makes the Borat/Dicatator type films seem like Citizen Cane. So it was successful propaganda. America's love their stupid comedies (I laughed my ass off with Team America) and NK hacking Sony, exposing how shallow and lame our executive creative class is, and then "robbing" the public of not being able to see a film the majority had not intention in seeing at all. It's like the CIA attempted to do what happened in Mel Brook's The Producers for propagandic purposes instead of financial purposes. See, if we make the worst, horrible screw ball comedy ever about two goons who become secret agents that attempt to assassinate Kim Jong-un, it is actually better if NK does something where we are forced not to have it show it, we will get more bang for our buck, propaganda wise, then, because if NK does nothing, then the few people who see this stupid piece of shit will see how bad it is, and it will serve little to no purpose.

In a way the CIA weaved Hollywood crap into propaganda gold. You have libs like Michael Moore, Zach Braff, Jimmey Kimmel, & Mia Farrow "raging" against Sony for caving to terrorists! Oh, what begins as tragedy ends in farce, but the mighty Wurlitzer plays on.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby conniption » Fri Dec 19, 2014 4:45 pm

MoA
(embedded links)

December 19, 2014

Sony Hack - NYT Editors Find New Iraq WMD

A Japanese company with some offices in California was hacked. Several terrabytes of data were copied off its internal networks and some of it was put on file sharing sites. One of the items copied was a film produced in Canada that depicts as comedy the terror act of killing of a current head of state. The U.S. State Department applauded that movie scene. But there were tons of other data like social security numbers, payroll data, and internal emails stolen all of which that might have been the real target of the hackers.

The tools to hack the company are well known and in the public domain. The company, Sony, had lousy internal network security and had been hacked before. The hackers probably had some inside knowledge. They used servers in Bolivia, China and South Korea to infiltrate. There is zero public evidence in the known that the hack was state sponsored.

But the U.S. is claiming that the event is a "national security matter". Who's national security? Japan's? Canada's? Why? A private Japanese entertainment(!) company left the doors open and had some equipment vandalized and some of its private property stolen. Why, again, is that of U.S. "national interest"? Why would the U.S. even consider some "proportional response"?

The White House is anonymously accusing the state of North Korea of having done the hack. It provides no evidence to support that claim and the government of North Korea denied any involvement. The FBI and Sony say they have no evidence for such a claim.

Still the New York Times editors eat it all up:

North Korean hackers, seeking revenge for the movie, stole millions of documents, including emails, health records and financial information that they dished out to the world.


How do the editors know that these were "North Korean hackers"? The same way the knew about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? Make believe and anonymous claims by U.S. government officials? Yeah - those folks never lie. Right?

Posted by b on December 19, 2014
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Fri Dec 19, 2014 5:26 pm

brekin » Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:26 pm wrote:This "movie" looked like almost a satirical take on a complete propaganda film from the beginning. It just reeked of being produced first as propaganda then reverse engineered as an attempt at a screwball comedy. It was like the CIA had a production meeting and had the whole thing story boarded and then were like, "You know who would be great for this, those two guys from Pineapple Express! They could really sell this around Christmas!" I'm even befuddled that this is being framed as a free speech issue. I get having to defend the indefensible for the sake of the overall freedom, but it is a little hard to go to the barricades over "we should protect the right for the CIA to manipulate Hollywood to create inflammatory propaganda films which depict and condone (maybe even encourage?) the assassination of the heads of foreign governments as comedy". It would have taken two seconds to thinly veil who the real dictator that was referenced or even make him a composite of a few. This was a blatant provocative noogying of a young, not completely stable dictator who is influenced by popular culture and probably doesn't deal well with ridicule. And I'm no fan of NK's power structure, it would be probably the best thing if there was a change in leadership, but you don't want China going all Russian on the US after our recent indiscreet "liberations".

But since the film looks completely unfunny and the premise smells completely of originating from foggy bottom and not the Hollywood Hills, I can only guess it probably wasn't primarily intended to change the hearts and minds of anyone, but was designed almost wholly as a provocative gesture to get some type of belligerent response or reaction from NK, which would then get the American people to care about a piece of shit celluloid that makes the Borat/Dicatator type films seem like Citizen Cane. So it was successful propaganda. America's love their stupid comedies (I laughed my ass off with Team America) and NK hacking Sony, exposing how shallow and lame our executive creative class is, and then "robbing" the public of not being able to see a film the majority had not intention in seeing at all. It's like the CIA attempted to do what happened in Mel Brook's The Producers for propagandic purposes instead of financial purposes. See, if we make the worst, horrible screw ball comedy ever about two goons who become secret agents that attempt to assassinate Kim Jong-un, it is actually better if NK does something where we are forced not to have it show it, we will get more bang for our buck, propaganda wise, then, because if NK does nothing, then the few people who see this stupid piece of shit will see how bad it is, and it will serve little to no purpose.

In a way the CIA weaved Hollywood crap into propaganda gold. You have libs like Michael Moore, Zach Braff, Jimmey Kimmel, & Mia Farrow "raging" against Sony for caving to terrorists! Oh, what begins as tragedy ends in farce, but the mighty Wurlitzer plays on.


This is, by far, the most even-headed, rational and thought-provoking response to the tidal wave of bullshit I've seen regarding this 'crisis.' Thanks brekin.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby Luther Blissett » Fri Dec 19, 2014 5:37 pm

Sabu doubts:

Former Anonymous hacker doubts North Korea behind Sony attack

Is this a ransom email from Sony’s real hackers?

Over the last two days the narrative of the Sony hack has settled on the notion that North Korea was behind it. This story calcified after “anonymous White House officials” told multiple media outlets on Wednesday that they had reasons—also undisclosed—to believe it was North Korea’s doing. But, tellingly, the White House’s official press conference addressing the hack on Thursday stopped short of accusing the Pyongyang regime.

There are many reasons to doubt that the North Korean government initiated the attack. First and foremost is the fact that canceling “The Interview” was not the primary motive.

Over a week ago the below email was unearthed from the hackers’ document dump—an email from them to Sony leadership demanding a ransom. Click for full resolution:
Image

The email was allegedly sent on November 21, three days before the November 24 attack that wiped out much of Sony’s internal computer system. That attack, which took over screens on employees’ desktops, said, “We’ve already warned you.”

Demanding ransom money simply isn’t how sovereign governments go about launching cyber warfare.

It wasn’t until December 8, after a torrent of damning emails were released tarnishing the reputation of Sony’s top brass, that the group made mention of canceling “the movie of terrorism.” And it was a passing mention, at that:
Lorenzo Franceschi B ✔ @lorenzoFB
In latest Sony hack Pastebin hackers again talk about unmet demands and deny responsibility for threatening emails. pic.twitter.com/0fzVr2FP5x
Lorenzo Franceschi B ✔ @lorenzoFB
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Also worth noting that #GOP singles out Sony Pictures Amy Pascal (Co-Chairman) and Stephen Mosko (President), dumping their internal emails
3:08 PM - 8 Dec 2014

Despite the suggestions of still-anonymous officials who have still failed to provide any real evidence, it still seems far more likely that the Sony hack was perpetrated not by the government of North Korea but by a group of hackers routing their malware all over the world who were hoping to extract hefty ransom from Sony.

Update: The FBI has officially confirmed their view that North Korea was responsible for the hack.


The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy
BY KIM ZETTER 12.17.14 | 5:32 PM

Today Sony canceled the premiere of “The Interview” and its entire Christmas-Day release of the movie because of fears that terrorists might attack theaters showing the film.

The actions show just how much power the attackers behind the Sony hack have amassed in a short time. But who exactly are they?

1 The New York Times reported this evening that North Korea is “centrally involved” in the hack, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials. It’s unclear from the Times report what “centrally involved” means and whether the intelligence officials are saying the hackers were state-sponsored or actually agents of the state. The Times also notes that “It is not clear how the United States came to its determination that the North Korean regime played a central role in the Sony attacks.” The public evidence pointing at the Hermit Kingdom is flimsy.

Other theories of attribution focus on hacktivists—motivated by ideology, politics or something else—or disgruntled insiders who stole the data on their own or assisted outsiders in gaining access to it. Recently, the finger has pointed at China.

In the service of unraveling the attribution mess, we examined the known evidence for and against North Korea.

Attribution Is Difficult If Not Impossible
First off, we have to say that attribution in breaches is difficult. Assertions about who is behind any attack should be treated with a hefty dose of skepticism. Skilled hackers use proxy machines and false IP addresses to cover their tracks or plant false clues inside their malware to throw investigators off their trail. When hackers are identified and apprehended, it’s generally because they’ve made mistakes or because a cohort got arrested and turned informant.

Nation-state attacks often can be distinguished by their level of sophistication and modus operandi, but attribution is no less difficult. It’s easy for attackers to plant false flags that point to North Korea or another nation as the culprit. And even when an attack appears to be nation-state, it can be difficult to know if the hackers are mercenaries acting alone or with state sponsorship—some hackers work freelance and get paid by a state only when they get access to an important system or useful intelligence; others work directly for a state or military. Then there are hacktivists, who can be confused with state actors because their geopolitical interests and motives jibe with a state’s interests.

Distinguishing between all of these can be impossible unless you’re an intelligence agency like the NSA, with vast reach into computers around the world, and can uncover evidence about attribution in ways that law enforcement agents legally cannot.

So let’s look at what’s known.

Sony and FBI Deny Connection to North Korea
First of all, Sony and the FBI have announced that they’ve found no evidence so far to tie North Korea to the attack. 2 New reports, however, indicate that intelligence officials who are not permitted to speak on the record have concluded that the North Koreans are behind the hack. But they have provided no evidence to support this and without knowing even what agency the officials belong to, it’s difficult to know what to make of the claim. And we should point out that intelligence agencies and government officials have jumped to hasty conclusions or misled the public in the past because it was politically expedient.

Nation-state attacks aren’t generally as noisy, or announce themselves with an image of a blazing skeleton posted to infected computers, as occurred in the Sony hack. Nor do they use a catchy nom-de-hack like Guardians of Peace to identify themselves. Nation-state attackers also generally don’t chastise their victims for having poor security, as purported members of GOP have done in media interviews. Nor do such attacks involve posts of stolen data to Pastebin—the unofficial cloud repository of hackers—where sensitive company files belonging to Sony have been leaked. These are all hallmarks of hacktivists—groups like Anonymous and LulzSec, who thrive on targeting large corporations for ideological reasons or just the lulz, or by hackers sympathetic to a political cause.

Despite all of this, media outlets won’t let the North Korea narrative go and don’t seem to want to consider other options. If there’s anything years of Law and Order reruns should tell us, it’s that focusing on a single suspect can lead to exclusionary bias where clues that contradict the favored theory get ignored.

The Interview a Red Herring?
Initial and hasty media reports about the attackers pointed to cyberwarriors from North Korea, bent on seeking revenge for the Sony movie The Interview. This was based on a complaint North Korea made to the United Nations last July about the Seth Rogen and James Franco flick, which was originally slated to be released in October before being changed to Christmas Day. North Korea’s UN ambassador said the comedy, about a TV host and his producer who get embroiled in an ill-conceived CIA plot to assassinate North Korean President Kim Jong-un, was an act of war that promoted terrorism against North Korea.

“To allow the production and distribution of such a film on the assassination of an incumbent head of a sovereign state should be regarded as the most undisguised sponsoring of terrorism as well as an act of war,” UN ambassador Ja Song Nam wrote the UN secretary general in a letter. “The United States authorities should take immediate and appropriate actions to ban the production and distribution of the aforementioned film; otherwise, it will be fully responsible for encouraging and sponsoring terrorism.”

In other statements, North Korea threatened a “resolute and merciless” response if the U.S. didn’t ban the film.

But in their initial public statement, whoever hacked Sony made no mention of North Korea or the film. And in an email sent to Sony by the hackers, found in documents they leaked, there is also no mention of North Korea or the film. The email was sent to Sony executives on Nov. 21, a few days before the hack went public. Addressed to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, Chairwoman Amy Pascal and other executives, it appears to be an attempt at extortion, not an expression of political outrage or a threat of war.

“[M]onetary compensation we want,” the email read. “Pay the damage, or Sony Pictures will be bombarded as a whole. You know us very well. We never wait long. You’d better behave wisely.”

To make matters confusing, however, the email wasn’t signed by GOP or Guardians of Peace, who have taken credit for the hack, but by “God’sApstls,” a reference that also appeared in one of the malicious files used in the Sony hack.

A person purporting to be a Guardians of Peace spokesperson then emphasized again, in an interview with CSO Online published Dec. 1, that they are “an international organization … not under direction of any state.” The GOP’s members include, they wrote, “famous figures in the politics and society from several nations such as United States, United Kingdom and France.”

The person also said the Seth Rogen film was not the motive for the hack, but that the film was problematic nonetheless in that it exemplified Sony’s greed and fed political turmoil in the region:

“Our aim is not at the film The Interview as Sony Pictures suggests,” the person told CSO Online. “But it is widely reported as if our activity is related to The Interview. This shows how dangerous film The Interview is. The Interview is very dangerous enough to cause a massive hack attack. Sony Pictures produced the film harming the regional peace and security and violating human rights for money. The news with The Interview fully acquaints us with the crimes of Sony Pictures. Like this, their activity is contrary to our philosophy. We struggle to fight against such greed of Sony Pictures.”

It was only on December 8, after a week of media stories connecting North Korea and the Sony film to the hack, that the attackers made their first reference to the film in one of their public announcements. But they continued to trounce the theory that North Korea was behind their actions, and they denied ownership of an email sent to Sony staffers after the hack, threatening them and their families with harm if they didn’t denounce their employer.

At this point, it’s quite possible the media are guilty of inspiring the hacker’s narrative, since it was only after news reports tying the attack to the Sony film that GOP began condemning the movie in public statements. This week the hackers have pounced on that narrative, using it to escalate the stakes by making oblique terrorist threats against the film’s New York premiere and theaters scheduled to screen it Christmas day. Even if members of GOP lack the means or intent to pull off a terrorist attack on their own, they’ve now created an open invitation for opportunistic attackers to do so in their name—in essence, escalating their crimes and influence to a level no other hackers have achieved to date.

So why do some people continue to claim that North Korea is the culprit? There are two forensic discoveries that fuel this assertion, but they are flimsy.

Evidence: Malicious Files Point to Possible Korean Speakers
Four files that researchers have examined, which appear to be connected to the hack, seem to have been compiled on a machine that was using the Korean language. This refers to the encoding language on a computer; computer users can configure the encoding language so that content on their machine renders in a language they speak. But an attacker can set the language on a compilation machine to any language they want and, researchers note, can even manipulate information about the encoded language after a file is compiled to throw investigators off.

Evidence: Files Show Up In Other Hacks
The Sony attackers didn’t just siphon data from the studio’s networks, they also used a wiper component to destroy data. To do the wiping, they used a driver from a commercially-available product that had been used by other attackers before. The product, called RawDisk, uses drivers that allow administrators to securely delete data from hard drives or for forensic purposes to access memory.

The same product was used in similarly destructive attacks that hit Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Since some people have claimed those were both nation-state attacks—U.S. officials blamed Iran for the Saudi Arabia attack; South Korea blamed China and North Korea for its attack—people assume the Sony hack is also a nation-state attack. But the evidence pointing to those other attacks as nation-state attacks is also flimsy.

The 2012 attack in Saudi Arabia, dubbed Shamoon, wiped data from about 30,000 computers belonging to Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil conglomerate. Although U.S. officials blamed Iran for it, researchers found that malware used in the attack contained sloppy code riddled with errors and attributed it to hacktivists with political motives rather than a nation-state. The malware displayed part of an image of a burning U.S. flag on infected machines before they were wiped. What’s more, a group calling itself the Cutting Sword of Justice took credit for the hack. “This is a warning to the tyrants of this country and other countries that support such criminal disasters with injustice and oppression,” they wrote in a Pastebin post. “We invite all anti-tyranny hacker groups all over the world to join this movement. We want them to support this movement by designing and performing such operations, if they are against tyranny and oppression.”

That sounds like a call to recruit other like-minded activists who might also be opposed to, say, a “criminal” company like Sony.

Last year, a similarly destructive attack, dubbed Dark Seoul by researchers, struck computers at banks and media companies in South Korea. The attack used a logic bomb, set to go off at a specific time, that wiped computers in a coordinated fashion. The attack wiped the hard drives and master boot records of computers at three banks and two media companies simultaneously, reportedly putting some ATMs out of operation and preventing South Koreans from withdrawing cash from them. As with the Sony and Saudi Aramco hacks, the attackers used a RawDisk driver for their attack. They also left an image of a skull on the web site of the South Korean president’s office. And an IP address used for one of the attackers’ command-and-control servers matches an IP address the Sony hackers used for one of their command servers.

South Korea alternately blamed North Korea for the attack as well as China—since an IP address in China appeared to be part of the campaign. Officials later retracted the allegations.

The same group behind this attack are said to be behind other attacks in South Korea that occurred on the anniversary of the Korean War.

OK, So Who Hacked Sony?
Regardless of whether the Sony, Saudi Aramco and South Korea attacks are related, the evidence indicating they’re nation-state attacks is circumstantial. And all of the same evidence could easily point to hacktivists. Our money is on the latter.

This is likely a group of various actors who coalesce and disperse, as the Anonymous hackers did, based on their common interests. But even with that said, there is another possibility with regard to the Sony hack: that the studio’s networks weren’t invaded by a single group but by many, some with political interests at heart and others bent on extortion. Therefore, we can’t rule out the possibility that nation-state attackers were also in Sony’s network or that a nation like North Korea was supportive of some of these hackers, since they shared similar anger over Sony. Another interesting scenario was recently posited by Deadline, suggesting that China may have initiated a breach at Sony during business negotiations with the studio last year, before handing off control to freelance hackers.

1,2: Update at 8p.m. 12/18/14: Minutes after we published this story examining the known evidence for and against North Korea as the source of the hack, The New York Times and other media outlets announced that the U.S. administration was ready to conclude North Korea was involved in the Sony hack. We have updated the story with this new information.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:16 pm

The Right-Wing Billionaire Who Bowed to North Korea over ‘The Interview’
He may own some tough-talking, hard-right media outlets. But when a movie controversy crested, Philip Anschutz’s Regal Cinemas caved.
When the top movie-theater chains in the United States dropped Seth Rogen and James Franco’s Kim Jong Un assassination comedy The Interview—ostensibly over fear of terrorist attacks against their theaters—Regal Cinemas was the greatest loss.

Regal Entertainment Group is the biggest and most geographically diverse theater company in the country. It operates over 7,000 screens all over America. Industry sources with knowledge of the situation tell The Daily Beast that Regal and AMC Theatres were the “”first dominos to fall” in the top-five theater circuits, essentially sealing the fate of The Interview.

“Due to the wavering support of the film The Interview by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats, Regal Entertainment Group has decided to delay the opening of the film in our theatres,” Regal announced in their statement.

Regal’s move brings back into the public view a right-wing media baron who would rather be elsewhere. The chain’s biggest owner is a secretive deeply conservative billionaire and devout Christian who is, according to The New Yorker, “the man who owns L.A.”
Philip Anschutz, whose investment fund owns about 47 percent of Regal’s shares, has all the makings of a major-league boogeyman of the left—like a Rupert Murdoch or a Koch brother. He presides over a sprawling media and sports empire that spans from the Lakers to The Chronicles of Narnia. He has donated generously to conservative (and anti-gay) causes and candidates, including Rick Santorum, both Bush presidents, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Last year, Regal Entertainment Group slashed some workers’ hours down to 30 per week, blaming Obamacare. And Media Matters, the liberal media-watchdog group, labeled Anschutz, “the other right-wing media mogul you should worry about” in 2009.

And in 2002, Fortune magazine honored Anschutz with the distinction of America’s “greediest executive.”

Along with his large-scale philanthropic efforts, Anschutz owns a slew of news outlets such as the Washington Examiner and the neoconservative flagship The Weekly Standard, the latter of which he purchased from Murdoch's News Corp for roughly $1 million in 2009.

“The capitulation to North Korea could be—unless we reverse course in a fundamental way—a signpost in a collapse of civilizational courage.”
The Weekly Standard ran a couple items the day after the theaters and Sony dumped The Interview: “The surrender to North Korea is a historical moment,” Bill Kristol, the magazine’s editor, blogged. “The capitulation to North Korea could be—unless we reverse course in a fundamental way—a signpost in a collapse of civilizational courage.”

This “collapse” started on Tuesday when Carmike Cinemas announced their decision to drop The Interview from its 278 theaters, several other major theater chains followed suit the next day, which caused Sony to ditch the planned Christmas Day release. The combined action set a very dangerous precedent—all because of pro-North Korean hackers’ threats that the Department of Homeland Security has said are not credible.

Video screenshot
“These guys are afraid of what happened to Sony happening to them I’m sure,” said Michael Goldfarb, a Weekly Standard contributing editor and a big player in neoconservative circles. “The government isn’t doing anything to help them as they face the threat of attack by a foreign power. It’s a disgrace but they aren’t equipped to deal with this kind of thing.”

(The U.S. government has reportedly determined that the North Korean regime was “centrally involved” in the Sony email hack, though this conclusion has its share of skeptics.)


Nowadays, it looks like Anschutz is trying to get out of the multiplex business. In October, news broke that Regal hired Morgan Stanley to explore a possible sale. As for whether or not Anschutz will personally address the international Interview affair? Don’t hold your breath.

“I don’t think Phil wants to have a public persona,” a longtime friend told Politico shortly after the reclusive mogul bought The Weekly Standard. “Phil is a very private person.”
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:37 pm

Vladimir Putin invites Kim Jong-un to Moscow
Russian president’s offer to North Korean leader to mark anniversary of Nazi defeat

Russian president Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, a Kremlin spokesman said.
It would be the North Korean premier’s first foreign visit since assuming power in the state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month as part of efforts to improve relations.
“Yes, such an invitation was sent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency TASS. Russia marks the former Soviet Union’s World War Two victory every year on May 9th.
Moscow needs North Korean cooperation in boosting natural gas exports to South Korea as Gazprom wants to build a gas pipeline through North Korea to reach its southern neighbour.
Pyongyang is also seeking support from Russia, a permanent veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, against international criticism over alleged human rights abuses and its nuclear programme.
The UN General Assembly committee dealing with human rights passed a resolution last month calling for the Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also said North Korea is ready to resume stalled international talks on its nuclear programme.
North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States began talks in 2003 to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, but they were suspended after Pyongyang tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.

Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: "The Interview", Sony, N Korea, and the Obama admin

Postby norton ash » Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:25 am

I give up. A total crap movie and a sketchy hack of a studio merits a presidential address about freedom of expression. I give, uncle, I'm done. (But this is where you whip the elbow and get the knee into play.) (I used to love the ocean, until "Jews" ruined it.) (oops typo I meant "Jaws" sorry.) Sorry, I meant to say I hate Seth Rogan and his shit attitude.
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