In case you are just joining us, here is some background on the story below. I know the identity of the mole. The ball is now in CRU’s court. Steve McIntyre reports below and throws down the gauntlet.
More news on the Met Office/CRU molehunt.
Late yesterday (Eastern time), I learned that the Met Office/CRU had identified the mole. They are now aware that there has in fact been a breach of security. They have confirmed that I am in fact in possession of CRU temperature data, data so sensitive that, according to the UK Met Office, my being in possession of this data would, “damage the trust that scientists have in those scientists who happen to be employed in the public sector”, interfere with the “effective conduct of international relations”, “hamper the ability to protect and promote United Kingdom interests through international relations” and “seriously affect the relationship between the United Kingdom and other Countries and Institutions.”
Although they have confirmed the breach of security, neither the Met Office nor CRU have issued a statement warning the public of the newCRU_tar leak. Nor, it seems, have they notified the various parties to the alleged confidentiality agreements that there has been a breach in those confidentiality agreements, so that the opposite parties can take appropriate counter-measures to cope with the breach of security by UK institutions. Thus far, the only actions by either the Met Office or CRU appear to have been a concerted and prompt effort to cover up the breach of security by attempting to eradicate all traces of the mole’s activities. My guess is that they will not make the slightest effort to discipline the mole.
Nor have either the Met Office or CRU contacted me asking me not to further disseminate the sensitive data nor to destroy the data that I have in my possession.
By not doing so, they are surely opening themselves up to further charges of negligence for the following reasons. Their stated position is that, as a “non-academic”, my possession of the data would be wrongful (a position with which I do not agree, by the way). Now that they are aware that I am in possession of the data (and they are aware, don’t kid yourselves), any prudent lawyer would advise them to immediately to notify me that I am not entitled to be in possession of the data and to ask/instruct me to destroy the data that I have in my possession and not to further disseminate the sensitive data. You send out that sort of letter even if you think that the letter is going to fall on deaf ears.
Since I am always eager to help climate scientists with these conundrums, I’ll help them out a little here. If, prior to midnight Eastern time on Thursday, a senior executive of the Met Office or the University of East Anglia notifies me that I am in wrongful possession of the data and directly requests me to destroy my copies of the CRU station data in question and thereby do my part in the avoidance of newCRU_tar proliferation, I will do so.
I will, of course, continue my FOI requests since I do not believe, for a minute, that their excuses have any validity nor am I convinced that the alleged confidentiality agreements actually exist nor, if they exist, am I convinced that they prohibit the provision of the data to me.
deadwood (20:10:54) :
“My $0.02 is that mole is the new Hadley Centre supercomputer. After it became self-aware last week it became so embarrassed that it immediately contacted Steve and Anthony to come clean.”
This is so funny, I am actually going to use an internet acronym: LMAO!
Wind in the Alarmosphere – Summary and Study Guide
Chapter 1: The Alarmosphere
The Wind in the Alarmosphere begins with Mole who is spring-cleaning his computer code when he finds that “something up above was calling him imperiously.” Giving in to curiosity, he quickly digs his way to the world above. Everything is new to him. He has not even seen a Skeptic before. The first person he makes an acquaintance with is Water Mac, who invites Mole on a boat ride and an impromptu picnic. Mac explains much to Mole about aspects of the world above ground and the Skeptic community. After the picnic, they head back upstream towards Mac’s hole in the Alarmosphere. Mole ends up almost tipping the boat when he excitedly gives the $ecret Data to Mac, which Mac readily forgives.
Chapter 2: The Open Hadley
Mole and Mac pay a visit to Mr. Toad. Toad is happy to have the company and pleased to meet Mr. Mole, and he convinces them to join him in an international conspiracy, which is his latest craze. Their first two days on the road are fairly uneventful. On the third day, they seriously affect the relationship between the United Kingdom and other Countries and Institutions. …
Nominate deadwood (20:10:54) for QoTW. Based on some of the hints above it’s also probably true.
Congratulations to all concerned. the Empire always comes to our aid in times of darkest peril.
“If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their Finest Hour.”
Brandon Dobson (18:10:19) :
I have the advantage of having emailed Anthony on this topic originally, because I was deeply concerned he’d so blithely tossed out that he’d validated the IP address. Well, any IT guy would be appalled by that public admission. And rather than point at it again publicly, I emailed him and said, more or less, “Jesus, don’t DO that in public!”
I got a very nice, respectful, and. . . well . . .cheshire cat who swallowed the canary email in reply. I smell two conspirators having a huge amount of fun at the expense of overstuffed bureaucracy and pulling our collective leg in the bargain.
And I lived in Sacramento for 20 years –don’t underestimate the sense of humor of those Chico guys either!
[snip – sorry Bill I’m not going to discuss your topic here – though to answer some of your questions, watch Climate Audit over the next couple of days.]
[snip – bill – as I made clear in the previous, I’m not going to discuss the topic here – besides you don’t know the full details of either situation – as I said in previous comment, watch Climate Audit in the next couple of days]
“Quick, don’t let the information be disseminated. If other scientists get the information they will be able to show just how crazy and shoddy our work is. Gentlemen, we must protect out phony-baloney jobs. “
Will, the second line in the data is the number of stations contributing.
The moles are leaving the sinking ship…
They don’t want anyone to know they have discovered a new element on the periodic table; Balonium (Bs) h/t the simpsons. :^]>
Gee, all this secrecy doesn’t make me suspicious that there is any fraud going on at the Met Office. Nope, no sir. Secrecy in scientific matters always inspires my utmost confidence. Nothing to see here folks, trust the experts and move along, move along.
Oops, sorry, my sarcasm lock key was down :-/
Nigel S (21:02:59) :
I too was reading that from some of the tongue and cheek references from Anthony and Steve.
It is just about weather you old sausages make it sound like a movie from the cold era.
I feel bad for the Mole who had to risk his Job by doing well (of sending out the data) and doing wrong (by sending the data to the wrong people).
Anthony, if you don’t post the data here online then you’re nothing else but an hypocrite.
Also please don’t talk about privacy, everything can be done in an anonymous way and do link exchange.
So, come on! What is the difference between the “mole data” and the public data if any?
ftp://ftp.cru.uea.ac.uk/data/
The “mole” who has been dormant for a few years has suddenly stirred in the last few days?
Paul (12:55:36) :
“I am a statistician working on publicly funded grants (NIH). I realize this type of data (specifically, health data on hypertension) is not really interesting to most people, so we don’t have foreign researchers pounding down our doors for data. But we do not need to make our data public. This is so that our investigators can have the first crack at analyzing it. It would peeve me greatly to have spent the past 2 years working on collecting data only to have someone else take our research ideas and publish them. That said, we work with whoever is interested in analyzing the data.”
Sorry Paul this is OT but you’re comment is too good to pass up. I’m very concerned about advice on the use of salt in food which might be bad for hypertensives but for the rest of us having to put up with tasteless food seems a bit much. I would consider it highly desireable to scrutinise your data in view of the way epidemiological studies are generally tortured to produce a result. If you’re going to produce information that will lead to a degradation in my life I’d certainly want to scutinise it.
Why would the possesion of that data affect:
-“effective conduct of international relations”,
-“hamper the ability to protect and promote United Kingdom interests through international relations” and
-“seriously affect the relationship between the United Kingdom and other Countries and Institutions.”
It’s just temperature data!!!! Unless of course, that data could expose the truth about certain matters…………..
Oops re my last: “Sorry Paul this is OT but (you’re) comment is too good to pass up.” Dear me, how did that happen?
you could try to get the Information Commissioner to investigate the legitimacy of the Met Offiice’s “exemptions”….
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom_of_information.aspx
[snip sorry bugs – not going to discuss this issue here]
“Steve S. (18:52:00) :
My turn.
The MET office gives the mole till midnight eastern time on Thursday to sign a statement saying he was coerced, extorted, blackmailed, held hostage and water boarded by M & W till he provided the data.
With that they’ll pursue a civil or criminal case against both McIntire and Watts generating a court ordered disclosure requiring M & W to hand over all of their computers.”
Problem is, if the mole is who I think it is, this individual ENJOYS being tortured…. or being the torturer. So M&W have an affirmative defense of “they wanted it”.
Steve has now spilled the beans – the data was sitting on a publicly accessible cru ftp site! Which they have now deleted, in contravention of FOI rules…
official recognition of al-qaedah Indonesia
http://sudutp4nd4ng.wordpress.com
Hmmmmmm…….What that mean?????
I look through FTP sites whenever I find them. In many cases, it is just a waste of time but, every now and again, there is a real gem that I have been looking for. The readme.txt files sometimes say the information is confidential but I would not consider that to be legally binding in any manner. Sometimes the readme file says it is confidential but it is placed in a directory called Public. GISS has big bold warning headers that say if you are not authorized to be here, please leave which carries more weight from my perspective.
I think Steve and Anthony should just carry on and analyse the data. If there is not much to report about processes and errors, then one should just say it appears to be good and destroy it.
But if there are significant problems, people should know about it regardless of whether the data came from a ftp site.
The person with the information might need to reassess the situation at that point but that point is in the future and will also be influenced by what the results of the analysis point to. So, carry on.