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U.S. to Name North Korea as Sony Hacker; George Clooney Fights Back; President Obama to Face Questions on Sony Hack; Pentagon Unveils New Name for ISIS; Will Cuba Return U.S. Fugitive?

Aired December 19, 2014 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

They had the keys to the entire building, that's how one U.S. official describes the access hackers had to the Sony computer system. Thieves apparently commandeered the credentials of top level IT employees. As early as today, the U.S. government could publicly name North Korea for the attack, which they have traced using digital footprints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The U.S. government is taking this attack very seriously, as an attack on a company, it's an attack on its employees and frankly, it's an attack on the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, the freedom of an entertainer or an artist to make something, though it may be controversial. And the freedom of people to go see it. We're reviewing a range of options for how we will respond to this attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez is with me now to tell us more about this.

Good morning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is the big issue for this administration is how to respond to this North Korean hacking, but also not -- to make sure that it's not an overreaction.

The White House is expected to announce attribution of this hack in the next couple of hours and as you said at the top, Carol, the way this was done was to make it look like it was an inside job, to make sure that people thought it was coming from inside. They even tried to hide the routing of different -- of where the computer servers that were being used to carry out this attack. So in the end these hackers were able to get into the computer systems of Sony. They were there for some time, for months, before they did anything, Carol.

COSTELLO: The White House says this is a serious national security issue and it demands a proportional response. What does that mean?

PEREZ: Well, you know, the -- I think what the danger here is that North Korea does have nuclear weapon, and, you know, they do irrational things from time to time. So what you don't want is to escalate a situation. After all, this is a hack against a movie studio, and you don't want -- President Obama doesn't want to be a president who essentially accidentally starts a war with North Korea perhaps over a Seth Rogen movie.

You know, they want to make sure that they have a proportional response they can perhaps do sanctions against the North Korean military but they want to make sure they don't go too far to cause the -- to cause the problem to get even worse perhaps.

COSTELLO: I think you just put it in fine perspective. The president doesn't want to be responsible for starting a war over a Seth Rogen movie.

Wow. Evan Perez, many thanks to you.

PEREZ: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Well, Sony may be losing millions when it shelves "The Interview." It's been a gold mine for late-night comics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": Big story, Sony Pictures has officially canceled the release of "The Interview" due to continued threats from hackers.

(AUDIENCE BOOING)

FALLON: Yes. Which means the hackers have accomplished their goal of making everyone in the world want to see "The Interview." I mean, I -- I wasn't planning on it, now I can't wait to see it. I'm like what is this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: For George Clooney, though, this is certainly no laughing matter. He's got a message for Sony and it's an angry one. He says, quote, "Stick it online. Do whatever you can to get this movie out, not because everybody has to see the movie but because I'm not going to be told we can't see the movie. That's the most important part. We cannot be told we can't see something by Kim Jong-Un, "of all the F-ing people."

CNN correspondent Samuel Burke is following the story and this letter goes on and gets even better.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's even scarier is the fact that George Clooney sent out a petition across Hollywood, he and his agents, to many stars, to many studios, and not one person signed it, Carol. He says that people are afraid. They don't want to be seen as supporting someone who made inappropriate remarks about Obama on the one hand, and then they're also afraid of what they have in their own e-mails and that they might be hacked so that's a major problem.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So they're putting themselves before country in other words?

BURKE: In one respect, that's absolutely right. And don't forget it's not just one movie that's been canceled. It's two movies that have been canceled so there are fears from Silicon Valley down to Hollywood, all across California. Movie that would have also centered around North Korea with Steve Carell has been canceled.

I wanted to show you the tweet that he put out yesterday. He's also very upset the way that George Clooney is. He put this tweet on Twitter, saying that, "It's a very sad day for expression, for freedom of speech," and he said -- used the hashtag, you know, fear to express everything that's happening there in Hollywood.

So what's interesting is that people are saying you have to take a stand in Hollywood. You can't capitulate and I'm also hearing that from cyber security experts. The same thing George Clooney is saying, they're very afraid of copycat attacks.

COSTELLO: So they don't want their personal e-mails getting out there because it could hurt their bottom line and their personal reputations and their relationships and those are more important to them than taking the stand for the First Amendment rights of Americans and themselves.

BURKE: And it's interesting, because George Clooney made the point that Sony really isn't to blame for capitulating because if you follow the line of this story, Sony went ahead after all of this in wanting to release this film. But it was after the movie theater owners pulled it, then Sony had to give in to them. So he says we shouldn't be upset at Sony but we do need to take a stand. The industry needs to stand strong.

And he makes a point that it's not just Hollywood that needs to stand strong, it could be the car manufacturers next, it could be other companies, it could be Wall Street, so it starts with Hollywood. He says they need to take a stand to stand up for the rest of the industry in the United States.

COSTELLO: All right, Samuel Burke, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

The cyber attack on -- the cyber attack on Sony is likely to be front and center for the president. Just a few hours from now he faces his last press conference and reporters, so that will be the last time he'll do that this year.

Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is at the White House to tell us more.

Good morning, Joe. JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

One of the big questions in all of this is a proportional response to what has happened, and that's a little bit difficult for the administration to try to figure out, because there is no equivalent entity in North Korea like Sony Pictures. So how does the administration fashion a proportional response? I think that's just one question.

I do also think we need to sort of restate what we just heard a minute ago, that there's also that issue of Sony Pictures and whether or not it should be blamed, the question of the movie theaters shutting down and, you know, pushing Sony Pictures to go ahead and do what it did. Just the same, they're saying here at the White House that there is that political problem, because rather than projecting a position of strength and standing up for free expression, instead the movie industry of the United States is now in position of appearing to sort of kowtow to a dictator.

So that, too, is a difficult situation and one certainly the president can get asked about in his news conference today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So it's likely the president won't come out and say that this was an act of cyber terrorism?

JOHNS: It's hard to say. I mean, if you talk to people on the outside they'll say -- they'll call it cyber terrorism, among other things, cyber extortion or what have you. The question is, how strong a position the United States government is going to take. Also, another question I think needs to be raised here, and people are asking Washington, typically companies in the United States, whether they are public or private, provide for their own cyber security. They don't ask for the United States government to protect them.

Now, though, we're in a new age, if a whole government comes against a studio or any other entity in the United States, what does the United States do to respond? These are very difficult questions, of course, in 2014 and things are going to be looking at going down the road.

COSTELLO: All right, Joe Johns reporting live from the White House this morning, thank you.

You can catch the president this weekend sitting down with Candy Crowley for a one-on-one TV exclusive Sunday morning, 9:00 Eastern.

"The Interview" will not be shown at movie theaters and it looks like neither will "Team America World Police."

Several theaters wanted to show this 2004 animated film from the "South Park" creators, Trade Parker and Matt Stone, in place of the now cancelled movie "The Interview." It's called "Team America World Police." It features a cartoonish version of the former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

Paramount Pictures, though, is now cancelling even those showings and on its Twitter page, the Alamo Draft House, this is the bar which they were going to show this movie, it posted this on its Facebook page, "Due to circumstances beyond our control the 'Team America' screening has been canceled. We apologize and will provide refunds today."

Food for thought.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, for months now coalition forces have been conducting damaging air strikes against ISIS. Now Pentagon officials are re-branding the group with a new name.

Coming up next, we'll tell you why the terrorist group hates the name, and what they threaten to do to anyone who uses it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The Pentagon has a brand new name for ISIS and judging by the number of times Lieutenant General James Terry used that new name in a 30-minute news conference, well, the Pentagon is serious about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARMY LT. GEN. JAMES TERRY, COMMANDER, COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE: Da'esh is why we're here. Da'esh. Da'esh uses terror. Da'esh. Da'esh. We will strike Da'esh. Da'esh. Da'esh. Da'esh. Da'esh is a -- Da'esh. Da'esh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So you get the point, right? Terry used the term Da'esh 25 times in 30 minutes. In Arabic the acronym sounds like a word that means crush underneath the foot. ISIS, which we will now call Da'esh, hates the term. In fact, if ISIS leaders hear anyone using the term Da'esh they will cut out their tongues.

General Terry said the Pentagon is making the shift because allied partners believe referring to the group as ISIS or ISIL legitimizes the self-declared caliphate.

So let's discuss this with CNN military analyst Lt. General Mark Hertling.

Welcome, General.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So the French foreign minister takes it a step farther. He's decided to call ISIS Da'esh cutthroats. Tell us why this is effective.

HERTLING: Well, Carol, I'm not an Arabic linguist but Da'esh stands for -- and it means the state of Islam in Iraq and the Levant. But it also sounds like a word in Arabic that means to crush under foot, so it is a condemnation by most Arabs who are using this, and I talked to an Iraqi general, an old friend of mine a few days ago via e-mail and he said that's what he's calling it, because the Arabs like it that way.

This not an Islamic state, they do not represent the Islamic people so it's throwing it in the face of al-Baghdadi, and I think General Terry using it yesterday was a brilliant move on his part and it's really in their face saying OK, you're going to cut off my tongue? Try it, come after me.

COSTELLO: Very interesting. I was just thinking about ISIS and what it really is.

It's more like a criminal enterprise. They kidnap people to raise money. They deal in drugs. They're thieves. They steal.

So, why not just call it something like a cartel or mafia or a gang?

HERTLING: Well, when you've lived and worked and fought in Iraq as long as many of us have, you'll come to understand that there are a lot of these kind of criminal gangs there. In fact, the naming of these gangs go back and forth. It's almost like the Crips and the Bloods, Carol. They are terrorist outfits and they will lean one way or another, depending on who they think has the upper hand.

Daesh has had that for the last several months, but I think they've come to a culminating point. They suffered some defeats. They began to go on a strategic defensive. And I think the combination of Kurdish and Iraqi forces growing again, the betterment of the Iraqi government and the assistance given by the coalition forces, is going to defeat them in Iraq, just like al Qaeda was defeated in Iraq.

COSTELLO: Well, that is good to hear.

Going back to your original point, Daesh, you know, ISIS is threatening to cut out the tongues of anyone who says that. It's dangerous for Americans in that part of the world.

Does calling ISIS "Daesh" make it more dangerous for Americans, besides our military men and women I mean?

HERTLING: No, I don't think so. It's actually ascribing to them what they deserve. It is an organization that should be put underfoot. And obviously, too, in the culture of the Arabs, putting something under your feet is an extreme -- well, let's just say it's not a compliment.

So, when you put something under someone's foot, it's kind of the worst kind of insult. So, I think this gives them the credit they deserve. They are not deserving of representing the good Islamic people, the good Arab people, which are 95 percent of the people in this part of the world.

They have taken on the criminal activities, as you said before, of a gang. And that's not something that most Arabs want to be associated with.

COSTELLO: General Mark Hertling, thanks so much. I appreciate your insight.

HERTLING: Great. Have a great day, Carol.

COSTELLO: You, too.

HERTLING: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: one of America's most wanted has been in asylum in Cuba for decades. Now, with a thaw in relations, will Havana send her back?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This afternoon, President Obama will face questions about his Cuba policy change during an end of the year news conference at the White House. One question at the top of the list, with travel restrictions eased, will the president go to Cuba? And if so, when?

Top U.S. officials will head to Havana soon to establish a presence. Also, could Raul Castro come to the United States? No official word on that just yet. But just for perspective, the Cuban president's phone call with Mr. Obama was the first exchange between leaders of the two nations in 55 years.

The FBI has its own Cuba question today. Will Havana now return a U.S. fugitive convicted in a 1973 shooting of a New Jersey state trooper?

CNN's Jason Carroll has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASSATA SHAKUR, FUGITIVE: We have learned a lot from people --

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Assata Shakur is somewhat of a cause celebre in Cuba, called on to speak on issues such as equality and human rights. But it wasn't always like this. In fact, she didn't always if by the name Assata Shakur.

AARON FORD, FBI NEWARK: The addition of Joanne Chesimard to the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.

CARROLL: Shakur's given name is Joanne Chesimard. Last year, she became the first woman added to the FBI's most wanted terrorist list, a $2 million reward offered for her capture, in connection with the fatal shooting of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.

FORD: While living openly and freely in Cuba, she continues to maintain and promote her terrorist ideology.

CARROLL: Back in 1973, Chesimard was a member of the Black Panther Party. In 1987, Chesimard, while a fugitive in Cuba, talked about what happened the night she and two of her companions were stopped while driving on the New Jersey turnpike.

SHAKUR: We ate, got back into the car and shortly after, we were stopped by the police.

CARROLL: She claims things turned violent almost without warning.

SHAKUR: He had a gun in my face. I put my hands out like this. In a matter of seconds, I was shot. CARROLL: When the shooting had ended, state trooper Werner Foerster

was dead, Chesimard and another man charged with his murder. What happened out here in the New Jersey turnpike took place decades ago, but one chilling detail is still very clear to state troopers, according to the FBI, Foerster was shot at point blank range with his own gun. Jury found Chesimard guilty of murder, supposed to serve a life sentence. Two years later she was broken out of prison by three armed members of the Black Liberation Army and after hiding out for years, finally surfaced in Cuba. She was granted asylum by Fidel Castro.

Since then, state officials have fought for her extradition. In 1998, New Jersey's Governor Christine Todd Whitman had this message for Chesimard.

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN (D), FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: You are holding up the ability of the Cuban population to enjoy a better relationship with the United States by your presence in Cuba.

CARROLL: Now, an historic shift in U.S./Cuba relations. Could it translate into an extradition agreement, one that would finally force Chesimard back to U.S. soil to be held accountable for her crime?

JOSE CARDENAS, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: What Cuba wants always is to get into a swap situation. And for U.S. officials, that's a very difficult road to go down.

CARROLL: Over four decades since the shooting, troopers here in New Jersey are still waiting for justice.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: George Clooney takes a stand against the Sony cyber attack, except it appears he's going it alone. The petition he started and why no one else in this Hollywood will sign it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Carol Costello.

George Clooney is one of the biggest power players in Hollywood, but when it comes to defending Sony, it turns out he has little sway. Last month, the megastar tried to get Hollywood executives to stand up to the hackers and stand in solidarity with Sony.

In a petition sent to the studies, Clooney wrote, quote, "This is not just an attack on Sony. It involves every studio, every network, every business and every individual in this country. We know that to give in to these criminals open the door for any group that would threaten the freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty."

Those are great intentions, except nobody signed the petition. Clooney doesn't blame anyone but that the industry is terrified right now.

So, let's talk about this. I want to bring in "Variety" senior features editor David Cohen, HLN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, and CNN Money technology correspondent Laurie Segall.

Welcome to all of you.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

So, David, I'm going to start with you. Why won't anyone sign this petition? Wouldn't it be in their best interests to stand up for Sony?

DAVID COHEN, SENIOR FEATURES EDITOR, VARIETY: Well, to say the least Hollywood executives are known to be risk-averse. I think it's not too strong a word to say cowardly. So even under the best of circumstances, they're not inclined to stand up for creative freedom because in the actual creative process of making movies, they are frequently the ones who are trampling that creative freedom.

In case, they're frightened by the prospect of violence in movie theaters and by the threat that their own studio could be the next one to be hacked and their own e-mails could be exposed, their own financials exposed and own careers threatened. I understand their decision not to sign that petition. I do, however, find the total -- that no one in the industry is contemptible. It says something bad about the industry.

COSTELLO: Yes, because it sort of says, I'm afraid my personal e- mails will be leaked and my career in danger. But, you know, those First Amendment rights, you know, I'm more important than that.

COHEN: Well, you would think someone would have more to say about it than that, than just being able to say I'm sorry, I can't participate.

Well, we do see out here -- George Clooney said this in his interview, is that usually once one studio does it, another says they're doing it, I'll do it also. So, you have trouble getting the first person to do it and you get everybody. In this case, they couldn't even manage to get that. It's really kind of disgusting.

COSTELLO: It is.

So Joey, I'll pose this question to you. Also in Clooney's little protest letter, he said, quote, "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."

So is Clooney right because the White House says there's no credible threat.