Movie chain to pull the plug from their more than 270 theaters across more than 40 states. Landmark theaters also bailing, canceling thursdays premiere in new york. Even the films star, seth rogan and james franco dropping out of all media appearances this week. This fear in the movie industry prompted by a new threatening american, purportedly by the sony hackers. The fbi investigating their promise of a bitter fate to anyone who sees the controversial north korean comedy. The message says soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of september 2001. Now theyve got threats against people who go see the movie. Be careful. Theyre threatening the families of sony employees. This has taken hacking to a level that weve never seen before. This week, a leaked scene from the film was posted, showing the gruesome assassination of north Korean Leader kim jongun. Something the country condemns as an act of war. U. S. Law enforcement sources tell cnn is that the strong suspicion is that reclusive country is the instigator of the hack and possibly outsourced it to a group elsewhere as retaliation for the controversial film. The fbi is scrubbing sonys Computer System, trying to gather enough evidence to be able to definitively point the finger at the hacking culprit. It is a complex nuanced investigation. The sophisticated hackers have gone through multiple multiple infrastructures to get to where theyve gotten to. So its not something that sony is going to solve in a day or a week or a month. Now Hollywood Studios are breaking their silence on the cyberattack. The Motion Picture association of america releasing a statement saying that it supports sony during this difficult time. But it is clear, alisyn and chris, that the hackers are now trying to ratchet up fear leading up to the expected release of the movie next week. And now as we see a number of theaters pulling out. Absolutely, what a complicated situation, pamela brown thanks so much. The terror threats over the controversial movie have Sony Pictures in a bind. The movies studio Patient Company is based in tokyo. That is not showing the film in japanese theaters, and the pending worldwide release of the film is straining an alreadyfractured relationship between japan and north korea. Cnns will ripley joins us live from tokyo. What do we know, will . Well we know that the heads of sony are now facing serious questions from the japanese government right here in tokyo. They want to know why sony, a japanese company, would allow their american subsidiary to release a film that could potentially have very serious geopolitical geopolitical ramifications in this country. For years, the threats from north korea was isolated to threats of nuclear program. But now if indeed north korea is behind this hacking, cyberattack, in essence, this levels the Playing Field that allows the small reclusive country that many people didnt take seriously to now create fear, the kind of fear thats causing movie cancellations in the United States and has essentially paralyzed Sony Pictures entertainment. Humiliated executives and stars and raises a lot of serious questions. Will, thanks so much for that update. Lets go over to chris. Lets bring in brian stelter, cnn media correspond and the host of reliable sources and daveed gartensteinross, senior fellow for the center for democracy. Brian, right move . Or is there, is there more information on this threat that makes this okay for sony to kind of succeconcede here . We have effectively letting foreign hackers, anonymous hackers, maybe a bunch of punks in front of computer screens in the middle of nowhere. Determine what movies can be shown in american theaters, this is very troubling and i think it has freedom of expression issues down the line. Sometimes it has actionable intelligence, there is a real threat. And of course, this other phase, which sony was pushing the dont enable hackers, by reporting on hacked emails angle. But now, what is more enabling than conceding to their threats . Absolutely. I highly doubt that theres actionable intelligence indicating there would be a huge threat against Movie Theaters. If you look at very competent terrorist groups, theyve been making threats against the United States for a long time and we havent let that deter activities at home. Theres Something Else that may be going on. Which is were looking just at the threats that have been made publicly. There could be some private threats, some blackmail or Something Else theyre threatening to do behind the scenes thats causing this backtracking by sony and some others. Its a very disturbing situation, this essentially a hecklers veto. A hecklers veto. A strong phrase for this i want to get back to that in a second. Lets shift to rogan and franco, okay . Now theyre not going to do any media, they just said. But theyve been out there, right . And theyve been saying dont go after peoples private emails, this is wrong. But now arent they arguably subverting the First Amendment right, the freedom of expression, in movies that were seen as controversial since movie bees again. If we could see the emails right now between seth roggin and the studio and james franco, i bet they would be saying do not let the hackers win. Dont pull the movie from theaters. They knew every question they would get from the interviewers was about this kind of threat. Sony has some options. Theater owners might decide to pull this movie from their Christmas Day slate but sony could also release it online. They could make it available video on demand. Could you pay 10 and watch it at home. All versions of the same move. I do think when you take on a project like this, as a rogan and a franco, i get that its a silly movie, probably wont be well reviewed. If you want to own it and come out and Start Talking about the medias responsibility, think about your own. I think they probably got handcuffed by sony yesterday. They probably want to do press. You said something, daveed that we want to follow up on. A hecklers veto. We have to think seriously about how as a state, a sovereign, you deal with hacking. If somebody connected to north korea had broken into sonys headquarters and stolen their file cabinet, you would be hearing from the u. S. Government all over the place about this. But were really not hearing much. Wheres the u. S. Government on this . Well now that you have this latest threat being made, the u. S. Government has a lot more opportunity to actually intervene and take a part in this. But i think that actually we should have a can conversation about how much the u. S. Government should be involved. I think it should be. Essentially what you should be it seems is a foreign power engaging in a cyberattack against a private actor, a private company, in order to squash freedom of expression. I should note this is not the first time this has happened in recent months. You could argue it doesnt get enough attention. If you do something to bricks and mortar, you do something to the real world, everybody takes it too seriously. If you do it online, they dont. Heres the big question, brian, ill give it to you okay. Lets say the u. S. Does come out. Lets say they do connect it to north korea. Now what are you going to do . I dont think they want to answer those questions. I think thats why yesterday, the state Department Spokeswoman said this is just a comedic movie, not a documentary, so the government is not taking a position on it. There was a german movie about president george w. Bush getting assassinated. Nothing like this happened. Was it because we didnt have the capabilities of hacking . Or is it that its north korea. There was widespread condemnation of that film, it wasnt nearly as highprofile, and were in a different environment. Every year it feels like the world gets smaller and more connected. What about plot lines of china or any other country that might object to some American Comedy in the future . One other point, daveed, after aurora, colorado, the dark knight was pulled from a lot of places. They shifted the release date on it. They changed their plan. But that was about tone and about respect for the violence that had just occurred. This is a very different situation. This is a capitulation, isnt it in. It is. Its absolutely capitulation. With the example of the german firm showing the assassination of george w. Bush, one of the reasons they didnt have to fear a u. S. Cyberattack is we dont do that in response to films mocking our politicians. Having a world in which only the politicians of democratic states can be mocked, whereas those of states that engage in this kind of unethical behavior are beyond reproach because people are afraid of them is a very dangerous world to be in. So today theater owners can decide, whether to be crippled by this, whether to be terrorized by this or whether to have a backbone. Is it right to put it on them . Dont think they should start at the top in. Sony has indicated, if you want to pull the movie from theaters, we understand. The question becomes, will sony put it online and let you pay a few bucks to watch it lets say its on your comcast video on demand system next week. Will comcast of the world be concerned about being hacked as well. Once you give a threat power, it becomes somehow more realistic. Well have to see how it plays out politically. I wonder if the white house is holding off on the situation because of what came out in the emails . I wonder if theyre not taking as much ownership because of the situation because of that speculation . What do you think, would you go see the movie . Do you think it should be released . Do you think its too dangerous . Go to facebook. Com new day or tweet us. Ten minutes past the hour. We want to update you on a situation if afghanistan. A bloody siege inside an Afghanistan Bank has come to a tragic end, four armed saerngs, including a suicide bomber, stormed a bank in helmand province. They exchanged gunfire with security forces, eight people were killed and more than a dozen others wounded when the forces rushed inside killing the attackers. Among the dead, five civilians, a Police Officer and two soldiers. Breaking overnight, australias Prime Minister has pledged an urgent joint review into the siege in sydney that left two hostages and the gunman dead. Prime minister tony abbott says there will be a hard look at gun law there is and a firm review into who should be on the countrys active terror watch list. In the meantime, a beautiful and makeshift memorial for the victims is growing at the scene of the attack. Tearful australians have been lining up laying thousands upon thousands of bouquets of flowers at the site. While you were sleeping, president obama signed a 1. 1 trillion spending bill, to fund most Government Agencies through september of next year. One big exception is the department of Homeland Security which gets a funding extension only through the end of february. The bill passed by Congress Last week, lifted the threat of a government shutdown. Los angeles prosecutors will not file child sex abuse charges against bill could bey. Saying the allegations surpass the state statute of limitations. Alleged victim judy huth has filed a civil suit claiming cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him in 1974 when she was 15 years old. Cosbys daughter, evan, is coming to her fathers defense releasing a statement that says he is the father you thought you knew, the cosby show was my todays tv reality show. Thank you, thats all i would like to say. She said more in that statement, she said she thinks the accusers should go to prison. She thinks any accuser, because she believes her father is innocent, should have to go to prison. Its a very emotional response. First we hear from her mother and now his daughter. Youre starting to hear that side of the controversy. Which is, you know, do these stories hold up . Are these women who asked for money before, that they came forward with this . And i think youre going to start to hear more of that. It is interesting that part of the defense is, he is the character that you saw on television. Isnt that an interesting argument theyre making . Thats an unusual thing. What is happening with the weather . Lets get to meteorologist chad myers, keeping track the forecast for us. Good weather for you. Today its going to be 55 degrees in new york city. Cant argue with that in december, you dont get that very often. Its raining in boston, snowing in maine and i get that part. You get to the north, farther into the interior, its going to be not as warm, only 39 in buffalo, 40 in syracuse. 47 in boston in that rain. The next big story is the rain across the deep south it comes in for tomorrow into friday. There was a potential for this storm to turn left and make a snow event for the northeast. I dont think that happens. I think it stays to the south and makes all rain. There could be a winter mix in the poconos and such. But for the most part this going to be rainmaker and rain in l. A. And phoenix this morning. So if youre traveling out there, expect significant delays through l. A. X. , maybe still into san francisco. But raining in the valley of the sun in the middle of the night. Guys, back to you. Poetic. Thank you. Hes a poet. Lets talk about one of our top stories, 145 people, mostly students, slaughtered by the taliban inside their school in pakistan. Counterterrorism officials call this attack unprecedented. So will this be the Tipping Point for the pakistani government to try new tactics against the taliban . Were taking a closer look. This next story is not hype russias economy is on the brink of collapse. Were going to tell you why and about the dark clouds that are gathering over Vladimir Putin. New information this morning about his potential fate. Dont settle for 4g lte coverage thats smaller or less reliable when only one network is americas largest and most reliable 4g lte network verizon. With xlte, our 4g lte bandwidth has doubled in over 400 cities. And now, save without settling. Get 2 lines with 10gb of data for just 110. Or 4 lines for just 140. And get a 150 bill credit for each smartphone you switch. Only on verizon. There will be three days of mourning in pakistan after the Taliban School massacre there. 145 people were killed, 132 of them children. Families are holding the first funerals and there will be many more to come. U. S. Counterterrorism officials call tuesdays attack unprecedented. But it could also be a sign of things to come and that reality could have big implications for the pakistan and u. S. Military. Could this be a new era for both . We have Michelle Stockman live in islamabad with the latest. Michelle . This is a country shocked, peshawar is a city paralyzed. This is a nation that is largely politically divided, trying to unite today to show a strong response in the face of this horrible terrorist attack that took the lives of so many innocent schoolchildren. We have more details of what happened inside the school. One math teacher said that the gunman dressed in uniforms, lured children who were hiding away from their hiding places, saying they were safe and subsequently shot them. This is just something thats outraged the nation, the pakistani Prime Minister has said in response that he will lift a moratorium on the Death Penalty in the country in terrorism cases. In response to this attack. Now, will this deter future attacks . Its unlikely. As the taliban has shown again and again that theyre willing to die in their mission to overthrow the pakistani state. So chris, its a rough day here, back to you. All right, michelle thank you very much for the reporting. We know this is a difficult situation there. Alisyn . Lets bring in the former ambassador to the United Nations for special political affairs, stewart holliday, hes also the president of the Meridian International center, good morning, mr. Holliday. Was this attack in pakistan so heinous and the numbers so staggering that today it somehow changes the way pakistan treats it, handles their tactics against the taliban . Two questions, one is this so heinous that its a Tipping Point in their intention . Yes. This was the worst attack in recent memory, its not a new attack. But the scale and the scope and the fact that this was targeting children in the military means that theres going to be a major push, a major offensive. The challenge is what are the options for Pakistans Army . Theyve been at this for a while, theyre going to keep pushing in the tribal areas in waziristan, but theres also topography, the people are spread out and they can move around. So theyre going to be fullon, but the question is how effective are they going to be in stamping this out completely. Well that is the question, you say that theyre going to be full on, does that suggest that up until now, they have not done a full sort of scorched earth policy in terms of taking out the taliban . Well its been tricky for them, historically, the tribal areas have been allowed a level of autonomy. There had been u. S. Drone strikes of course. In fact killing a couple of the leaders of this very group, the taliban in pakistan. So they have had to walk a fine line. But i think the fine line becomes less important for them now, the domestic outrage over this is going to push them to take more robust and public action. What about the regular pakistani people . Were there people who up until yesterday did sort of sympathize with the taliban, well, i think its a mixed bag. Theres an ethnic split there. There are people who see this as a way to keep afghanistan on its heels. But as soon as this comes home, there were sort of a tacit support for the taliban in afghanistan. But as soon as the institutions of the pakistani government and the army had