UPDATE: 12/21/11 4PM -BBC covers Tallbloke, finally, Richard Black still silent- Norfolk constabulary to share hand-off Climategate investigation, and Greg Laden caves – see below
Dec 14th -The first blogger to break the Climategate2 story has had a visit from the police and has had his computers seized. Tallbloke’s Talkshop first reported on CG2 due to the timing of the release being overnight in the USA. Today he was raided by six UK police (Norfolk Constabulary and Metropolitan police) and several of his computers were seized as evidence. He writes:
After surveying my ancient stack of Sun Sparcstations and PII 400 pc’s, they ended up settling for two laptops and an adsl broadband router. I’m blogging this post via my mobile.
That means his cellphone. In his blog report are all the details. including actions in the US involving WordPress and the US Department of Justice. Jeff Id at The Air Vent also has a report here.
Strange and troubling that they’d seize his computers for comments dropped onto a US service (wordpress.com) from the cloud. There wouldn’t be any record on his PC’s of the event from FOIA’s placing comments, that would be in the wordpress.com server logs.
Either there’s more than meets the eye or they have no idea how the blog system works.
UPDATE: I’ve been in contact with Roger (Tallbloke) and he tells me that he is not a suspect, and that they’ll clone his hard drives and return the computers to him. – Anthony
UPDATE2: 12/15/9AM It seems that the story has gone viral on blogs. Four skeptic blogs are in the top ten of all WordPress blogs today. While I’ve seen 2 at a time on CG1 and CG2, four has never happened before. This is from my wordpress.com dashboard:
From top to bottom, WUWT, The Air Vent, Tallbloke’s Talkshop, Climate Audit.
UPDATE3: Delingpole in the Telegraph thinks its going to escalate
UPDATE4: Horner in The Washington Examiner weighs in
UPDATE5: The Guardian picks up on the story here
UPDATE6: Jo Nova suggests it is a form of intimidation
UPDATE7: Josh weighs in with two cartoons
UPDATE8: Greg Laden on Scienceblogs accuses Tallbloke of being a “criminal” – a claim really over the line and over the top. Clearly this is outside of the Code of Conduct for Scienceblogs.com (contact page here) Of course, after reading the rant of hate this man has for anyone not like him, especially Americans in some states, I suppose it’s just another day for him. Update: I sent off a complaint to the editors of Sb about this, and it appears that Laden has been asked to remove the libelous language, though the post remains as does his hateful attitude in comments.
UPDATE9: Lord Monckton to pursue fraud charges against Climategate scientists: Will present to police the case for ‘numerous specific instances of scientific or economic fraud’
Monckton: ‘I have begun drafting a memorandum for prosecuting authorities…to establish…the existence of numerous specific instances of scientific or economic fraud in relation to the official ‘global warming’ storyline…they will act, for that is what the law requires them to do’
Story at ClimateDepot here
UPDATE10: More than a couple of people have asked me about computer security in the last couple of days, especially after the Tallbloke raid incident.
I’m offering a simple security solution for those that want to protect their files: a USB flash drive with built in hardware security. See it here
UPDATE11: A copy of the search warrant can be seen at Climate Audit
UPDATE 12: The BBC’s Richard Black is silent, probably because he can’t “… find an angle that will allow the BBC to maintain the usual warmists good, sceptics bad holding pattern”.
UPDATE13: Tallbloke apparently is going to take legal action against ScienceBlogs and blogger Greg Laden over his libelous article (now modified to not be libelous) accusing Tallbloke of being involved in criminal activity, and is soliciting barristers. Laden says on his blog in comments:
“I think he’s a criminal for being a climate denialist. Sue me. “
Looks like Greg Laden will get his wish.
UPDATE14: Rep Markey has an “off with their heads” moment, Jeff Id explains how the connections being made are preposterous.
UPDATE15: Tallbloke has decided to take the libel issue with Laden to tort. A letter from his attorney is posted.
UPDATE16: Planetsave makes another libel with the headline: “Criminal Who Manufactured Climategate Caught?” The clueless writer, Zachary Shahan, is about as far away from understanding journalism as anyone I’ve seen. He’s in for a nasty surprise as Tallbloke has added him to the tort list.
UPDATE18: UK cartoonist “Fenbeagle” has done up a Star Wars parody in the vein of The Empire Strikes Back. Mike Mann, Phil Jones, Jawas, and a Wookie are featured.
UPDATE19: Tom Nelson points out that Laden seems to have caved to impending legal action: Warmist Greg Laden: Did I say that tallbloke is a criminal? I meant he’s not a criminal. Details here
UPDATE20: Tallbloke reflects on the solstice and says that questions are starting to be asked in the UK.
UPDATE21: Tallbloke reports that:
In a sudden new development, your correspondent has learned that Norfolk Constabulary have decided that climategate is too big for them to handle. According to an un-named source, they intend to hand over the inquiry to another force.
This follows on the heels of a ‘request for a contact’ at Norfolk Constabulary by Lord Christopher Monckton in connection with his intention to have the police investigate revelations in the ‘climategate’ emails placed in the public domain.
UPDATE22: Donna LeFramboise writes in the Financial Post:
This is all rather chilling. It appears that being the proprietor of a blog in which strangers leave links pointing to material on third-party websites now exposes one to being raided by the police.
UPDATE23: The BBC finally gets around to covering the seizure episode almost a week later, unsurprisingly, the very biased Richard Black isn’t the reporter.
I’d beware it’s easy for information to be planet on the PC to smear Tallbloke, I would be careful that they didn’t find something that wasn’t there before to make Tallbloke look bad.
First they came for the bloggers…
I read the “Request for Preservation of Records” PDF and what I found most interesting was that only those three Accounts are mentioned. WUWT, for example, is not. This can only mean that there is very specific content in those three Accounts that ties them together and also separates them from the rest of the blogs.
Logically then the next question is: What is it about the contents of those three particular Accounts in regards to FOIA that is so unique and similar at the same time, and that ties them together in a way that beckons potential scrutiny by the DoJ?
Best,
J.
Climatereason 1:45:
I hope you’ve taken appropriate backup precautions on your computers, Anthony. Tallbloke might not be the only target.
(I made an attempt to post this thought earlier but don’t see it, even in moderation. If it turns out a duplicate, sorry.)
It is quite possible that the authorities have a person or group targeted for arrest and are simply gathering evidence in front of laying charges, meaning this is not a fishing expedition at all, but the building of a case.
Richard S Courtney said:
“Thirdly, it is very, very probable that UK security agents know both the contents of the encrypted Climategat 2.0 files and the identity of the Climategate leaker. GCHQ is extremely competent and its staff working in the Donut probably sorted those things out within hours of being asked. ”
DirkH said:
“No, Richard, at the moment nobody on Planet Earth can crack the encryption.”
GCHQ wouldn’t need to. All they would need to do is look at the UEA backups which are (I assume) unencrypted and which the Police (iirc) have a copy of.
Tallbloke – commiserations, but chin up and keep your eye on the ball. Max Clifford (the publicist) may be interested: it might be worth a phone call. Someone, somewhere, precipitated all this by making a court application (possibly to a Magistrate or a Crown Court judge) – try to find out why, who is leading, why and under what procedure (are they for some strange reason looking at Article 16 of the UK/US extradition treaty?). And keep smiling: (a) it will all be over before long, (b) you’re now famous and (c) all this will really be something to dine out on, or regale the grandchildren at length about, in the fullness of time!
Perhaps Leif …… no that’s way over the top.
Skiphil says:
December 15, 2011 at 12:13 am
Steve from Rockwood says:
December 14, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Steve, please……. it was George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Blair) who published “1984″
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You know Skip, I forgot that, having only read it twice. I understand he wrote the book in 1948 but renamed it. Sad ending. A lesson to never give up, even though most of us do.
Also read H.G. Wells Time Machine and Invisible Man. I have a terrible memory for authors although I remember most of John Wyndham’s books.
These novels are described as “a pessimistic answer to scientific optimism”. Add that to what amounts to a shakedown of Tallbloke and welcome to 2012.
If Tallbloke is not a suspect in any crime, then wtf are the cops doing “impinging his personal freedom” and confiscating his kit?
Ask for a warrant, and make sure the terms of the warrant are proper.
This affair stinks to high heaven.
I’m not surprised. I mean, he put this on this Inter-thing, this Al Gore invention. He basically gave it to the Russians to read, or the Chinese, the Huns, maybe even the Yanks, I shouldn’t wonder. (Made trusted Olde English institutions look bad, to boot.) Time for Bulldog Drummond & Col. Blimp to biff the baddies.
Your computers are next, sir.
*twirls mustache*
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tallbloke says:
December 15, 2011 at 9:43 am
many thanks to those who have hit the donate button.
I’ll be able to get a second hand laptop soon so I can keep blogging.
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http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/tallbloke-towers-raided-many-computers-taken/#comment-10781 [bold added]
@tallbloke
As others have said, when they do return your computer throw it out. Or at least quarantine it and DO NOT hook it up to your home network. There is no telling what kind of spyware they will put on it while they have it. And there is a good chance that whatever they put on it will not be found by commercial antivirus or antispyware software.
I would go on, but for some reason this news has me paranoid about voicing my views online.
Tallblock, one word: Upgrade.
Raiding Tallblock’s place to find deepthroat would be similar to police raiding our old Commodor 64’s in order to discover who created the internet. Who wants to bet they are all sitting around Tallblock’s computers with “Windows 98 for Dummies” cracked open trying to find the on button?
That you do what you do with the hardware you do it with is astounding.
The UK and most of the rest of Europe have been inching towards full Socialist states for quite some time. When you model yourself after something Joe Stalin built, it’s not surprising that you eventually start to act like . . . well . . . Joe Stalin.
The MSM aren’t biting much.
I phoned BBC Radio Norfolk at 9.30 GMT this morning. They hadn’t heard of the story, but (after I pointed them to WUWT) said they would investigate. As of the 13:00 news, a small item giving the basic facts (6 police…raided…2 computers..Climategate emails..no-one has been arrested) has appeared as #2 news item.
Chris Horner has a piece at:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/12/obamas-justice-department-joins-britains-climategate-leaker-manhunt/2006206
They were polite and promised to return the kit after cloning the disks.
Why would they need to drag out the hardware? Most departments have portable drive archivers, and a notebook to write down the mac addresses. I don’t have a copy in front of me, but the typical computer forensic guidlelines insist on archiving insitu.
I can see the taking the router if they thought the firmware had been updated (although I am at a loss as to what nefarious purpose it could be bent towards.)
FOIA and the bloggers are doing a great service to mankind.
That is not an exaggeration.
The fact that it is being investigated is irresponsible to the maximum degree.
If the police take your harddrives & computers how would anyone know if the police then put incriminating data on them. Think of the issue with DNA contamination and the necessary procedures there. Harddrives are even more open to abuse. Some form of supervised, forensic analysis prior to removal would be needed to try and avoid a possible fit up and where real criminals are involved so assisting a correct prosecution.
“No, Richard, at the moment nobody on Planet Earth can crack the encryption.”
Isn’t the viability of the encryption compromised by the large amount of known plaintext associated with it? If the CG01 and CG02 materials are in the zip, then I don’t think you can make the assumption that the file is secure. Even the known frequency of names and email address (based on the released material) is perhaps enough to degrade the value of the encryption function.
1) This is getting out of hand. Is Climate Science/Policy the National Socialism of the 21st century? By what right does law enforcement procure any search warrant without revealing the nature of the evidence and stating what crimes they believe to have been committed? When does Klimatenacht begin?
2) Can someone explain how DoJ is involved in the warrant? I see several comments to the effect, yet from what I read here and elsewhere, DoJ’s only involvement seems to be an inquiry to WordPress regarding Tallbloke’s account there. Is there more involvement than that?
3) They’ve either got proof of a hack, or the Team is in no way involved and/or driving this. It’s taken on a life of it’s own. The problem I see is that if it is determined that this was a leak, rather than a hack, it ALL becomes admissible in court. There may not be direct evidence of scientific misconduct (though I hold that information in the data/code files in CG 1.0 are exactly that), there are torts here, ‘ipso facto’, both civil and criminal, more or less admitted, stated and agreed to in these emails. The Team is either certain it’s a hack or they no longer have control and will have problems defending themselves in court should the occasion require it. I doubt Scotland Yard considers their opinions relevant, though they also may not be inclined to investigate the Team for such conduct.
4) My most sincere sympathy to Tallbloke. Never had to suffer the indignity of law enforcement at my door with a warrant, valid or otherwise. Hope never to. Illegitimi non carborundum!
Shocking, even worse. I haven’t even read one single comment yet, so it could be that I’m repeating what others have already expressed, but I cannot help it.
This is what used to happen in the Soviet Union, or is happening in Iran and communist China……….. shame shame shame…
DirkH:
At December 15, 2011 at 3:26 am you say to me:
“No, Richard, at the moment nobody on Planet Earth can crack the encryption. This is the newest report I can find about progress in attacking AES 256; still falls short of a practical real life attack.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/08/new_attack_on_a_1.html
“As our attacks are of high computational complexity, they do not threaten the practical use of AES in any way.””
Of course, you may be right.
Personally, I am sure that if there were no possiblility of GCHQ (or the NSA in the USA) ‘cracking’ AES 256 then other security agencies would have done nefarious things to inhibit use of it. (The UK obtained an empire that circled the globe by use of espionage and trade, and given the size of our current expenditure on espionage I doubt we have lost our expertise).
History repeatedly shows that those who provide an encryption system always underestimate the ability of others to ‘crack’ it (e.g. google ENIGMA and Bletchley Park).
Richard
I’ve made a small contribution toward a new computer, or legal representation (whichever is more urgent), at Tallbloke’s website. Perhaps this episode will have a silver lining?