building's towering lights. we don't know how, or when, the u.s. will respond to the cyber attacks on sony pictures. but we do know a plan is in the works. president obama made that clear today. he said the u.s. is considering a range of possible responses. the fbi now says there is extensive evidence that north korea organized the hacks. randall pinkston is here with more. randall. >> john as we know north korea has been denying they have anything to do with the hack against sony pictures but u.s. investigators say the evidence does indeed point directly as pyongyang. u.s. officials say they are discussing options and president obama promises action. >> president obama put north korea on notice. the u.s. will strike back. for the cyber attack on sony pictures. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and will respond in a place and time and manner that we this is. it is not something that i will announce here today at a press conference. >> the fbi says it consulted with several departments to see that north korea launched the cyber attack to sony. links to other malwear, including similarities in code and algorithms. ip addresses associated with known north korean infrastructure and they found similarities to a cyber attack launched from north korea in 2013 against south korea's souts infrastructure. confidential e-mails from sony's networks. after threats of violence sony decided to cancel the movie. but president obama in his end of the year news conference criticized that decision. >> yes, i think they made a mistake. we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie imagine away they start to see a documentary that they don't like or news reports that they don't like. >> reporter: but sony disagrees with the president. ceo michael linton issued a statement, we have not given in, we have not backed down, we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. now some sony's ceo sis his company does not own movie theaters and can't tell them what to show. but it's unclear whether sony will put the movie back on the market, john. >> focusing on nuclear issues in asia, director of the plowshares fund. paul, welcome. what do you think based on what we heard from the united states do you really believe it's north korea? >> well, thanks for having me, john. i think the evidence seems to be very strong, in that case. earlier today if you had asked me would i have said whoa, not so fast, we have been wrong about these before. when we see the president, the secretary of state and the fbi in lock step and making such strong statements they must have something quite persuasive. >> so paul how is this going to affect the relationship or the lack of relationship between the u.s. and north korea? >> well, it can't get much worse than it already was. i don't think it will have much of an immediate or long lasting effect. this is sort of another example or another you know notch on the column of bad behavior with north korea. it does add some new dimensions though. this is new territory for us. in the past it had been more traditional types of provocations, small firefights, missile he tests, nuclear tests, things more in the realm of nation states or state craft if you will. this has the whole array of characteristics, it has a private company that was the target, movie goers and the american public noncombatants that were threatened. so it is very unclear to me how this will play out and the president will -- and the united states will have to respond. the question is in what way and how strongly. >> the leader of north korea has been the butt of many jokes in this country. you almost get the sense that he's watching movies or watching television and getting mad about this and taking action himself. what kind of scenario could be behind this? >> i think it's important to keep in mind in no way would i defend the actions of what allegedly north korea has done but if we take a minute and walk a mile in their shoes, this is the normal way that the american public and the american psyche tends to treat north korea, oh they're crazy they're bizarre, who knows what else they are going to do. when you look under the hood a little bit, they are not so crazy, yes they are isolated and dictatorial but they act in ways that preserves their isolationism. they are a threat but still very nascent. their cyber technical capacities are quite strong and they're cheap so this is an example where north korea is doing what it does well, playing a weak hand against a stronger hand. >> other films that made fun of north korean leaders. why was this the last straw? >> that's an interesting question, when we saw the parody, team america, lampooned kikim jong jong-il. they were a 98 sent bu -- a nast but not a prevalent threat. you have the sitting leader of a country that is the central theme of the story. you have a lot of pirated dvds that are beginning to filter into north korea. i suspect they were afraid and didn't want their own there citizens to get hold of this film. >> paul, carroll, thank you very much for your presence. normalize diplomatic relations with cuba, mike viqueria is at the white house with more. mike. >> googood evening, john. the president entered the briefing room with the air and demeanor of a man about to take a 17-day vacation with his family in hawaii. his mood was upbeat throughout. his assessment of the economy for example which is showing big sense of growth, the president when he does return faces a very rocky road with the new republican congress. >> hello everybody. >> despite his lame duck status president obama says he's energized. >> my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. and i'm looking forward to it. >> but mr. obama now faces strengthened opposition, a republican dominated congress. republicans are threatening to fight on a host of issues including president obama's opening to cuba, threatening to left the economy embar go. >> i think we should pull down the embargo which i think is self defeating in answering the aims that we're interested in. but i don't anticipate that that happens right aaway. >> republicans will also try to block the president's executive action on immigration and all or part of the affordable care act, obamacare. >> if republicans seek to take earthquake heatake -- hearing m people who just got it they will see stiff opposition from me. people are able to film what have just been in the past stories past on around a kitchen table, allows people to make their own assessments and evaluations and you're not going to solve a problem if it's not going to be talked about and now i'm going to go on vacation. >> the president and his family will have an extended holiday in hawaii, a rest, before a new political reality. when he returns he'll be forced with the new vote on the keystone pipeline. president obama today for the first time really down played the significance or the benefits to the american consumer that the pipeline would represent if it's constructed. it's still winding its way through approval process here in congress but he did not threaten to veto it if it passes both houses of congress, john. >> mike, thank you. the warehouse says the president could work next month to unravel the embargo. david arioso has more among from miami. >> you go to calle ocho, older generation, frustrated angry even over the president's decision to normalize relations. but olders cubans have closer connection is, family members to cuba in which they are sending money back. that boosts up the economy. they've been doing that for generations. the idea is that it might increase help private sector economies that are beginning to bubble up in havana and elsewhere. we went over to get a sense of what this was all about. >> in many ways this is the engine of cuba's economy. cuban americans who send money home to their families represent a $2.6 billion industry. and increasingly important source of revenue and spoiling oil prices put a squeeze on how much aid venezuela can send to cuba. but it's not just cash that these people are accepting home. tvs, even car tires. >> all of these pacts are gifts. >> so this is a daily scene at miami international airport, cuban american families who are heading back to havana, car tires, potted plants, not available in havana. now with this recent policy shift the expectation is that this will happen much more often. under the new policy those with relatives on the island will now be able to send $8,000 home a year. that is ofour fold increase from what it -- a four fold increase from what it used to be. u.s. companies will also be able to export a list of items that include things like building material and telecommunications infrastructure. and untapped market of 11 million people just 90 miles from florida scenes like these will likely get bigger as cuba's economy opens to its old cold warren my. an embargo slapped on in 1960 strengthened two years later and that relationship between these two countries that are separated by only about 90 miles of water has been strained, frozen at times. this normalization in relation he could park an historic shift in that relationship but only time will tell, john. >> david arioso reporting. cuba is home to 80 fugutives known to the u.s. one of them is asada shakur, the former black liberation army member, on the fbi's most wanted list, granted asigh legal by fidel castro, the fbi is offering $2 million for her return. her attorney spoke to al jazeera. >> my concern as her lawyer is with respect to this bounty that has been put on her. and so now you have bounty hunters, from around the world, who are now attempting to capturer had. capture her. and that is an illegal act. >> lennox hines says international law restricts the extradition of his client. no forensic evidence that links her to the murder. earlier in the day, the prosecutor says witnesses lied. jonathan betz has more. >> he knew some of the witness he were lying but he let them testify anyway. >> her number was 40. she defended darren wilson, michael brown was in the football position, had his fist made and began charging the officer. 45-year-old sandra mcelroy and her story apparently completely made up. the smoking gun website has discredited the witness saying she was nowhere near the scene has a criminal history, made racist comments and has before inserted herself into big stories. even the prosecutor agreed. >> this was a lady that clearly wasn't anywhere near. >> reporter: yet the st. louis prosecutor said he put everyone on anyway. >> i let her on anyway and let the grand jury assess the witness. >> still she's standing by it telling the st. louis post dispatch it they were trying to discredit me for my racial slurs. have i used the n word? yes i have, would i hurt anybody because of the color of their skin, no i would not. now this revelation throws even more suspicion on the proceedings and the prosecutor. >> my job is to seek the truth and seek justice and do what is right and appropriate in there and that is what we did on this case. >> even though he knew people lied on the stand, he will not file perjury charges. he felt it was important to hear from everyone before the grand jury would make their decisions. >> jamilla what do you think of this? >> not at all surprising. one of the big concerns about bob mccullough's ability to present this to the grand jury early on it felt very clear that he did not wand darre want darro be indicted, and there was no plan for this person to be punished for lying to a grand jury. we talked about this when i was last here. >> what does this speak to? >> speaks to the fact that this prosecutor did not want to indict darren wilson. he refused to recuse himself when the streets were demanding for him to do it. people were saying we want justice, we want to do this the right way, we don't think you're capable of doing that. >> what about his response that he just wanted to present everybody who had something to say and let the grand jury decide? >> well why not let me get up there, you get up there? this just wasn't anyone with an opinion. there were lots of people with opinions. you could have listened to michael brown's mother or the ghost busters, she got up there and lied and she should be finished for this. >> this has been bubblings around social media for days. what do you think the prosecutor should have done. >> first of all i think bob mccullough should have recused himself. , to seek justice for ferguson. >> he didn't do that. what else? >> when there was question about the validity of witnesses, he should have questioned those witnesses himself and if he didn't feel they were truthful or reliable they should have been removed. the grand jury should have been made aware this person has deliberately misled you. >> let's say for a second, i have no idea what happened in the grand jury but let's say that was pointed out. let's say the grand jury discredited her observation but still made the decision about darren wilson. you would say -- >> that is incredibly problematic. somebody who showed up with an agenda, animus towards african americans and who lied. happening to involve a group of people you do not like or to not be a witness to a crime or be honest and truthful about something you did not witness, what he should have done is dismembered that grand jury and start all over again. that group of people was soiled, their minds have been tainted and they were presented with something that was incredibly damning to justice, and something presented on purpose. eyewitnesses are not necessarily the most reliable people in the world. you see one thing i see the other thing, even if it's the same crime. this person decided to lie. >> jamilla it's good to see you again. happy holidays. next up, police want to put body cameras on the web. and a former member of anonymous. >> the seattle police department is about to launch a program to test new body cameras. the decision follows calls by new transparency by the city's police chief. the program begins next week, about to last six months. only including officers that are willing to participate. the department is already collecting a huge amount of information from dash cams. the city is asking the public for help. allen schauffler is in seattle with more on that story. allen. >> good evening john. the seattle police took an interesting step today. they held a hack athon. they invited members of the local tech community to come on into headquarters to swap ideas about how to handle the enormous amount of video all that data that is generated by policing body cameras and that in this state, at least is a matter of public record. and there's one man who's mostly responsible for this and he tells you all he wanted to do was watch police video. a lot of police video. >> i never imagined that any of this -- i just wanted to watch video. >> a week ago we only knew him as police video request, his g-mail handle. as he filed requests for police video across washington state. >> right now, we are inundated by in-car video, terabytes of data. >> the equivalent to of 40,000 movies or mp 3 files. that anonymous requestor is no longer anonymous. >> timothy clemons. >> he says he wants as much information made public as is technologically possible and legally allowable. >> the big issue has been bias policing and use of force. so let's go create a log of every single use of force case, here's the video, here's the call, the radio, the reports, everything. >> and now he's working with the police who made a social media connection. >> i'm watching on twitter eating my sandwich at my desk and i say i'll respond to him. >> the basic message, drop the request, come in and help solve the problem. he responded with a program that edits police video. depending on different redom of information laws in different states it might not work for or be needed by all police departments. >> makes everything less recognizable. >> yes, it blurs the frames. >> you still know what happens. >> you have a really good idea if somebody is gettin getting p. >> the seattle pd has no cost estimate for such broad use of such a program but say it would almost be far less than doing the same thing manually. it's one of clemons ideas. >> more officers wear cameras, at v view in seattle one of two cameras makers dominating the market business is booming as people clamor for police accountability. >> because of recent events they're really understanding body cameras are out there now. they are demanding they go get these. >> clemons continue his work with seattle pd, easy online access for everyone. >> the ultimate goal is that american police are going to handle every situation to the textbook. exactly how the best professionals on earth would handle it. okay? >> and they'll be held to task by people watching the video? >> yes. >> a work in progress where policing and transparency merge. >> so far we don't have reports of any concrete proposals that have come out of the hack athon today but participants say it's a great exchange of ideas and other police departments are handling things differentlily. bremerton has put their police camera presentation completely on hold. they're not using them. they will hope the state legislature will make some sort of tweak to the public information law that will make providing the public video easier and cheaper. >> allen schauffler, thank you. coming up next if north korea is behind the sony cyber attack what else could they be planning? >> and citizens angry about the deal that the vatican helped broker. >> this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. sony hacked, the fbi says it was north korea, could more attacks be on the way? bridge to cuba. former president jimmy carter, why he says the deal is good for both sides. the cuba debate. the miami priest caught between an anti-castro congregation and the pope. >> the government says north korea was behind the sony cyber attack. president obama says the u.s. is planning a response but did not offer details. the president also said sony made a mistake in postponing the release of an upcoming film. >> we cannot have a society in which some tic dictator someplae can start imposing censorship in the united states. >> the movie "the interview" was set for reason christmas day. about the assassination of kim jong-un. many fear that other companies could become a target of similar attacks. jake ward is in san francisco. >> john, the evidence that the fbi is citing in identifying north korea as the culprit is basically a string of circumstantial evidence. earlier i spoke to hewlett packard head, exhaustive research into cyber warfare capabilities of north korea and asked if north korea was technologically sophisticated enough to pull this off? >> they're definitely sophisticated enough. i think the important thing to hear here is, 9 can buy expertise. even if they didn't have all of the expertise required they can go into the black market. they can purchase those skills as long as they have money. >> now the software and the hardware that the company is using to identify north korea, is not very specific, it's available to anyone with the right amount of money. this is how mr. gilliland describes the technique to identify somebody. >> after the identification is known, patches are available it gets used and reused. >> so the difficulty here for the fbi is this stuff is not exactly a fingerprint. not a smoking gun. anyone with the means can buy it. the evidence what is so convincing that the fbi wants to actually identify north korea publicly as the culprit here? that question has not been answered. the reason everyone is so worried about this is not that sony is of particular importance in the national landscapescape and it was pretty well-known that sony was pretty lax when it comes to cyber security, it's not that its standards are ones that everybody is using and we're worried about, but from a great distance even a reclusive government like north korea and assuming this is north korea could come in and do a lot of damage. it used to be that hacking was maliciousness and getting a lot of attention but now it is a case of perhaps real terrorism, where physical damage can actually be done. the germans issued their real look back of 2014, and they identified an instance where a facfactory in germany had been hacked, physical palpable damage done on the ground by remote means. that's what people are worried about that sony could forecast for the future. john. >> the innocen entity anonymousr nonsagur,. >> reading stories from the hackers, the ancient hackers in the '80s and so on those guys all got caught, most of them got caught so you expect it, once you start hack like this, it is a point of no return, there's no turning back, you're getting caught eventually. >> what did anonymous mean? >> it's not what it is, it is not what people think it is. it is an idea that has deterred, stayed away from what its original idea was supposed to be. once you had the irc servers up twitter up, centralized the movement, the idea has already fallen. >> how did you get involved in what was going on in the arab spring? >> at the height of the tunisian revolution, i attacked completely toppling, all communications went down inside and outside of tunisia. just to disrupt the communications against the protesters. >> you liked that? >> i thought i was doing something great. i think i did. >> you got in trouble with that? >> it was one of my charges. >> how did you get involved in fbi? >> come out into the hallway, we know who you are, what you're doing. they sat me down, they said we know you did this, that. the evidence they had at the time was only for like one charge. i could have fought my charge if they didn't attempt to extort me with the children. >> are you saying you didn't do it? >> didn't do what? >> that you didn't commit crimes that they had accused you of. >> i didn't say that. i did commit crimes. >> you agreed to this deal and worked for them as an informant. >> or cooperator. they said, be sabu. we're going to watch. so my computer was logged. whenever someone would hit me up, message would fall by, they would say we just hacked into the department of justice, the fbi. >> they would see it. >> they could see it and jump on it immediately. >> jaish mi lam ont -- jeremy ms serving ten years in prison right? >> yep. >> you help put him away? >> no. >> you never had -- >> i don't know where you're at, i need something out of you, can you give me information? none of that ever happened. >> he says you entrapped him by helping him hack into government-run websites. >> well you know that's a good argument for an attempt at an appeal but i didn't entrap him. >> you know this anonymous has said let me just quote we believe any attempt to paint sabu as a victim in this case are wrong, sabu was not a victim a willing participant in taking the identity of several anons. how do you respond? >> i respond this is a situation where we are at, all right? they were the same people this well we hate the united states government and we hate fox news. but as soon as fox news and the government came out with this propaganda story they instantly ate this prechewed story. they were basically bamboozled into believing this story. they tell them they do have a leader, sabu is your leader. now he's going to take all you guys down. look anonymous posts my arrest posts my exposure. it is not like it was when i was involved. they are not doing what we were doing back then. >> how vulnerable are americans to this kind of hacking. >> i mean there is no security. >> there is no security? >> there is no security whatsoever. >> teen government? >> i think we proved a point didn't we? we hacked the government, foreign governments, corporations, the same people that were paid to protect the government. i think that's a good lesson. >> bank accounts? >> bank accounts? >> lacked bank accounts? >> what's the point hack bank accounts when we could just hack the bank? >> you're pretty proud of that. >> proud of -- >> of your ability to do that. >> no, there's no real pride in that. it's a skill, it's knowledge, it's something i have. >> i can't do that. there are plenty of people who can? >> you could do it, anybody could do it. sit here for five minutes i could teach you. but there's got to be ethics and morals behind it. >> why not go to silicon valley and get a job? >> they don't trust me. >> don't companies need people like you, to make sure they don't get hacked? >> i'm sure they would, they think you have good skills that we could use and i'm open to that but to answer your question we have no security and i really want to emphasize that people need to understand that, that's the first step to fixing our problems. the major issue is the government, the government needs to stop paying federal contractors billions of dollars a year when they're getting hacked themselves. >> you are not working with the government? >> i haven't seen a federal agent since march 6th, 2012. >> thank you for sharing your story. we appreciate it. >> appreciate it too, thank you. >> now to the historic accord between the u.s. and cuba. the vatican has better than credited with helping broker that deal but causing big issues between the cuban conflicts. mardi gras explains. >> people asking for hope and praying for a miracle, a miracle that some say have already come. >> translator: as a person of faith i'm super-happy. i went to the shrine in cuba, and it's a miracle from god! >> reporter: much of the credit for reopening of diplomatic relations between the u.s. and cuba goes to pope francis, he spent 18 months, in negotiations, but the vatican has been pushing for a thaw between the two countries for decades starting with pope john paul ii. when the first wave of cuban immigrants arrived in the 1980s, a beacon for exiles. they support the vatican's direct role in this new shift in policy despite, fears that it could pit faith against politics. >> many of the parishioners have suffered so very, very during this 50 years. >> father sid of st. patrick's, says that while many remain hopeful of a religious peace, they can't forget the past. >> they are weary of being taken advantage of. because so many, they have been deceived so many times by empty promises coming from cuba. >> reporter: the new policies are now an opportunity to test the truth. >> i think it's an opportunity to see what happens. because it's already been so many years with the same restrictions. >> i think it's good for the community because that's what i want for my cuba because one day freedom will come. >> reporter: a freedom that could reunite thousands of families. >> and it's about our catholic faith also modifies us to healing reconciliation, forgiveness. >> reporter: which is why these people of faith say now is the time to have just that. morgan radford, al jazeera, miami, florida. >> former president jimmy carter tried to normalize relations with cuba back in the 1970s. i asked him why he thought it took so long. >> well, we didn't have normal relations but cuba at that time would not desist from trying to subvert a lot of the governments in this hemisphere towards communism. and he also sent a large number of our troops to places in africa including ethiopia. and those were the two things that hindered full recognition. but fidel castro and i agreed at that time to take as much of a step as we could, and that's when we established the intersections in both havana and washington. they have been open without interference by all the successive presidents since that time. >> president carter, you traveled to cuba in 2011 and met with fidel castro and his brother raul. did you get a sense from them at that time that they would be open to this? >> yes, they made the proposition then that is basically being accepted now. and that is, that the three cuban prisoners in florida would be released, that alan would be released. i met with him while i was down there. he was in prison then. and that the sanctions be lifted. so i think this has been a potential realization for a long time and i'm very glad that president obama finally decided to do it on his own initiative. >> does this give legitimacy to castro's regime in your opinion? >> no, it doesn't but i think the whole gamut of relations have been balanced and as i said in my interview with you, i think it will be very good for both countries. i see a very wonderful boost for cuba, particularly in american tourism and a good boost for american farmers and others i've already mentioned in normal trade relationships with our kneest neighbor except for mexico and canada. >> what does it mean for russia in influence in this region? >> well, this will greatly increase the american influence. as a matter of fact, the carter center has a lot of programs in latin america. and the united states was getting into great disfavor with an increasing number of latin american countries because of our unique harsh treatment of cuba. as you know just a few weeks ago there was another annual resolution in the united nations, which condemned american sanctions against cuba and the only two countries that voted against it were the united states and israel. so i think the upcoming meeting of the organization of american states was a forgone conclusion that cuba would be there. all of these other nations had decided on that decision, made that decision, and now the united states has decided that they would cooperate with this i say forgone conclusion, and that we would cooperate as well. i think this will strengthen the organization of american states. it will lessen outside interference from russia or any other disruptive force and heal a lot of wounds that had been developed between the united states and other latin american countries who are supposedly our friends. >> president carter it's good to have you on the program. thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you johnny and thank you for all your good work. >> thank you. the united nations has declined to are designate knowledge waste from coal fired power plants. >> arsenic chromium lead in a lot of cases. >> poured out of a cracked drainage pipe into a major river in north carolina last february. >> duke energy cannot fail. we take this responsibility very, very seriously. we think we failed a bit with dan river. >> duke energy is the largest electric company in the u.s. after the spill a federal grand jury began looking into duke's relationship with north carolina regulators. miles away from the dan river spill a shuttered coal plant overlooks the yaken river basin, as coal ash leaks into the reservoir. residents call this dukeville. >> you have jugs of water that you have to drive to go to get? >> yes we do. >> how about bathing your kids? >> we don't bathe the chill, the pediatrician feels it's not the best interest of the children to do that now. >> joe ann and tom lives down the road. >> 72 people in your area that have had some sort of deadly disease, here are the coal ash ponds. right across the street cancer? >> right. >> right across there cancer? >> three brain tumors, tumors, across the street had another brain tumor. >> we have heard questions and concerns from residents across the plant who are hearing so much hype about coal ash and we take very seriously their concerns. we are not finding any evidence that coal ash has impacted groundwater near our facilities that has not already been addressed. the company has been very proactive. >> i don't call that hype. i call that very serious. there are a lot of people nearby that have had cancer and died. lots of brain tumors. >> duke energy and the department of natural resources sample the awards. in areas that would not show high levels of toxicity. >> how are the levels so different from the river keepers and duke? >> i think it's really about the collection method. one of the things we're finding is sometimes these groups are taking very turbid samples. >> what does that mean? >> they have a lot of sediment in them. >> duke says that means the levels show higher level of toxicity. but they say their samples follow federal guidelines. >> duke is going to do what makes their samples look better for them. >> duke spends millions of dollars on political contributions in north carolina. governor's budget cut funding for inspectors who inspect coal ash ponds. >> part of what we want is for the management to fully understand the dangers that their company's practices are foisting on the people of the state and our rivers. we think they're going to begin to realize it. >> duke says it will have all 32 coal ash ponds in the state cleaned up by 2029. a cost of between two and $8 billion. for the residents living near the ponds daily life is a struggle as many will still not use the water supply and worry about their future. robert ray, al jazeera, charlotte, north carolina. >> coming up next: our picture of the day. plus the man behind the dazzling empire state building holiday light show. g >> where is the worst weather going to be in the united states? tomorrow? it looks like the west coast is going to wind, as the storm comes in overnight, we've got wind, we've got rain, a lot of rain too, but snow first in the washington cascades and oregon as well then that snow as the air mass moves in is going to turn to rain. and our next concern is flooding. a atmospheric river, very intense flow of air, lot of moisture traveling from the east to the west. but these little tiny areas of moisture come in, and travel from west to east, and when they start going up to california and the pacific northwest, we get a lot of rainfall over about a two- to three-day period. you see it first aim in but we'll get all that rain to the western coast of washington and oregon. flood watches impacting the area in addition to winter weather advisories. you will want to be prepared and carry chains in the trunk if you head over the pass. al jazeera america news continues. >> coming up add 11 eastern, the sony computer hack. i'll talk about a security consultant and a former hacker about how it happened. grammy award winning musician, george benson, those stories coming up at 11:00, we hope you'll joyous then. it's the center piece of the new york city skyline, the empire state building has celebrated special occasions with a dazzling light show. each holiday season, the light show is set to special occasions. mark brickman. >> the empire state building was really always very special. so i'm just honored to be able to light the building. when we do holiday shows -- >> jingle bell jingle bell jeng kinjingle bell rock ♪ >> we receive the music and we start planning the individual cues. ♪ ♪ >> well, i paint with light. and so you know, like anything else, you could always choose really bad colors. so we tried -- so i guess i have a good sense of color. and i really -- it's more intuitive. we have 4,000 channels of leds, we have 18,000 of dmx which is a language that the lights speak and then we have 210,000 individual leds, the biggest challenge believe it or not would be actually being able to stay in sync. ♪ have a holly jolly christmas ♪ >> you usually have a time code that keeps you on time and in sync. here we actually listen to an fm radio. it's a pretty analog way of doing things. but we're not allowed to practice. because obviously, the building is such a public building and it's out there in the open. we can't just turn on the lights and go crazy whenever we feel like it. the empire state building really is the largest scale performance because millions of people see this in the moment. >> ♪ let it sno snow ♪ >> the first of holiday shows starts tomorrow. this is how the empire state building looks tonight, skyscraper lit up in blue and white for han kah hanukkah. thank you for watching. i'm john siegenthaler. i'll see you at 11:00 eastern time, have a great night. >> previously on "in god we trust". >> my name is eleanor, and for the last 25 years i was bernie madoff's secretary. >> the main team on the 17th floor were fully aware of what was going on. >> what nobody imagined was that bernie was stealing every nickel, that he wasn't trading anything. >> i said "60 million"? he said, "no... umm, 60 with a 'b'". >> sir, why did you do it? >> they lived this incredible life... it just never occurred to me