North Korea denies Sony hack but warns U.S Worse is coming

North Korea is accusing the U.S. government of being behind the making of the movie "The Interview."

And, in a dispatch on state media, the totalitarian regime warned the United States that its "citadels" will be attacked, dwarfing the hacking attack on Sony that led to the cancellation of the film's release.

Obama: North Korea's hack not war, but 'cybervandalism'
While steadfastly denying involvement in the hack, North Korea accused U.S. President Barack Obama of calling for "symmetric counteraction."

"The DPRK has already launched the toughest counteraction. Nothing is more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is the target of this counteraction. Our target is all the citadels of the U.S. imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of all Koreans," a report on state-run KCNA read.

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"Our toughest counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole U.S. mainland, the cesspool of terrorism," the report said, adding that "fighters for justice" including the "Guardians of Peace" -- a group that claimed responsibility for the Sony attack -- "are sharpening bayonets not only in the U.S. mainland but in all other parts of the world."
'Act of cybervandalism'
The FBI on Friday pinned blame on North Korea for a hack into Sony's computer systems.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN, Obama called it "an act of cybervandalism," not war.

He said the United States is going to review whether to put North Korea back on a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

"We've got very clear criteria as to what it means for a state to sponsor terrorism. And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day," Obama said. "We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."

The Republican National Committee urged cinema chains to show the movie.
In a letter to their CEOs, RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote: "As a sign of my commitment, if you agree to show this movie, I will send a note to the Republican Party's millions of donors and supporters urging them to buy a ticket -- not to support one movie or Hollywood, but to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom."

'Dishonest reactionary movie'
While the film was the work of private individuals, North Korea insisted otherwise in its statement. "The DPRK has clear evidence that the U.S. administration was deeply involved in the making of such dishonest reactionary movie," it said.

"The Interview" is a comedy, with plans for an attempted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a central plot point.

In a CNN interview on Friday, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said the studio had not "given in" to pressure from hackers and was still considering ways to distribute the movie.

But that's not what the company initially said after canceling the film's release.
On Wednesday night, a studio spokesperson said simply, "Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film."

But in its latest statement, released Sunday, the company said: "No decisions have been made. Sony is still exploring options for distribution."

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Author's journey inside ISIS: They're more dangerous than people realize

Juergen Todenhoefer's journey was a tough one: dangerous, but also eye-opening. The author traveled deep into ISIS territory -- the area they now call their "caliphate" -- visiting Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in Syria, as well as Mosul in Iraq.

Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, was taken by ISIS in a Blitzkrieg-like sweep in June.

Todenhoefer managed to visit the Mosque there where the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, gave his only ever public address.
And he saw the realities of daily life under ISIS, with all shops having to close for prayers in the middle of the day.
"There is an awful sense of normalcy in Mosul," Todenhoefer said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

"130,000 Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them."
Nonetheless, he also says there is an air of fear among residents: "Of course many of the them are quite scared, because the punishment for breaking the Islamic State's strict rules is very severe."

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According to ISIS's leadership, the group's fighters managed to take Mosul with only about 300 men, even though more than 20,000 Iraqi army soldiers were stationed there when the attack was launched.

Todenhoefer spoke with several ISIS fighters who took part in the operation.
"It took us about four days to take Mosul," a young fighter told him.
"So you were only about 300 men and you defeated 20,000 troops in four days?" Todenhoefer asked.

"Well, we didn't attack them all at once, we hit their front lines hard, also using suicide attacks. Then the others fled very quickly," the fighter explained. "We fight for Allah, they fight for money and other things that they do not really believe in."

Glow in their eyes
Todenhoefer told CNN the enthusiasm the ISIS militants showed was one thing that stood out.

"When we stayed at their recruitment house, there were 50 new fighters who came every day," Todenhoefer said. "And I just could not believe the glow in their eyes. They felt like they were coming to a promised land, like they were fighting for the right thing.

"These are not stupid people. One of the people we met had just finished his law degree, he had great job offers, but he turned them down to go and fight ... We met fighters from Europe and the United States. One of them was from New Jersey. Can you imagine a man from New Jersey traveling to fight for the Islamic State?"

He went on to say that one of ISIS's main points of strength is their fighters' willingness -- even their will -- to die on the battlefield.

Todenhoefer met one somewhat overweight recruit in a "safe house" who said he wears a suicide belt to every battle because he is too chubby to run away if he is cornered and would choose to blow himself up, rather than be captured.
ISIS also has a track record of abusing, torturing and executing prisoners of war. Todenhoefer was briefly able to speak to a Kurdish captive while in Mosul. The captive claimed he had not been tortured, but Todenhoefer said he found that hard to believe.

"This was a broken man," Todenhoefer said. "It was very sad to see a person in this state. He was just very weak and very afraid of his captors."
ISIS is preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen
Juergen Todenhoefer, author
Todenhoefer conducted the interview with the prisoner while several ISIS fighters stood guard. He asked the man whether he knew what would happen to him.

"I do not know," the captive told him. "My family does not even know I am still alive. I hope that maybe there will be some sort of prisoner exchange."
Child ISIS fighters
Todenhoefer was also taken to see child soldiers outfitted with Islamic State gear and brandishing AK-47s. One of the boys seemed very young but claimed he had already gone to battle for ISIS.
"How old are you?" Todenhoefer asked.

"I am 13 years old," the boy replied -- though he looked even younger than that.

One of the most remarkable episodes of Todenhoefer's trip to the ISIS-controlled region came when he was able to conduct an interview with a German fighter who spoke on behalf of ISIS's leadership.

The man -- clearly unapologetic about the group's transgressions -- vowed there was more to come; he also issued a warning to Europe and the United States.
"So you also want to come to Europe?" Todenhoefer asked him.

"No, we will conquer Europe one day," the man said. "It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.

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"Our expansion will be perpetual ... And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed."

Todenhoefer asked the fighter about their treatment of other religions, especially Shia Muslims.

"What about the 150 million Shia, what if they refuse to convert?" Todenhoefer asked.

"150 million, 200 million or 500 million, it does not matter to us," the fighter answered. "We will kill them all."
Beheadings
The interview became testy when they reached the topic of beheadings and enslavement, especially of female captives.

"So do you seriously think that beheadings and enslavement actually signal progress for humanity?" Todenhoefer asked.

"Slavery absolutely signals progress," the man said. "Only ignorant people believe that there is no slavery among the Christians and the Jews. Of course there are woman who are forced into prostitution under the worst circumstances.

"I would say that slavery is a great help to us and we will continue to have slavery and beheadings, it is part of our religion ... many slaves have converted to Islam and have then been freed."

The ISIS spokesman blamed the beheading of captured Western journalists and aid workers on the policies of the United States.

"People should really think about the case of James Foley," he said. "He did not get killed because we started the battle. He got killed because of the ignorance of his government that did not give him any help."

Even with recent gains by Kurdish forces against ISIS in Northern Iraq, Todenhoefer sees the extremist group as entrenched, building state institutions, and that it shows no sign of losing its grip in the main areas it controls in Iraq and Syria.

"I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize," he said. "They believe in what they are fighting for and are preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen." 

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Israeli aircraft hit Gaza for first time since August

GAZA - Israeli aircraft hit Gaza for the first time since an August truce ended 50 days of war after a rocket hit the Jewish state, witnesses and the army said Saturday.

A health ministry spokesman in the Gaza Strip said there were no casualties in the air strike, which came just hours after the rocket hit an open field in southern Israel on Friday without causing casualties or damage.

It was only the third time a rocket had been fired from the Palestinian enclave since the August 26 truce between Israel and the territory's Islamist de facto rulers Hamas.

The Israeli army said the air strike had "targeted a Hamas terror infrastructure site".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the "Hamas terrorist organisation is responsible and accountable" for the rocket fire, which he said the army viewed "with severity".

Hamas did not say it was behind the rocket attack, but Israel holds it responsible for any rocket fire from Gaza, regardless of who carries it out.

Gaza's Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, its former premier there, denounced the "dangerous violation of the ceasefire" by Israel, and in remarks to reporters urged Egypt to "move with urgency" to ensure the Jewish state respects the agreement.

The summer war between Israel and Hamas killed 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, nearly all of them soldiers.

The Egypt-brokered ceasefire which ended it was supposed to have been followed by talks on a more lasting truce, but these were called off amid deteriorating relations between Cairo and Hamas.

When the ceasefire came into effect, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that his government would not tolerate a single rocket being fired at Israel, and would strike back even more strongly if attacked.

Also on Saturday, the navy fired warning shots after fishing boats sailed beyond the six nautical mile limit enforced by Israel, one off Gaza's southern coast and one off the northern coast.

A military spokeswoman told AFP the vessels returned to waters where the navy allows them to operate.

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IS has executed 100 foreigners trying to quit: report

LONDON - The Islamic State extremist group has executed 100 of its own foreign fighters who tried to flee their headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Financial Times newspaper said Saturday.

An activist opposed to both IS and the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is well-known to the British business broadsheet, said he had "verified 100 executions" of foreign IS fighters trying to leave the jihadist group's de facto capital.

IS fighters in Raqqa said the group has created a military police to clamp down on foreign fighters who do not report for duty. Dozens of homes have been raided and many jihadists have been arrested, the FT reported.

Some jihadists have become disillusioned with the realities of fighting in Syria, reports have said.

According to the British press in October, five Britons, three French, two Germans and two Belgians wanted to return home after complaining that they ended up fighting against other rebel groups rather than Assad's regime. They were being held prisoner by IS.

In total, between 30 and 50 Britons want to return but fear they face jail, according to researchers at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, which had been contacted by one of the jihadists speaking on their behalf.

Since a US-led coalition began a campaign of air strikes against IS in August, the extremist group has lost ground to local forces and seen the number of its fighters killed rise significantly.

There have been a string of apparent setbacks for IS in recent weeks.

Iraqi Kurds claimed Thursday to have broken a siege on a mountain where Yazidi civilians and fighters have long been trapped.

The Kurdish advances came during a two-day blitz in the Sinjar region involving 8,000 peshmerga fighters and some of the heaviest air strikes since a US-led coalition started an air campaign four months ago.

Meanwhile Thursday, the Pentagon said several IS leaders had been killed in US air strikes.

In 40 days across October and November, some 2,000 air raids killed more than 500 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

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