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.
After watching V for Vendetta. I from now on shall be known as FOIA to confound and confuse.
Ilkka Mononen provides a link (11:03am).
Google says “This page has insecure content.”
What’s up, Ilkka?
REPLY: Just ignore this stuff from Ilkka, I certainly am – Anthony
So what would it take to get a warrant to seize information that’s been illegally withheld when requested under FOI laws?
Jimmy Haigh says:
December 15, 2011 at 10:24 am
Gail Combs says:
December 15, 2011 at 10:11 am
Gail. i checked the link but it came out in Mandarin Chinese? I can read onlty a very few characters in chinese: the numerals 1,2 and 3 and also the phrase; “danger: slippery floor”.
——————————————–
Wierd
Link was http://jmyarlott.com/Articles/Mad Sheep/Default.asp
or search jmyarlott.com then go to articles then mad sheep.
What I do not like is the increasingly nasty raids on citizens that I have seen over the past few years. Tallbloke’s raid is another in a long line and should be look at as such. Without the background of other recent raids it could be considered an isolated instance when it is not.
I will repeat, Tall bloke get thee to a lawyer FAST. The legal system does not represent the citizen it represents the bureaucracy and we should never forget it.
I would highly suspect that when he gets his harddrive and other equipment back, that it likely has a bit something ‘extra’ added that wouldn’t be obvious.
I heard that the hard drive production had taken a severe hit due to bad climate, er weather, in Thailand, but this is taking it too far, bursting in and raiding people’s computers like that.
Note to constabulary: Data storage RAID devices, not RAID the data storage devices. :p
Nothing from Richard Black over at the BBC yet. Amazing really, considering how vermently Richard has chased this story. Perhaps it has something to do with any righ minded person reading about an innocent blogger having his PC stolen and cloned may leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Richard, if you read this, you know who I am and you are spineless.
‘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.’
Is this sentence correct? Should it be ‘that wouldn’t be’?
I must confess that I’m struggling to get worked up about this. Sorry,but we’re not on our way to a police state, down a slippery slope or to hell in a handbasket. The police have always had plenty of powers; it’s just that most people never have any cause to be touched by them. The joke is that the police haven’t concluded anything from CG1 so it doesn’t exactly bode well now.
That is a very good point. We really have been like the proverbial slow cooking frogs in a pot of water. Let’s review …
If Tallbloke were a citizen in the USA and the case eventually wound up in the Supreme Court it is almost a slam dunk there would be favorable ruling, perhaps even a unanimous smackdown like the Clinton Sexual Harassment Lawsuit or the Nixon Watergate Tapes. It sounds far-fetched I know, but so did those. This one is iron-clad (Bill Of Rights) versus those other two which were in gray murkier areas.
Your point touches the fact that someone’s computer often has things such as family photos and family tree history, bank records, passwords, school work, business information, trade secrets, phone numbers, social security records and much more. It is inconceivable to me that Justices pondering a case like this for months would not realize their immense duty and draw a bright line here. This is clearly what the Fourth Amendment is meant for. I suspect the powers-that-be will push and push and game the current corrupt system for all its worth, all the while anticipating that one day this is gonna end badly for them. So they are thinking they may as well use it while they can.
The fact that the Holder DoJ is taking advantage of the fact that the UK has no such Amendment is also very troubling. And then there are the many DMCA abuses with the RIAA suits, domain seizures and other similar infringements, I can’t help but think that a major ruling is going to occur sometime in the next several years. If it doesn’t, things are really gonna get bad.
P.S. For anyone that is not angry enough yet, over at Bishop Hill one of the commenters pointed out that the nitwit moderator from SkS Dana1981 had this to say at his blog …
The knucklehead even uses the Virginia state seal and it’s motto: Sic Semper Tyrannis (‘Thus Always to Tyrants’), while describing his side as the little people, which has to be an Olympic world record for long jump hypocrisy.
Just read the Guardian piece. They let a UEA spokesperson have the last word, who talks about “theft of emails” and “distorting the debate about global warming” – now WHERE is the Guardian defending whistleblowers in this case; and HOW exactly can more openness DISTORT the debate…
The leftists at Guardian, NYT and Spiegel cannot possibly be dumb enough to not see their own hipocrisy; comparing the treatment of ClimateGate2 with the Wikileaks diplomat cable release – so I assume malice, not incompetence in this case.
I knew Blair was Bush’s poodle, but it appears that the U.K. cops are Obama’s bitch.
The high-pitched noise you hear is Churchill spinning in his grave.
What does come to mind is the fact that if Mike Mann etal had stuck to the facts.
Facts Count Up Now Notwithstanding A Bit Late.
@Jason R
My point above is that the reach and effects of those police powers are drastically expanded by the nature of digital media and the internet.
Few of us have had any real grasp (I know I haven’t) of just how easily one could invite a police raid by what seemed like the most innocuous legal actiivities, e.g., pursuing one’s rights as a citizen online to learn about and discuss issues affecting our lives.
There is no practical limit to the kinds of relevant records which *might* be created on your own hard drive(s) if you ever visit a website, have any digital interaction with “FOIA” or anyone connected in any way with that person etc. You may have no idea right now that you already have some relevant bits of digital info on FOIA if you have followed this story at all on the web.
There has been a persistent rumor for several years that the NSA has a backdoor into AES. When IBM wanted to commercialize DES (an older encryption standard), there was a story going around that the NSA asked to review the algorithm, and after several months came back to IBM with a list of peculiar changes, and that the US government required IBM to make the suggested changes before the government would give IBM an export license. Clearly, the government has an interest in being able to break crypto.
Its an interesting idea — that the government already knows what’s in the encrypted file and is in a blind panic to stop the leaker from releasing the encryption key. But to me, this sounds a bit too much like science fiction.
I think its more likely that some politicians are feeling heat after the failure of Durban and are looking for a scalp that they can hold up to show the enviro voting block that they are doing something after the failure.
The greenies and left wing parties know one thing for sure. If you want to influence people, dominate the people that influence people. The greenies have infiltrated the media to such an extent the public have difficulty getting any other news other than what the greenies want you to hear, that’s why we come here to get an alternate point of view. I listen to everyone and believe no one. But how many people do their own research to be informed? that’s why we call them sheeple.
Upon thinking of kinking them.
What if say 100,000 nobelivers in AGW, better yet bloggers, all, over the next 6 months or so call up the plods, aka authorties and confess that they and their computers are the guilty ones.
Give them something to do.
Jason R,
You are missing the blindingly obvious. I can now get the police and Government to break into your house and confiscate all of your most personal details by simply lobbing a file containing information that is purporting to be hacked or stolen. You have no say in this matter – all that has to happen is that the authorities have to become aware of the file showing up on your computer.
Of course, there is no problem if the file I lobe onto your computer is hacked information from one of the groups hated by the PC authorities (e.g. Wikileaks, tobacco companies, big oil, Wall Street corporations, U.S. Military, climate skeptics etc.) however, you should expect police to break down your door if the file contains information that questions the current PC dogma (e.g. CAGW etc.).
If you are person who is running a blog that is challenging the authorities, you are now completely vulnerable to these Police-State tactics. You are one file away from your deepest secrets being handed over the authorities.
Wow, I wonder if UK law enforcement takes plain-jane computer identity theft that seriously. They don’t? Oh, I see…
You can be prosecuted for having downloaded illegal copies of content onto your computer, such as music and movies. Various entertainment companies are essentially extorting large financial penalties from downloaders. This extends to software such as Windoze. Sites hosting the files or even facilitating transfers are being shut down with the operators facing criminal charges, as with Napster and the Pirate Bay. You don’t even have to have the content on your machine, they can go off of ISP logs that show you downloaded it.
If the Climategate files are determined to be illegal copies, can such penalizations be sought against hosting sites and downloaders?
how’s this for smearing?
15 Dec: ScienceBlogs: Greg Laden: Computers of Criminal Cyber-Thieves Seized
Thieves who broke into Unviersity of East Anglia computers in 2009, stealing thousands of private emails thus compromising years of expensive scientific research and causing a fabricated and unnecessary political doo-doo storm, as part of a much larger campaign of harassment, have had some of their computer equipment seized by UK authorities…
Tattersall later whinged on his own blog that “an Englishman’s home is his castle … [but] not when six detectives form the [Met] … arrive on your doorstop…”
So, apparently it is OK for Tattersall and his band of thieves to unilaterally play vigilante and break into your computer or mine, but when authorities investigating a crime, with proper search warrant, show up to investigate his misdeeds, suddenly he’s an “Englishman” in his “Castle.” I don’t know whether to laugh of to go medieval on him…
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/12/computers_of_criminal_cyber-th.php
About Greg Laden:
I am a blogger and writer and independent scholar who occasionally teaches. I have a very fancy PhD from Harvard (written in Latin and everything) in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology, as well as a Masters Degree in the same subjects (also from Harvard). I was awarded a Medical Doctorate from Harvard as well, but that was a clerical error and it was quickly revoked, much to the annoyance of my patients …
My undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from the Regents College of the University of the State of New York, which is an individualized degree program. My academic advisors were Dean Snow and Bob Paynter, which probably gives you a good idea of what I was into at the time…
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/about.php
mpaul says:
December 15, 2011 at 12:01 pm
“There has been a persistent rumor for several years that the NSA has a backdoor into AES. When IBM wanted to commercialize DES (an older encryption standard), there was a story going around that the NSA asked to review the algorithm, and after several months came back to IBM with a list of peculiar changes, and that the US government required IBM to make the suggested changes before the government would give IBM an export license. Clearly, the government has an interest in being able to break crypto. ”
The NSA changed the DES, gave it back to IBM, and no expert could really figure why they changed it the way they did.
More than 20 years later, independent researchers discovered differential cryptanalysis, a new way of attacking a cipher.
They were surprised when they tried differential cryptanalysis on the old, unmodified version as designed by IBM, and on the improved version of DES by the NSA. Turned out that the changes by the NSA in the 70ies HARDENED DES against this sort of attack. The NSA knew this technique all along.
Now, we shouldn’t overestimate their capabilities. They sat on this knowledge for two decades until the rest of the world finally had that idea, granted. But saying that they still have this kind of advantage would be pure conjecture. Computing is much more widespread now, and everybody and their dog is trying to break ciphers on their PC today… We can’t know, but I would bet against it. This type of singular knowledge is probably no more possible in that area.
Why would any self-respecting computer criminologist need to confiscate any computer to clone a hard drive? You can easily do that with handheld devices these days, it could be done over tea time. Either the law enforcement who visited Tallbloke are poor and incompetent (technically) or its just intimidation.
A spokesman for the University of East Anglia said today: “We are pleased to hear that the police are continuing to actively pursue the case following the release last month of a second tranche of hacked emails from the Climatic Research Unit. We hope this will result in the arrest of those responsible for the theft of the emails and for distorting the debate on the globally important issue of climate change.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/15/hacked-climate-emails-police-west-yorkshire?INTCMP=SRCH
DirkH says on December 15, 2011 at 11:15 am
…
[_]Jim, we are talking many orders of magnitude here …
You do realize, Dirk, that those are Bruce’s words, not mine:
“As our attacks are of high computational complexity, they do not threaten the practical use of AES in any way.”
I interpret that to mean you or I or the first several ‘levels’ in government intel can’t crack it, not the highest level. For you or I (and even Bruce) we are interested in practicality; those others not so much.
Besides, I think you assume ‘unknown text’ in ‘unknown form’ and that basis is not entirely correct, is it? The files, their sizes and names are visible, are they not, and and they are assumed to take the form of ‘e-mail text’ for the ‘encrypted’ files in the all.7z archive?
‘Impractical’ implementations (for you or I and Bruce) would include and racks and racks of cards containing 64 (and wider) bit DSP’s and FPGA’s and ‘Gate Arrays’ running optimized routines/code working to ‘break’ a particular code block …
Not everyone trying these tricks is running an over-clocked eMachines desktop.
Richard above also made a very good point earlier: those worried already *know* the contents of any possible additional e-mails (and possibly fostering this ‘raid’ through bureaucratic pressure), they wrote them!
Any communiques to/from the UEA were potentially compromised!
.
Story covered by Guardian…but no comments permitted.
Do you know what the Guardian claims on its main page?
‘Comment is Free’
Yea sure it is…if you happen to agree!