Obama imposes new sanctions against North Korea in response to Sony hack [ing themselves] 2 Jan 2015 The US has [insanely and arbitrarily] imposed economic sanctions against several North Korean government agencies and senior officials in retaliation for the country’s alleged role in hacking Sony Pictures’ systems and threatening US moviegoers. Despite some continued claims from outside the US government that the hack may have been the work of disgruntled employees instead, the White House on Friday followed through on its threat to seek revenge, blaming the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for “provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies, particularly its destructive and coercive cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment”. Following an executive order by Barack Obama, the US Treasury has designated three state-run organisations and ten North Korean government officials for specific actions, including the country’s intelligence agency, an arms exporter and a defence procurement agency.
CIA has to approve every script for spy drama ‘The Americans’ 2 Jan 2015 The Cold War TV spy drama The Americans is a fictional account of two Soviet spies living in the United States. It may be fiction, but that doesn’t stop American intelligence agencies from being concerned about the show’s content. In fact, the CIA has to approve every script before it’s even shot. The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent. And since he knows all kinds of stuff that the CIA would like to keep secret, they’ve reserved the right to censor anything they don’t like on the show. This isn’t really that unusual for many TV and movie scripts. In fact, the FBI has an entire unit devoted to making sure it’s viewed in the best possible light.