Connecticut’s two U.S. senators called Monday for the Obama administration to respond — in an undefined way — to North Korea’s alleged hacking into Sony Pictures’ computer system and lethal threats against the airing of the movie The Interview.
The James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy (pictured) includes a fictionalized assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea apparently took the joke seriously.
President Obama has declared his intentions to respond in some way to the computer attack. U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal urged him on, when asked about the matter at an unrelated Monday press conference at New Haven’s Atwater Senior Center.
“If North Korea is responsible, that is unacceptable,” Murphy said. “I expect the Foreign Relations Committee will have meetings soon.”
He said the pattern of North Korea’s foreign policy is desperately to seek foreign attention. In that regard the U.S. needs to take care to keep a response proportionate, he said. “This deserves a response proportional but that doesn’t reward North Korea by keeping them on the front pages, because that would reward them.”
At the same time, Blumenthal stressed the importance of the response serving as “a message-sending to the world that two-bit terrorists won’t get a platform.”
The world, not just the U.S., has a role in preventing a rogue country like North Korea from terrorizing countries, Blumenthal added.
He said the response should not be military. It could possibly “impact their cyber system,” he said. He also recommended “putting North Korea back on the terrorist watch list.”
Although Sony has canceled its planned Christmas release of the film, one New York Times reviewer did see a preview. Here’s his take on the film that has caused an international incident.
Riding the press train. The press makes this the current mecca, and it's an easy way to get the press come out and cover you, so you can constantly stay in the public eye. Just staying in the public eye is a way to get votes. You don't even have to do anything of any magnitude. Which is what these two are restricted to doing in DC as freshmen Senators. Not there fault; the system is based on favors, and until one can trade off their votes over years and years, will they be able to someday propose, get on the floor for debate and maybe a vote, will they ever be able to pass a law that benefits their constituents, and the rest of the population of this country. Moving on, the issue was not whether the American Public was at risk, but Sony's computer resources and content were at risk. Their computer security contractors DO NOT know if they could stop the NK hackers from doing damage to their computer storage. NK hackers attacked Sony without warning; why would they warn of an attack this time? And having such a "warning" meant preparations could have been made to actually ward off anything they would try to do, and gain a treasure trove of intelligence of their capacity. So why is Homeland Security manipulating the press to make North Korea the current story for the American Public? Smells like war to me.