This is a repost from Climate Audit
“Covert” Operations by East Anglia’s CRU
Today brings news of the arrest of the managing director of a firm hired by the University of East Anglia’s CRU (Climatic Research Unit) to carry out “covert” operations – h/t reader Chu here). Neil Wallis of Outside Organisation was arrested today in connection with the spreading News of the World scandal.
Last year, Wallis’ partner at Outside Organisation , Alan Edwards, was profiled in Music Week in a story that led with:
Don’t tell the conspiracy theorists. But one PR company was at the centre of the Michael Jackson funeral, Climategate and Naomi Campbell’s appearance at Charles Taylor’s trial in The Hague.
Edwards is described as the “man who has also helped shape the careers of Amy Winehouse, Blondie, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Cliff, David Bowie, Spice Girls, David Beckham, P Diddy, Kevin Pietersen and Shayne Ward” and the man who masterminded PR for Naomi Campbell’s trial. Outside Organisation’s handling of Climategate for CRU was described as “more covert”.
Less apparent is its work in the corporate field, where its activities tend to be rather more covert. [my bold]
“We don’t advertise a lot of the things we do,” says Edwards, who was called in by the University of East Anglia when Climategate blew up. “That was really interesting. It’s very high level, and you’re very much in the background on that sort of thing.”
The university’s Climatic Research Unit wanted Outside to fire back some shots on the scientists’ behalf after leaked emails from the unit gave climate change skeptics ammunition and led to an avalanche of negative press about whether global warming was a real possibility.
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Wow! That’s just shocking really. Who’d have thought?
As I posted at CA… just when you thought things couldn’t have gotten any better for UEA.
Unbelievable. You just can’t make this shit up.
Mark
I don’t believe it…
(sarc/off)
In Australia, the left have been using the whole NOTW thing to call for an inquiry into the media here. Bob Brown, leader of the greens, who has been after the Murdoch media for years, has used it as an excuse to delegitimise News Ltd. UEA and CRU are also untrustworthy by his logic as well now. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him go ater them however.
We need another reason?
Ethics and climate science seem to mix as well as oil and water.
I’d say, “amazing..”, but I’m not amazed. This confirms what most already knew. This is more PR than it is science.
I’ll write about this at more length at my blog, but, consider……. James Hansen resorted to turning up the thermostat in his testimony at the U.S. Congress, Mike Mann’s 1998 hockey stick is built upon nothing but errant assumptions. Al Gore’s movie was ruled inaccurate by a Court of Law!. The IPCC has been exposed as the advocacy group it is. E-mails released show the scientists’ uncertainty and malfeasance. And now, it’s proven, but already known, that UEA/CRU is nothing more than a political advocacy group that must resort to hiring a PR outfit.
If one can see the obvious bias and subtract their impact upon society, there’s nothing left.
It is easily shown how there is nothing but smoke, mirrors and lies which perpetuates this lunacy. I’m not amazed, but I am disgusted. I hold that we should make these people accountable. And, I call for invoking laws of violating public trust. And we should do this at our utmost ability.
Further, while my nation prohibits “ex post facto” laws. Others don’t. Corporeal punishment is still legal in many nations. I favor extraditing these people to such nations.
We came so close to some misanthropist’s goal that we may never recover. The stench will stain us through our lifetime, at least. My hope is the stench will stay for generations so we will not forget the attempt upon our livelihoods and our lives.
James Sexton
Suddenly, a hand that formulated the Whitewash appears apparent.
A most unexpected turn, where will this go?
It’s front page news in the paper editions of the Grauniad and the Torygraph today
http://twitpic.com/5q5u3h
who’s writing the foia request for the pr firm’s contract and emails with uea?
The facts concerning the climategate scandal provide obvious evidence of a clandestine operation, a cabal that believe it is their duty, their mission, their jihad, to manipulate and suppress data to promote a specific agenda. The observational data and scientific analysis does not support the extreme global warming hypothesis.
Planetary clouds increase or decrease to regulate planetary temperature. There are other atmospheric mechanisms that resist and mitigate the CO2 greenhouse effect. The CO2 mechanism saturates with a logarithmic forcing function such that higher concentrations has less and less effect. The paleoclimatic record shows periods of tens of millions of years when CO2 levels were high and the planet cold and periods when CO2 levels were low and the planet has warm.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
It is sad that a number of news outlets have parroted the comment that an independent commission has exonerated the climategate fraudulent and shameful practices. As a minimum the climategate investigation should have required a public apology of those involved and should have provide recommendations to stop the practice of systemic manipulation of climate data and suppression of counter analysis in scientific journals.
“Propaganda is not necessary if the science is correct. Large company leaches and NGOs leaches have picked up the AGW artificial crisis. They will and are profiting from the fear and from actions such as carbon trading that have no purpose. There are limited governmental funds and real problems to address. We are carbon based lifeforms. Plants eat CO2. Greenhouses inject CO2 to increase plant yield and reduce growing times. Higher levels of CO2 and minor warming with the majority occurring at higher latitudes is beneficial to the biosphere.
Manipulation of evidence:
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Suppression of evidence:
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
Attempts to disguise the inconvenient truth of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP):
……Phil and I have recently submitted a paper using about a dozen NH records that fit this category, and many of which are available nearly 2K back–I think that trying to adopt a timeframe of 2K, rather than the usual 1K, addresses a good earlier point that Peck made w/ regard to the memo, that it would be nice to try to “contain” the putative “MWP”, even if we don’t yet have a hemispheric mean reconstruction available that far back….
..how best to squeeze dissenting scientists out of the peer review process. How, in other words, to create a scientific climate in which anyone who disagrees with AGW can be written off as a crank, whose views do not have a scrap of authority…
“This was the danger of always criticising the skeptics for not publishing in the “peer-reviewed literature”. Obviously, they found a solution to that–take over a journal! So what do we do about this? I think we have to stop considering “Climate Research” as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal. We would also need to consider what we tell or request of our more reasonable colleagues who currently sit on the editorial board…What do others think?”
“I will be emailing the journal to tell them I’m having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor.”“It results from this journal having a number of editors. The responsible one for this is a well-known skeptic in NZ. He has let a few papers through by Michaels and Gray in the past. I’ve had words with Hans von Storch about this, but got nowhere. Another thing to discuss in Nice !”…….”
http://eastangliaemails.com seems to have been offline for some weeks now. I wonder if someone got threatened with legal action.
It is sad that a number of news outlets have parroted the comment that an independent commission has exonerated the climategate fraudulent and shameful practices. As a minimum the climategate investigation should have required a public apology of those involved and should have provide recommendations to stop the practice of systemic manipulation of climate data and suppression of counter analysis in scientific journals.
The current temperature data and the paleoclimatic data does not support the extreme global warming hypothesis. Large company green leaches and NGO green leaches will and have profited from schemes such as carbon trading that have nothing to do with environmental protection.
We are carbon based life forms. Plants eat CO2. Greenhouses inject CO2 into the greenhouse to increase yield and to reduce growing times. Planetary clouds increase or decrease to regulate planetary temperature. With negative rather than positive feedback the warming due to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will be less than 1C with most of the warming occurring at high latitudes will be beneficial. The biosphere will and is expanding.
Governments do not have trillions of surplus dollars to spend on carbon trading schemes.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
“Manipulation of evidence:
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Suppression of evidence:
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
Attempts to disguise the inconvenient truth of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP):
……Phil and I have recently submitted a paper using about a dozen NH records that fit this category, and many of which are available nearly 2K back–I think that trying to adopt a timeframe of 2K, rather than the usual 1K, addresses a good earlier point that Peck made w/ regard to the memo, that it would be nice to try to “contain” the putative “MWP”, even if we don’t yet have a hemispheric mean reconstruction available that far back…
Sorry, but this is implied guilt by association unless you can show that UEA were aware of the pr firms illegal activities. So if I hire a tax consultant who later turns out to have committed fraud in some other activity, I’ve done something wrong too? Such implied guilt is a paving stone on the path to vigilantism.
I’d very much like to see some consideration of the roles played by Wallis, the Outside Organisation, and various other flacks-for-hire in the institutional whitewashings frantically perpetrated by the University of Pennsylvania, UEA, and the IPCC in the first half of 2010.
I suspect that not even the tip of the iceberg here has yet been brought to public attention
The plot sickens, ….
Let’s take a stock of the situation.
Science is almost totally corrupted.
Space exploration is practically dead.
Businesses without government connections are suffocated by taxes and regulations.
Individual freedoms are disappearing so fast we can’t even trace, when and how they went out.
Unions, public masters (formerly known as “public servants”), and other bleeders of various breeds determine the outcomes of elections, the distribution of national budgets, the energy policy and the foreign policy.
Governments can know everything about our personal lives, and have at their disposal so many self-contradicting, ambiguous, and illogical laws that anyone, at any time, can be made a criminal at bureaucrat’s whim.
Green Giant Big Brother looms over horizon, enveloping the whole Earth with the new wave of medieval fascism.
COME ON, PEOPLE! THE STUFF THAT WE BREATHE OUT IS A GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED POLLUTANT. THIS IS NOT A BAD DREAM, THIS IS REALITY, WAKE UP!
Is there any reason for optimism, ladies and gentlemen?
New job for Julia when she gets canned. Reciting chapters and verses of ACC spin. Oh wait…she doesn’t do that very well….oh, well.
From David Bowie and Blondie to the CRU… Hide the decline.
Wallis (aka The Wolfman) was apparently hired to improve the public’s perception of UEA’s and CRU’s abilities as serious academic institutions staffed by bright and perceptive people.
Since this effort has so spectacularly failed on every count, it would seem an opportune time for them to demand a refund of all fees paid to him.
Suggest they get in quick before the lake of doodoo surrounding this whole shoddy and tawdry affair rises even further.
To put Murdoch’s escapades into context, the following link is worth a read:-
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/07/sorry-but-trinity-mirror-group-are-most.html
As I posted on Bishop Hill yesterday (sorry for cross posting)
“In the last couple of days, as a result of a campaign spearheaded by the BBC and the Grauniad, we have seen a full scale Judicial Inquiry set up to investigate phone hacking and all the rest of it. Inconveniently, it appears that there is published analysis from the Information Commisioner which indicates that both the Mail group and the Mirror group were recorded as publishing far more pieces based on illegal information gathering than was News International. And, although the hacking was disgusting and must have been distressing (although we still have little evidence that many people were actually hacked), a case could be made that, other than distress, little real harm was done and that the great majority of targets were celebs and politicians whom some might think deserve what they get. And lets not forget that if the public at large wasn’t prepared to spend their money on tittle tattle and filth, none of this would have happened.
“Now just compare all that with what happened after Climategate and the “inquiries” that followed that leak. Just note the contrast with the attitudes of the Grauniad, the BBC and the politicians.
“Now, bearing in mind how much is riding on this Global Warming scam, can anyone, even our favourite trolls, come up with a reason why a full judicial inquiry into the ‘science’ of global warming might not be at least as useful as the hacking inquiry? Why, I’m sure even [Bishop Hill’s resident troll] Zed’sDeadHead would like to expose in court, under rules of sworn testimony, how much BigOil is actually paying the Bish and myself? No? Wouldn’t it be nice to see laid bare what emails Phil Jones actually destroyed? How about some hard facts about how much electricity BigWind produced in December 2010 and how much warming in degrees celsius were averted thereby? And lets look how much the taxpayers and electricity users have already contributed to the Thermageddonist cause? Let’s see the evidence, under cross-examination, to show that polar bears are drowning because of coal burning. And much, much more.
How’s that for a policy option?
Gotta be careful of who you hire these days,some will try to sabotage a company or corporation.
I’m looking for any links to hackings and stories published, (climategate is one example)all the hysteria seems to be light on details I’m reading that they supposedly hacked the medical records of Gordon Brown’s child,but where was any information published?Seems to me somebody supposedly went to a lot of effort for nothing.As for bribing police,.as if everybody doesn’t know that newspapers have paid sources,be it policemen,government workers or emergency workers.
Alexander Feht made some statements which are interesting to take stock of, and indicative of the general blogsphere propensity to speak in hyperbole, which in my opinion is unhelpful. Other statements are, yes, very worrying.
“Science is almost totally corrupted.” –> literal meaning that there is just about no uncorrupted science — that is close to 100% of all science is corrupt! Evidence please … this is unproductive hyperbole!
“Space exploration is practically dead.” –> literal meaning is that in practice – that is, in the operation of space activities — there is just about no space exploration! Evidence please … this is unproductive hyperbole!
“Businesses without government connections are suffocated by taxes and regulations.” –> In some nations, yes there are indications of this. But not in ALL nations! The USA is not the world — please!
“Individual freedoms are disappearing so fast we can’t even trace, when and how they went out.
Unions, public masters (formerly known as “public servants”), and other bleeders of various breeds determine the outcomes of elections, the distribution of national budgets, the energy policy and the foreign policy.” –> In some nations, yes there is indications of this. But not in ALL nations! The USA is not the world — please!
“Governments can know everything about our personal lives, and have at their disposal so many self-contradicting, ambiguous, and illogical laws that anyone, at any time, can be made a criminal at bureaucrat’s whim.” –> Yes, this is very disturbing trend.
“Green Giant Big Brother looms over horizon, enveloping the whole Earth with the new wave of medieval fascism.” –> Oh, come on. This is drama speak rooted in opinion of interpretation. Give facts that are unambiguous please!
fredb says:
July 14, 2011 at 11:47 pm
“Sorry, but this is implied guilt by association unless you can show that UEA were aware of the pr firms illegal activities. So if I hire a tax consultant who later turns out to have committed fraud in some other activity, I’ve done something wrong too? Such implied guilt is a paving stone on the path to vigilantism”
But you have missed the point. Why should the UEA have a need to employ a professional PR outfit if it can offer a sound arguments against all the accusations which have been levelled against it since the very questionable email correspondence came to light? If they can respond to their accusers accurately and clearly for their activities and prove beyond doubt that they have not been party to the malfeasances that is suggested in their many emails, then there is no need for them to employ a spin doctor to do it for them; after all, they are the organisation that continue to have the worlds media on their side. Why should they have to worry when they have so many journalists like Black of the BBC plus a wide range of ‘Green’ lobby groups such as Greenpiece, Friends of the Earth and the World Widlife Fund if they have such faith in the many questionable issues that were brought to light in the email revelations?
Despite what the media hacks would have us believe, & I do not doubt that one day it will reverse in the PDREU, but the guy has been “arrested on suspicion”, he has not as yet been charged nor found guilty, unless the outcome has already been redetermined amongst those showing the most public indignant outrage! Whilst some of their activities are indeed odious in the extreme,they still have a right to a fair hearing & trial first! As tothe use of a PR organisation by the UEA,that would certainly suggest to me a damage limitation exercise rather than a desire to put positive spin on good settled science!
As my old Mum used to say, ‘Be sure your sins will find you out’.
Or – The Chickens coming home to roost.
Good day for common sense.