Lawmaker calls for strong U.S. response to Sony hack, including sanctions

[December 22, 2014]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee chairman on Sunday called for a "very serious" U.S. reaction, including sanctions, to a North Korean cyber attack on Sony Pictures, saying it was not enough for the United States to restrict that country's cyber capability.

U.S. Representative Mike Rogers criticized President Barack Obama on "Fox News Sunday" for getting on a plane to Hawaii on Friday and not acting immediately against North Korea.

"The problem here was not that the fact that we didn't have the capability to do something nearly in immediate time. We just didn't get a decision from the president," Rogers said.

Rogers said there was much discussion last week about how to respond to the attack that wiped out Sony's computers in response to the film "The Interview," which depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Rogers criticized the Obama administration's response as too late and too weak.

"By acknowledging it and then laying out to say, "Well we're going to do something in the future,' you have diminished the capabilities that we can engage in this particular instance."

"You've just limited your ability to do something. Just calling North Korea out isn't going to be enough. So I would argue you're going to have to ramp up sanctions. It needs to be very serious. Remember - a nation-state was threatening violence."

Rogers said the United States is capable for making it very difficult for the North Koreans to launch a similar attack.

"But I don't think that's enough," he told Fox. "This was a nation-state who attacked an American company and then threatened violence ... against people who would go to the movie."

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Diane Craft)

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