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.
@davidmhoffer says:
December 15, 2011 at 5:34 pm
“This is turning into a massive own goal!
1. Where are the trolls?”
:-()
p.s. US Constitution based on British Common Law.
387.Blade says:
December 15, 2011 at 11:48 am
Skiphil [December 15, 2011 at 10:34 am] says:
“2) a ‘blogger’ or any ‘ordinary’ citizen is subject at any instant to total disclosure to the police of every digital activity he’s ever conducted via said hard drive(s).”
That is a very good point. We really have been like the proverbial slow cooking frogs in a pot of water. Let’s review …
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Note, under Common Law there is natural right, that is, it is not something given by another, but something naturally owned by the man or woman, policemen and policewomen have a duty to uphold this. “and no Warrants shall be issued”
grin – haven’t had this for some time now – a key logger screwing with my posts…
What a thread.
Climategate 2.0 > 62 Updates.
Now Climategate 2.1 > 9 updates and rising.
Anthony, thank you again.
ChE says:
December 15, 2011 at 6:38 pm
1. Where are the trolls? Not even the most determined of them want to touch this story.
They’re over at Curry’s whining about her use of “stolen” emails.
—
..and, I’m sure, using LOTS so fossil fuel energy and petroleum products!
SO PLEASE, CAGW TROLLS. CEASE USING ANY PETROLEUM PRODUCTS OR ENERGY DERIVED FROM FOSSIL FUELS. RIGHT NOW. TODAY! PLEASE SEEK ALTERNATIVES AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE WORLD ALONE. THANK YOU.
Spen says:
December 15, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Then the electorate vote in in another set of incompetents!
from [Available] markus fitzhenry markusfitzhenry123@gmail.com
to greg@gregladen.com
date Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 2:28 PM
subject YOU PHOBIC LITTLE PRICK
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details 2:28 PM (3 minutes ago)
“”I can not be sued by anyone for what I wrote here.
Posted by: Greg Laden | December 15, 2011 10:03 PM””
You phobic little prick.
Some of us with integrity will hold you personally responsible for the fraud you have committed against humankind. I have a family, you f**k, and your insane religious beliefs about AGW harm them. Some of us see that as enough reason to terminate your existence within climate science.
Markus Fitzhenry.
At 7:39 PM on 15 December, markus gets very upset with the libelous Greg Laden and reproduces here an e-mail sent the malefactor in response to Mr. Laden’s frabjous assertion “I can not be sued by anyone for what I wrote here,” advising the silly, stupid, dolt:
I would abjure Mr. Fitzhenry to bear in mind that because of Mr. Laden’s incontinence, when the ritual Dance of the Lawyers comes to its coda, Tallbloke is soon going to have himself a perfectly lovely suite of brand-spankin’-new computers and other communications equipment and much more besides, and Mr. Laden is going to be wondering what the hell rolled over him.
No expressions of hatred for Mr. Laden and his co-religionists, please. Let’s all try to remain Sicilian and remember that “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
The question arises, why are the UK and US authorities so desperate to get the code for the 200,000 encrypted emails spread from one side of the planet to the other? If these idiots get anywhere remotely close to charging anyone with anything, FOIA will surely open Pandora’s Box. The kleptocrats at the World Bank, Vampire Squid Inc. and the UN are certainly not going to thank them. They must know that thousands of copies of the encrypted files are spread around the world waiting for the code. Are they so panicked that they have they lost all reason?
fwiw –
6 officers from 3 ministries, was it? that was a show, for sure.
for whom was the show?
i now suspect they’ve got an influential person flogging them to get him a head on a plate.
if this is so, what would rattle such a person just now, particularly?
perhaps the quotes in the readme are meant to remind someone familiar that there are dirty dealings revealed involving influential people?
It’s great to see that Lord Monkton has rolled his sleeves up and is wading in. He will put the cat amongst the pigeons!
15 Dec: Business Week: Ben Sills, Bloomberg: Banks Curb Carbon Trading
With progress slow on climate talks, banks withdraw from the industry
The European Union, which runs the world’s biggest carbon trading market, has other things on its collective mind. One side effect of all this is a 47 percent drop this year through Dec. 12 in the value of C0₂ allowances issued under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. The permits, which mostly go to utilities and other industrial companies, can be banked or traded.
The biggest banks, trying to recover from trading losses and a regulatory clampdown on using their own money to make bets, are scaling back their carbon trading operations. “People are leaving the industry because they’ve been fired or because they see no prospects,” says Emmanuel Fages, head of energy research for Europe at Société Générale (SCGLF) in Paris. “That is the sad story.”
The latest casualties include Odin Knudsen, managing director for environmental markets at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), who in October left his New York post after his team was shrunk. The previous month, UBS Securities (UBS) fired Vice-Chairman Jon Anda and the rest of his Stamford (Conn.)-based climate policy team. Anda and Knudsen confirmed their departures in interviews. JPMorgan would not comment…
Fages’s employer, Société Générale, announced on Nov. 25 that it had agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in carbon trading joint venture Orbeo to partner Solvay Group (SVYZY), a chemical maker.
In Europe, demand for emissions permits has been crimped by the economic slowdown, which has forced industry to idle plants. The value of carbon trading fell 8 percent, to €23.7 billion ($32 billion), in the third quarter from the previous three months as the price of permits tumbled, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.
A carbon offset program operated by the UN is in jeopardy as a result of the expiration next year of greenhouse gas caps set by the Kyoto Protocol…
The carbon trading industry’s dimming outlook can be seen in the thinning membership rolls of the International Emissions Trading Assn. About 10 institutions have quit the Geneva-based trade group this year, cutting membership to around 150 companies. “There are shakeouts and departures happening as you would expect to be the case during any market that was a little bit unsure about where it was going,” says Henry Derwent, the organization’s president. Carbon trading “is currently suffering, as so many other markets are, from low economic activity in the main area, which is the European Union.”
The bottom line: Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and lack of progress in global climate talks are leading some investment banks to ax carbon trading
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/banks-curb-carbon-trading-12152011.html
——————————————————————————–
Best of luck to the ‘Bloke, I know you will come through with flying colors. Also, a big thanks as well to Anthony and all the bloggers covering it. Even though the MSM ( some of them, anyway) are covering it, they obviously won’t get the real story. ( Or even be interested in it.)
It also appears that Tallbloke has quite a good case against Mr. Laden and Mr. Mann. In the past, both of these men, ( and I use the term loosely,) have advocated lawsuits to try and strike fear at anyone who disagrees..
Would be nice to see the tables turned against them!
What an “I am Spartacus” moment!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q&w=640&h=360]
Greg Laden is rapidly going to pieces.
Here is the link to his rant.It is comment #80.
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/12/computers_of_criminal_cyber-th.php#comment-6194650
Selected Excerpt:
Tattersall is not the New York Times. He is a climate skeptic who is part of the climate change denialist horde, and you can read above to see what that looks like. There is not, as you know, a valid denialist position. It isn’t like there are some “good” denialists who legitimacy question the science. There are just people who are either crazy old men who want everybody off their lawn
(again, see above) or people who are very strongly politically motivated, or who are being paid off to carry out harassment of people supporting the science (see above). Why did he not take the comment with the link off line and contact the police? Was he in on it? Did he take this as an opportunity to finish an (illegal) act that someone else started? Maybe. Did he do the right thing? No. If that link was to a set of instructions leading people to carry out a violent crime, rather than the endpoint of systematic harassment, he’d be culpable. I am not interested in excuses.
I think he’s a criminal for being a climate denialist. Sue me.
====================================================================
Impressive huh?
LOL
It appears that Greg is really jumping the sharks now…
sunsettommy,
I see what Laden did there. First, he labeled Tallbloke a “criminal”. Mann repeated the libel. Now Laden is backing and filling, saying:
“I think he’s a criminal for being a climate denialist.”
Too late, Laden. You falsely tweeted to the world that Tallbloke is a criminal. Not “I think”, not “allegedly”. Tallbloke’s reputation is irreparably damaged. The libel cannot be retracted now by your new weasel words “I think”. The damage is done, and you’re just compounding it.
The internet never forgets. If Tallbloke takes action, you’re toast. Prepare to empty your pockets. And your vile attacks on people who simply have a different point of view is just icing on the cake.
gnomish says:
December 15, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Of course your home router records MAC addresses. Thats how it communicates with the ISP, and with any device that connects to it such as a laptop or cellular phone. In a practical sense this means most consumer type routers have only 2 or 3 MAC addresses in their FIB/MAC address tables, however these tables do have default age timers so if not used, the MAC addresses will age out and disappear (depending on the router anywhere from a few seconds to many hours or even several days, unless manually configured. As an example: I use MAC address filtering on my wireless router at home [linksys like yours!], so my devices never age out of the MAC tables, but no other devices may connect. The only MAC addresses you’ll ever see on my home router are the ones I’ve specifically allowed to connect). I have a feeling we are basically saying the same thing, to whit: taking a consumer DSL router is simply a waste of time, there isn;t a shred of useful info there. It’s even worse if this was a MODEM. Taking a DSL modem would fall under the “terminally stupid” category. Modems have NO info at all, the only reason to take it would be either: the police really are completely clueless, or they just want to harass.
Smokey;
Don’t discourage Laden from digging! The deeper the hole, the more impressive the cave-in.
I wonder if his wife knows he’s having a meltdown?
Laden is overlooking a key axiom of blogging, just because you can write it doesn’t mean you should post it.
The left is well populated with rageaholics. Laden is becoming a variation of Deb Frisch.
http://tehdailysqueak.blogspot.com/
That’s ok, we have all that big oil money we’ve ALL been paid to defend Roger (Tallbloke) in court and buy off the MSM.
Then we can continue our cherry-picking, witch-hunting, and slogan-shouting! Muahahahaha!
Tallbloke is the man. Don’t **** with him. [or me.]
Seriously.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Greg Laden has lost it. His best defence against a libel action is that he is nuts.
The CBC in Canada has picked up the story
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/12/15/technology-climategate-police-raid.html
Surely a big problem in all this is the ‘subjectivity’.
Criticizing people for being subjective, or hiding the subjective viewpoint, or pretending that subjective is objective … muddies the waters.
I was banned from Greg Laden’s blog. Probably not a good idea to upstage the blog host.
In growing old, I realize and accept that my own subjective exploration of things is the best part of me. I’ve spent a lifetime saying and doing foolish things by indulging in my subjectivity. … I AM SUBJECTIVE
Seeing the climate change debate move on to subjective issues encourages me. Both in Durban and with candid comments in blogs, there is a softening of the hype. Opinions are resetting themselves. People are re-discovering that they are human.
Greg Laden appears to have some very serious mental problems. (Can I say that here?) I did not read everything there, but the worst thing I saw (not including the libelous comments) was his last post…
Gotta get up early for a day with the toddler. Lots of work prepping him for GROWING UP IN A WARMING CLIMATE!!!!
Good lord.
Jerky says:
December 15, 2011 at 3:03 pm
It’s pretty amusing that the guy who broke the story of “ClimateGate” doesn’t believe in well-established radiation physics, but simultaneously promotes one of the more laughable pseudo-scientific attempts at weather forecasting called “aerology”….
Yeah, lot’s of credibility there!
I’m afraid your name has preceded you, Jerky. Unsurprisingly, your post is irrelevant to the issue except insofar as confirming your own Religious belief in a bunch of Climate Jabberwocky which hasn’t made a successful prediction about reality yet but still continues right on with its usual “methods”. Congratulations on another “success”!