US, UN demand proof of missing Chinese tennis star's well-being

Yahoo – AFP, Robin MILLARD, November 19, 2021 

The WTA is threatening to pull out of China if tennis star Peng Shui's
whereabouts and safety are not confirmed (AFP/GREG BAKER) 

The United States and UN on Friday demanded proof of Peng Shuai's whereabouts and well-being amid rising concern for the tennis star, missing since alleging she was sexually exploited by a former vice-premier of China. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden's administration wanted China to "provide independent, verifiable proof" of Peng's whereabouts and expressed "deep concern" about the former world top-ranked doubles player. 

The United Nations insisted on a fully transparent investigation into the claims made by Peng against Communist Party grandee Zhang Gaoli. 

Tennis stars, sports bodies, governments and human rights defenders also spoke up for Peng, 35, and demanded information. 

The head of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said he was prepared to cut lucrative business ties with China if Peng remains unaccounted for and her sexual assault allegations are not probed. 

Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka have also voiced their concerns for one of China's greatest ever players. 

"It would be important to have proof of her whereabouts and well-being," Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, told reporters in Geneva. 

"According to available information, Peng, a former world doubles number one, hasn't been heard from publicly since she alleged on social media that she had been sexually assaulted. 

"We are calling for an investigation with full transparency into her allegation of sexual assault." 

WTA threatens China pull-out 

Peng alleged on the Chinese social media site Weibo earlier this month that Zhang, now in his 70s, had "forced" her into sex during a long-term on-off relationship. 

The claims were quickly scrubbed from the Twitter-like platform and she has not been seen since. 

The WTA, the top world body for women's tennis, has called for proof that Peng is safe. 

Its boss Steve Simon said he is willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Chinese business in one of the WTA's biggest markets to ensure Peng's safety. 

"We're definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it," Simon told CNN. 

"Women need to be respected and not censored," he added. 

Tennis legend Serena Williams also demanded an investigation. 

"I am devastated and shocked to hear about the news of my peer, Peng Shuai," the former singles world number one wrote on Twitter. 

"This must be investigated and we must not stay silent." 

Peng represented China in the Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro Olympics and won gold for China at the 2010 Asian Games. 

She is a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion. 

France said the international community and sports bodies were worried for Peng's situation. 

"We are concerned about the lack of information," the French foreign ministry said. 

"We call on the Chinese authorities to implement their commitments in the fight against violence against women." 

The Lawn Tennis Association, the sport's governing body in Britain, offered its assistance to the WTA in its efforts to establish Peng's safety. 

Email doubts 

Peng's claims brought the #MeToo movement into the highest echelons of China's ruling Communist Party for the first time. 

"The Chinese government has systematically silenced the country's #MeToo movement," said Amnesty International's China researcher Doriane Lau. 

"Given that it also has a zero-tolerance approach to criticism, it is deeply concerning that Peng Shuai appears to be missing," she said. 

China has repeatedly refused to comment on her fate or the case. 

But Hu Xijin, the outspoken editor of the Communist Party-owned Global Times, tweeted on Friday that he didn't believe that "Peng Shuai has received retaliation and repression speculated by foreign media for the thing people talked about". 

Earlier this week, state-run CGTN published a screenshot on Twitter of what it said was an email written by Peng to Simon and other WTA officials. 

In the email, Peng claims that her earlier accusations are "not true" and says she is "resting at home and everything is fine". 

But doubts were quickly flagged about the awkward language used in the purported email and the cursor visible in the screenshot. 

Simon said that he was struggling to believe the email was authentic. 

"I don't think there's any validity in it and we won't be comfortable until we have a chance to speak with her," he said. 

Amnesty's Lau said: "China's state media has a track record of forcing statements out of individuals under duress, or else simply fabricating them."

Historic meeting lauds lifetime power for Xi

Yahoo – AFP, Joanna Chiu and Laurent Thomet,  March 5, 2018

Xi Jinping is the Chinese Communist Party's most powerful leader since Mao
 Zedong (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

Beijing (AFP) - Thousands of Chinese legislators erupted into enthusiastic applause on Monday over plans to give President Xi Jinping a lifetime mandate to mould the Asian giant into a global superpower.

China's rubber-stamp parliament met in the imposing Great Hall of the People for an annual session that will make Xi the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, concentrating the growing might of the military, economy and state in the hands of one man.

As Xi looked on from a stage dominated by mostly male party leaders in dark suits, a constitutional amendment to scrap the two-term limit for the presidency was read out to the chamber, prompting fervent applause.

The legislators are all but certain to approve the amendment this Sunday, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership sets the agenda for the National People's Congress (NPC).

The text says the change "will be conducive to safeguarding the authority and the unified leadership of the CCP Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core and to strengthening and perfecting the national leadership system".

The amendment was presented after Premier Li Keqiang delivered a report warning that the country is fighting "three critical battles" against financial risk, poverty and pollution.

China's leaders since the start of Communist rule (AFP Photo)

The government set an economic growth target of around 6.5 percent for 2018, in line with expectations but lower than the 6.9 percent GDP increase in 2017.

It announced an 8.1 percent increase for the defence budget to 1.11 trillion yuan ($175 billion) this year, giving the world's largest armed forces a boost after spending growth slowed in the previous two years.

The report also warned Taiwan that China "will never tolerate any separatist schemes" amid tensions between the mainland and the self-ruled island.

But the spotlight was squarely on the party's most powerful leader in more than four decades.

'Unify leadership'

Lifting term limits would allow the 64-year-old leader to stay on as party chief, head of the military and president beyond 2023, when his second term is due to end.

"I support Xi Jinping. I support the constitution change," Zhou Feng, a delegate from Shanghai, told AFP.

Sitting room only: the very orderly National People's Congress takes place in 

Beijing's imposing Great Hall of the People (AFP Photo/GREG BAKER)

Another delegate from central Henan province said "Xi Jinping is great", but several other legislators refused to answer questions about the amendment.

Censors have worked furiously to stamp out dissenting voices on social media, blocking dozens of words from "disagree" to "emperor" on the Twitter-like Weibo website in recent days.

On Monday, some Weibo users defied censors to post comments such as "shall we say, long live the king?" or "history will judge him harshly".

State media outlets masked the comments sections on the stories they posted about the amendment on Weibo on Monday.

Analysts have warned that the move carries risks as it ends a "collective" model of leadership that maintained stability after Mao's chaotic reign from 1949 to his death in 1976.

NPC spokesman Zhang Yesui has downplayed its significance, saying on Sunday it would merely align the presidency with the titles of Communist Party general secretary and Military Commission chairman, which do not have term limits.

The amendment says that opinions had been sought at the "grassroots level" and that "the masses, party members and cadres in many regions" had "unanimously called" for the revision of term limits.

The parliament will also vote on constitutional amendments that will inscribe Xi's name in the state constitution and create a new national anti-corruption agency.

'Right successor'

Xi will get a second five-year term during the session. Remaining in power beyond 2023 gives him a chance to push through his vision of a rejuvenated China with global clout, a prosperous society and a powerful military.

It's mostly men in dark suits, but there are also peopole wearing clothes associated 

with some of China's many ethnic minorities (AFP Photo/NICOLAS ASFOURI)

He has also pursued a relentless but popular campaign against corruption that has punished more than a million party officials.

Hua Po, a Beijing-based political commentator, said Xi was handed "a mess" when he took office five years ago and needs more time to finish the job.

"One of the greatest tasks after he took office was to remove all threats to the party and state. To do this, it is not enough for him to serve only two terms," Hua told AFP.

"The Chinese system is a system that requires strong leaders, but it's not easy to train a strongman. Xi needs more time to find and train the right successors," he said.

"If Xi transfers power on time, it is likely that the power will be returned to the hands of the corrupt groups and the elite class and all his efforts in the recent years will be wasted."

While the NPC is expected to approve the amendment, analysts say legislators could voice their displeasure by abstaining or voting against the appointments of certain Xi allies to top posts.

"We don't hear about opposition to his life tenure because of censorship," said Willy Lam, politics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"But there is opposition within the regime from people who think that this is outrageous, that he is going too far, that he has launched a coup against the party."

Third Turkish journalist arrested amid fears of Ankara censorship: reports

Local media has reported that a third Turkish reporter has been arrested, amid concern Ankara is cracking down on free speech. Yesterday, protesters took to the streets following the arrest of two other journalists.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Nov 2015

Ertugrul Ozkok, a reporter for the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, was arrested following an allegedly slanderous article criticizing the country's president, local media and German news agency DPA reported.

Ozkok (pictured) had written a critical column in September that was presumed to have been directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, even though it didn't actually use the politician's name. He faces up to five years and four months in prison.

The news follows growing concern that Erdogan's government is cracking down on free speech in Turkey. Just two days ago, two other journalists working for a different publication were also arrested.

Public backlash

Following the earlier arrests, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in front of the Istanbul office of the Cumhuriyet newspaper in solidarity with the journalists.

The publication's editor in chief, Can Dundar, and its Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, were sent to prison on Thursday, following the publication of photos reportedly showing Turkish trucks delivering arms to Syrian militants.

President Erdogan filed a criminal complaint against the journalists after information was leaked suggesting that the trucks were indeed delivering arms or ammunition to Turkmen fighters in Syria. Prosecutors subsequently launched a criminal probe into the two.

Their arrest also prompted a response from the US Embassy in Turkey.

Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner: We are troubled by pre-trial arrest of editors of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. https://t.co/FF9I9X8bpY

— Department of State (@StateDept) November 27, 2015

Protesters on Saturday said Erdogan's government was trying to "silence" free speech, as well as cover up a government scandal.

blc/rc (dpa, AP, AFP)

#UPDATE Putin accuses Turkey of shooting down Russian warplane to protect IS oil trade https://t.co/bgM3u3WPXM pic.twitter.com/ZFGOe7aWeY

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 30, 2015

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2015 Kryon Kundalini Tour (Cusco #2, Peru) - Nov, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New (Reference to Paris/ISIS/Dark-Old Energy/USA+Warning for Governments around the World !!!)

Saudi Arabia tells citizens to ignore latest WikiLeaks release

61,000 leaked cables give rare insight into kingdom’s habit of buying influence and monitoring dissidents

The Guardian, Ian Black Middle East editor, Sunday 21 June 2015

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who died in January. Photograph:
Hassan Ammar/AP

Saudi Arabia has warned its citizens to ignore thousands of its diplomatic documents leaked by the transparency site WikiLeaks, which give a rare insight into the kingdom’s habit of buying influence and monitoring dissidents.

The 61,000 Saudi cables, the first tranche of 500,000 promised by Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, also show the country’s sharp focus on its strategic rival Iran and the revolution in Egypt, and support for allies and clients in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Nothing yet published matches embarrassing revelations about the Saudis in WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of US diplomatic documents, which reported King Abdullah calling to “cut off the head of the [Iranian] snake” as well as drink- and drug-fuelled partying by minor royals in Jeddah.

But routine secret correspondence from the foreign ministry in Riyadh and embassies abroad, some from as recently as April this year, catalogues many of the preoccupations of the conservative monarchy, the world’s biggest oil exporter, especially during the turbulent period of the Arab spring from early 2011.

According to one document, Gulf states were prepared to pay $10bn (£6.3bn) to secure the release of the deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, which appears to support a previous claim about this by a leading Muslim Brotherhood politician.

A 2012 cable reveals concern that Iran was receiving “flirting American messages” that suggested the US did not oppose a peaceful Iranian nuclear programme so long as it had guarantees, including from Russia. Others from that period show Saudi plans for an anti-Iran satellite TV channel to broadcast in Persian from Bahrain, and plans to disrupt Iranian channels.

The cables show Riyadh often seems worried about any advantage for Tehran: one document explains that if an Arab summit conference were held as scheduled in Baghdad in 2012, it would mean “handing Iraq to Iran”. Cables also show efforts to back opponents of Nouri al-Maliki, the then Shia prime minister of Iraq, who was close to Iran.

Correspondence from the embassy in Beirut shows contacts with the Lebanese Forces leader, Samir Geagea, over cash payments to ease financial problems. Geagea had publicly defended Saudi Arabia and opposed president Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and generally shown “readiness to do whatever the kingdom asks of him”, the cables say.

Al-Akhbar, the Beirut newspaper that is publishing the documents with WikiLeaks, is a supporter of Assad and Iran’s Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah. The documents examined so far do not mention Saudi backing for anti-Assad rebels, most likely because these are handled by the country’s intelligence service.

Correspondence from the Saudi embassy in London shows filming of protesters and a discussion of legal action against the Guardian over an article by Saad al-Faqih, an Islamist. An appearance by Faqih on Egypt’s ON TV channel brought a proposal to “find out how to co-opt it”. But the billionaire owner of the station, Naguib Sawiris, did not want to be “opposed to the kingdom’s policies” and he ordered that Faqih never be interviewed again.

“The extent of Egypt’s ruling establishment’s self-prostitution to Saudi money is both embarrassing and unsurprising,” commented the writer Iyad al-Baghdadi, in one of many weekend social media reactions since the documents were released. Ala’a Shehabi, a Bahraini dissident concerned by the Saudi intervention in her country, called the trove a “rare insight into the most opaque regime in the world”.

Toby Matthiesen, a Cambridge University academic, said: “For Saudi experts there is little surprising so far … but the details will hurt a lot of corrupt people.”

The documents include several references to “hostile” media. An undated note describes the influence of journalists sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood on the Qatar-owned channel al-Jazeera, which has often fallen foul of the Saudis. The papers also show how in 2010 they purchased hundreds or thousands of subscriptions to publications in Damascus, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Kuwait, Jordan and Mauritania in order to secure favourable coverage.

Influence and money are recurring themes. Reports from Sana’a state that the proceeds of the sale of 3m barrels of oil given to Yemen in 2012 never reached the country’s treasury. Another document accuses Qatar of paying a Yemeni sheikh to foment rebellion in the army and to prevent the 2012 presidential election of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Sydney Morning Herald found documents with instructions from the Saudi government to its Canberra embassy relating to the payment of large subsidies to prominent Arabic newspapers and media organisations in Australia.

The Sunday Times reported that a document in the cache showed Saudi Arabia was prepared to pay the BBC correspondent Frank Gardner £1m in compensation after he was shot in Riyadh by al-Qaida. Gardner told the newspaper the compensation never materialised.

On Sunday the Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Osama Nugali warned citizens not to “allow enemies of the state to achieve their intentions in regards to exchanging or publishing any documents,” many of which, he said, had been “fabricated in a very obvious manner”.

WikiLeaks did not say where it obtained the documents, but it referred in a press release to Riyadh’s statement in May that it had suffered a breach of its computer networks – an attack later claimed by a group calling itself the Yemen Cyber Army.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Saudi Arabia executed 87 people in 2014, ranking it third in the world for use

of the death penalty (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

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Tradition meets Twitter as Saudis pledge to new king

Yahoo - AFP, Wissam Keyrouz, 27 Jan 2015

Saudi Arabia's new King Salman attends a ceremony at the Diwan royal
palace in Riyadh on January 24, 2015 (AFP)

Decades ago, Saudis trekked across their desert kingdom to pledge allegiance to their new kings at their palaces. Now they are just using Twitter.

Thousands of Saudis have poured into the palace of King Salman who acceded the throne after the death of his half-brother Abdullah last week.

Many others exercised the entrenched tradition at the palaces of provincial princes.

Saudi blogger Raef Badawi, shown
in Jeddah in 2012, was sentenced
in May 2014 to 10 years in prison,
1,000 lashes and a fine for
"insulting Islam" (AFP)

But thousands of others have pledged their allegiance to the new ruler online, taking advantage of social media networks.

Chief among them is Twitter, whose popularity has exploded with an astounding 40 percent of Saudis now using the microblogging website.

Saudi Arabia is governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, but authorities have stopped short of banning Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, unlike in the Islamic republic of Iran.

Ultra-conservatives tweet as much as liberals in the tightly censored absolute monarchy, with clerics attracting the most followers, like Mohammed al-Arefe who has 10.8 million of them.

However several users have faced jail over their posts that have been deemed offensive to the authorities or to Islam.

King Salman himself has an account that saw its number of followers surge to 1.6 million as he became the monarch.

"I pray to God to help me serve our dear people and achieve their aspirations, and to keep our country secure and stable," read a tweet posted on the account following his accession.

A hashtag in Arabic declaring "I pledge allegiance to King Salman" spread quickly among Saudi tweeps after King Abdullah died on Friday, as users of the site mourned the late monarch.

'Progress without abandoning tradition'

"I have pledged my allegiance through Twitter because as we progress technologically, we do not abandon our identity and traditions," said Twitter user Salman al-Otaibi.

"This pledge is a duty on every Muslim," he told AFP.

Metab al-Samiri tweeted: "With full obedience, I pledge allegiance to you Salman."

The pledge is both an Islamic obligation to provide the ruler with legitimacy and a tribal commitment to obey the new leader.

Twitter has also proven to be a headache for authorities in Gulf monarchies as social media blogging sites render their censorship largely helpless.

Users calling for reforms in the kingdom have taken to the platform to voice discontent and demand concessions from the ruling family.

"We want a consultative Shura Council that is elected by the people, capable of legislating laws and holding the cabinet to account," said one tweet.

"This way, the alleged reforms could be achieved," it added, using another popular hashtag that said: "Demands for King Salman."

Despite timid steps to introduce reforms, Saudi Arabia under Abdullah remained a tightly controlled kingdom, where conservatives continue to play a strong role.

The case of blogger Raef Badawi serves as an example of the Gulf state's ever-tightening freedom of expression.

Badawi is serving a 10-year jail sentence for insulting Islam, and he has also been sentenced to 1,000 lashes, having received 50 of them in public this month.

Twitter is "the source of all evil and devastation", said the kingdom's top cleric Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh in a fatwa edict in October.

"People are rushing to it thinking it's a source of credible information but it's a source of lies and falsehood," he said.

Despite such warnings, there are no signs of Twitter's popularity waning in Saudi Arabia, whose five million users give the kingdom the world's highest penetration.

A woman's open & direct msg to Saudi authorities worth much more than her husband's words. #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled pic.twitter.com/PV7K5imDEn
— Ali Batu Karaali (@abkaraali) January 28, 2015

THANK YOU @MichelleObama for standing up for women. Now can we also tell them that lashes & beheadings are not ok. #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled
— Piccia (@Piccia) January 28, 2015

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Facebook Became the New Town Hall and Twitter the Fastest Media

Vietnam PM Says Impossible to Ban Social Media

Jakarta Globe – AFP,  Jan 16, 2015

This Jan. 30, 2014 file photo taken in Washington, DC, shows the splash
page for the social media Internet site Facebook. (AFP Photo/Karen Bleier)

Hanoi. Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has conceded it is impossible for the communist country to ban social media, urging officials instead to embrace websites like Facebook to spread the government’s message.

Sites such as Facebook have at times been difficult to access in Vietnam, an authoritarian country which routinely imprisons bloggers and dissidents for criticizing the regime.

“You here have all joined social networks, you’ve all got Facebook up on your phones to read information. So we must make this information correct,” Dung told senior officials Thursday, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported.

“We cannot ban it,” he said at the meeting in Hanoi.

Over the last few years, Vietnam has had one of the fastest rates of Facebook uptake in the world, and now around a third of the country’s population of 90 million have an account on the social network.

The government has always denied blocking the site, and for at least a year Facebook has been easily accessible in Vietnam without a VPN or other measures.

Dung said top officials need to use social media to engage with the population more.

“We must publish accurate information online immediately … Whatever is being said online, people will believe official information from the government,” he said.

Vietnam’s communist party controls all newspapers and television networks, and many citizens prefer to get their news online from blogs or social media, which contain less propaganda.

But the quality of the blogs and social media postings is uneven. Some dissident-run sites offer nuanced reporting on sensitive political topics, other online commentators spread sensational rumors.

Last week, in a rare move, authorities denied widespread rumors that a popular senior communist party official Nguyen Ba Thanh, a former top official in central Danang City, had been poisoned with radioactive material by a political rival.

“Incorrect information creates social distraction,” Dung said, adding that the government would ask ministries to address incorrect information circulating online.

In the past, Dung has driven through bans on particular blogs, but the move has usually backfired, triggering a surge of interest in the prohibited sites.

The harassment, arrest and prosecution of online activists remain widespread in Vietnam, which is holding scores of bloggers in jail, according to watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

The one-party state is regularly denounced by rights groups and Western governments for its intolerance of political dissent.

Agence France-Presse

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"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

“ …  The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification

Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.

I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when "everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy." For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history? ….“

Obama on Sony pulling The Interview: 'They made a mistake'

• FBI pins blame for massive hack of Sony Pictures on North Korea
• Obama: ‘We cannot have a dictator imposing censorship in the US’
• Obama speaks on North Korean hack of Sony Pictures – live

theguardian.com, Oliver Laughland and Dominic Rushe in New York, Friday 19 December 2014

Obama at the White House said he was sympathetic to Sony’s plight but
said: ‘I wish they had spoken to me first.’ Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Sony “made a mistake” by axing the controversial comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, President Obama said Friday.

Speaking after the FBI pinned the blame on North Korea for a massive hack of Sony Pictures aimed at stopping the film’s release, Obama said: “We cannot have a society where some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States. Because if somebody’s going to intimidate them for releasing a satirical movie, imagine what’s going to happen when there’s a documentary they don’t like.

“Even worse, if producers and distributors start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of somebody who, frankly, probably needs their sensibilities offended.

“That’s not who we are. That’s not who Americans are.”

Obama said he was sympathetic to Sony’s plight but added: “I wish they had spoken to me first.”

The president’s comments mark the latest twist in the already extraordinary scandal, which has seen the most high-profile corporate hack in history result in the publication of salacious Hollywood gossip and the cancellation of The Interview, a multimillion-dollar comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen that was set for release on Christmas Day.

The FBI has been investigating suspected links with North Korea’s notorious hacking unit Bureau 121 since early December, and on Friday, investigators said a technical analysis of the malignant software, known as malware, used in the attack had been linked to other malware “that the FBI knows North Korean actors previously developed”.

The FBI also said that the infrastructure used in the Sony attack was similar to other malicious cyber activity aimed at the US that had previously been linked directly to North Korea.

“We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there. Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE [Sony Pictures Entertainment] reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States,” the FBI said in a statement.

The White House had already labelled the attack as a “serious national security matter” and said it would respond proportionally. The president would not, however, be drawn on what the response would be: “We will respond, we will respond proportionally, and in a place and time that we choose. It’s not something that I will announce here today at this press conference,” he said.

Critics of the Obama administration drew on the investigation’s findings to criticise the president’s track record on cybersecurity.

Senator John McCain, the incoming chairman of the Senate armed services committee, which is responsible for the funding and oversight of the department of defense, described the hack as an “act of war” and pledged to strengthen oversight of the administration’s cybersecurity program when the new Congress convenes in the new year.

Sony has been left reeling from the November attack, after thousands of confidential documents, including employee social security numbers, personal emails, unreleased films, and executive pay were published online.

The hacking group Guardians of Peace (GOP) that claimed responsibility for the attack had demanded Sony pull release of The Interview, which depicted the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On Wednesday, Sony cancelled the film’s release after threats invoking 9/11 were made against cinemagoers, andafter major US theater groups cancelled screenings.

That decision has drawn the ire of many high-profile names in Hollywood, who have also criticised the press for publishing details from the hacked documents.

George Clooney called on Hollywood to get The Interview released in any format possible. “We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong-un, of all fucking people ... we have allowed North Korea to dictate content, and that is just insane,” he said in an interview with Deadline.

GOP reportedly sent Sony executives a message on Thursday evening, calling the studio’s Wednesday decision to cancel the release of the controversial film The Interview “very wise”.

The statement was written in broken English and leaked to CNN. It continued: “Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy.

“And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately.”

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Reuters had quoted anonymous federal law enforcement officials saying the hack may have been a collaboration between North Korean and Chinese hackers or that servers in China could have been used to disguise the origins of the attack. But Obama appeared to rule out Chinese involvement in the hack.

“We have no indication that North Korea was acting in conjunction with another country,” he said.

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A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“….. Here is the prediction: China will turn North Korea loose soon. The alliance will dissolve, or become stale. There will be political upheaval in China. Not a coup and not a revolution. Within the inner circles of that which you call Chinese politics, there will be a re-evaluation of goals and monetary policy. Eventually, you will see a break with North Korea, allowing still another dictator to fall and unification to occur with the south. ….”

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)  

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”