Graham: China involved in Sony hack

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says that he thinks China is involved in the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, in addition to North Korea.

“You can’t talk about North Korea without talking about China; you need to have a heart to heart with the Chinese,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview posted Sunday. “I can’t imagine anything this massive happening in North Korea without China being involved or at least knowing about it.”

{mosads}President Obama, at his year-end press conference last Friday, flatly ruled out that there was any evidence linking the hack to another country besides North Korea. 

“We’ve got no indication that North Korea was acting in conjunction with another country,” Obama said. 

The U.S. has reportedly reached out to China, which has influence over North Korea, for help in stopping future cyberattacks. 

As for North Korea, Graham said, “I hope the president will make them feel the pain that is due.” He called for returning the country to the state sponsors of terrorism list; it was removed during the Bush administration. 

Graham said the U.S. should “attack their infrastructure, try to do what we did during the Cold War, send a message to the North Korean people, speak truth to power, try to infiltrate their media and get the message out about exactly who runs their country and that there’s a better way.”

Graham, a frequent critic of Obama’s foreign policy, did offer some praise for the president for calling on Sony to release the film “The Interview” despite threats. The film ended up having a limited release on Christmas Day. 

“So far so good, Mr. President, you did the right thing urging Sony to release the movie; you did the right thing condemning North Korea,” Graham said. 

But Graham took issue with Obama calling the incident “cyber vandalism” instead of an attack.

“It’s not cyber vandalism, this is cyber terrorism, and your response should be consistent with a terrorist attack on American values, not vandalism,” Graham said.

On a separate topic, Obama’s push to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Graham signaled opposition, though he reiterated that he is open to a prison on U.S. soil instead.

“I don’t think there’s any appetite in Congress to close Guantánamo Bay,” he said. “I think the American people want to keep it open.”

Given the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, “most people in the world are more worried about terrorists leaving Guantánamo Bay than they are of the prison being open.”