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.
Ok, lets assume that they are correct in trying to determine the source of the leak. Under that circumstance, I could understand the contents of the hard drives might disclose something. But what in all that is right and proper do they think they will find on the router? The only thing that my router logs is the port scans that come once every 5 min or so trying to find something to zombie. The only possible explanations are that they are either incompetent or were trying to knock him off the air.
Maybe the US DoJ is involved because, as Monckton has pointed out, the emails provide prima facie evidence of a massive fraud by “the team.” Maybe what DoJ is really looking for “the key” to the remaining emails. Or maybe I’m way too optimistic!
Markus
We probably all start off thinking to ourselves the words you posted at Greg Laden’s website. However, “the trick” is to concentrate on the facts alone, and not write from the emotions as Greg does. If Greg still chooses emotional rant, let him hang himself. But leave nothing on which he can come back to attack you. Revenge may seem to taste sweet but it never leaves lasting satisfaction.
Here’s a suggested rewrite.
You phobic little prick.Some of us with integrity will hold youYou are personally responsible for supporting the fraudyou haveClimate Science has committed against humankind. I have a familyyou f**ktoo, and maintain that yourinsaneessentially religious beliefs about AGW harm them.Some of us see that as enough reason toWe cannot terminate your existence within climate science but your material is libellous and we will fight for the restoration of good science that you are obstructing.And here’s a follow-up you can use (if you don’t want to be banned both here and there)
Greg, I apologize for my foul use of language. However, I do not apologize for my feelings. My last sentence was not a death threat, merely a wish to see you removed from the arena of climate science, which is quite corrupt enough as it is without your libellous support.
Sigh. The armchair generals are still here.
Jeremy: “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.”
Well Jeremy, one current job going through forensic imaging at the moment involves a seized 8TB array. Even assuming that a hand-held device with 8TB of storage existed, do you REALLY think that two forensic images could be “done over tea-time”? Did you even READ the document to which I posted a link, or the need for the sealed evidential copy? Sigh, again…
And… “Judges’ Rules”, Robin Hewitt??? Come on! You are only TWENTY-FIVE YEARS out of date with that…! “Failure to comply with these rules results in the case being instantly slung out of court” – no, it doesn’t. Read the PACE Act 1984, Parts 5 and 8, then look at Section 78 – “.. may refuse…” (permissive) – there’s no “instantly slung out” whatsoever.
Myrrh – “British Common Law”? No such thing – did you mean English Common Law, or Scottish Common Law? There are quite different.
RB – You have me very puzzled… I’m assuming that you are actually referring to Bates & Anor v Chief Constable of the Avon and Somerset Police & Anor [2009] EWHC 942 (see http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2009/942.html), and I can’t understand the relevance – are you saying that Tallbloke acts as an expert witness in criminal or civil proceedings? If not, neither of the grounds for the successful appeal have anything to do with this case… ???
Please, please, please, folks… much of this is uninformed rubbish from grandstanding idiots… aren’t you guys supposed to be concerned about FACTS? Why not follow the excellent advice from gnomish at December 16, 2011 at 7:05 am? “… that’s not an excuse for spreading bad info – i’ll have to double check everything i think i know before posting next time.”
Anthony Watts got the last word;
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/16/complicit-in-climategate-doe-under-fire/
Blade, a really sophisticated computer user can change his MAC to anything of his choosing. It may or may not be possible with mobile devices, but I’m pretty sure most if not all laptops can be MAC spoofed. Somebody who really knows what he’s doing can circumvent all of that.
Bob Kutz,
Your comment does show some impracticality of my ‘police goading “we” to do something stupid‘ scenario. Thanks.
Maybe the bobbies aren’t so sophisticated as to expect to trace the next communication by “we”, maybe they just are poking a stick in the skeptical blog beehive to see if anything useful starts buzzing around. I have sometimes heard of the police shaking up stalled investigations with intimidations just to see what new info comes up. How about that scenario?
John
I’m sure there will be a raid at RealClimate/GISS/Fenton Communications next. at Fenton, surely you jest, you would have better luck getting a search warrant for personal files of a sitting, judge on the Supreme Court.
Bill Illis says:
December 16, 2011 at 4:51 am
Everyone should remember that FOIA / RC’s first leak attempt was at RealClimate. Gavin Schmidt was the first person to know about the leak.
I’m sure there will be a raid at RealClimate/GISS/Fenton Communications next.
Right, but fortunately Gavin’s been made invisible just like our own long suffering Robbinghood* himself still thinks he is**. Unless perhaps Gavin is also in criminal possession a Gibson Guitar or has any of Robbinghood’s own ~”illegal for my purposes” = not illegal, Indian or Madagascar “pay to play” wood on his green keyboard or, just like their Hitman, implanted within their own “unprecedented and reconstructed before it’s too late!” flat lined and now obviously diverging steeply downward Communist brain functioning, as per usual.
h/t *Mad Magazine of ye olden days and Ralph Ellison’s **The Invisible Man
Same D.O.J. same stuff only on the Fast and Furious deal on Brain Terry’s death.
The guy who is the one putting the A.T.F. leaks on line and handing the leaked e-mails on operation Fast and Furious to Congressmand Issa.
He post on his blog today that he to is geting his e-mails and computers reviewed by the Goverment, F.B.I. or D.O.J. . He got notice some how and expects the courth order today.
This blog here is way away from the topics on sipsey street, but there is a pattern with this .
http://www.sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/
@ChE, I am envisioning computers round the world suddenly showing up with the MAC address 00-01-F0-1A-20-11 or some variant thereof… 😀
Only 27 years late so far, but coming soon:
… just change “thought crime” to “any AGW crime”/
John Whitman says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:12 am
maybe they just are poking a stick in the skeptical blog beehive to see if anything useful starts buzzing around. I have sometimes heard of the police shaking up stalled investigations with intimidations just to see what new info comes up. How about that scenario?
Plop plop fizz fizz, smells more like only some more of their own horse chestnuts falling not far from the Treem, Gringo.
Who “owns” those CRU – UEA emails anyway? The individual(s) who received/sent them? The account from which the emails were taken? The entity that owns the server upon which the emails were backed up on? Does ownership matter in a UK court case? If individuals own their emails, does their employer have a responsibility to keep the emails safe (expectation of a safe workplace) and could they seek damages against their employer if, through carelessness, their private emails were hacked into the public domain?
The “debate” at Greg Laden’s place has now completely departed the realms of rationality now. There is zero point in commenting further as he is now editing comments to change their meaning. He’s just done it to one of mine.
Yep. So many things are possible, some are difficult to believe too. The discussion above wasn’t really targeted at uber-hackers. However, the average user that is only casually aware of these things might pick up some defensive knowledge and be inclined to learn more. Current events demand situational awareness.
Blade,
Very well said.
At 2:47 AM on 16 December (Happy Tea Party Day! Fling a hot mugful into the face of the nearest tax collector to celebrate) Robin Hewitt responds to Myrrh’s question (“Under which law did they do this?”) with:
Please! We’re talking about Tallbloke here – a “climate change denier” – not Prof. Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia.
Lucy Skywalker says:
December 16, 2011 at 10:49 am
Quite ! – when I posted on Ladens bin for a blog, I had to calm down to make sure I used decent language too (#45) but in reality, had the bar steward been within arms reach…………
William Old;
Well Jeremy, one current job going through forensic imaging at the moment involves a seized 8TB array.>>>
Well William, Jeremy’s reference was to making a copy of the hard drive of a personal computer, not an 8TB array. Easily done over tea with a multitude of hand held devices, so what does an 8TB array have to do with the discussion?
William Old;
Even assuming that a hand-held device with 8TB of storage existed, do you REALLY think that two forensic images could be “done over tea-time”? >>>
LTO-5 tape drives are capable of about 1 TB/hr in compressed mode. Depending on the storage array in question, it might take more than 8 hours to create a full copy because the array itself may not be fast enough to drive that much data that fast to the tape drive. On the other hand, a dual controller array delivering data over NDMP to two tape drives and capable of keeping them both streaming would be done in about 4 hours. A bit long for tea I suppose, but not exactly problematic.
Before sniping at the arm chair generals, perhaps you should consider that IT is ugly complex, and the document you rely on to justify your opinion, while a decent start, was obsolete the day it was written, as all technology documents invariably are. The pace of technology is far too fast for anything to be 100% valid beyond the day it was written (and probably sooner).
At 4:20 AM on 16 December, Greg Holmes writes that:
I wouldn’t know how that works. Over on this side of the Atlantic, my district’s career “representative” (11 two-year terms and counting, before which he was a member of the county government) is much more concerned about his recently exposed history of campaign finance law violations.
I don’t even think I could leave a message on his local office’s voicemail, much less sicken him with hearing about anything – except maybe a call to the newspaper that’s investigating his criminal offenses.
William Old says:
“And… “Judges’ Rules”, Robin Hewitt??? Come on! You are only TWENTY-FIVE YEARS out of date with that…!”
Actually I am FORTY YEARS out of date, I did the course back in 1970. This is the curse of Aspergers. It’s very nice coming top of the class when you are young and I like the money, but sometimes I look forward to senility as a bit of light relief.
At 5:55 AM on 16 December, A. C. Osborn had written:
For the sake of completeness, the link to Chiefio’s forum (Musings from the Chiefio) is herewith provided.
In the most recent of his posts, the Chiefio quotes from one of the Climategate 2.0 e-mails a communication addressed by one Lynn Videka (at that time Vice President for Research, University at Albany, State University of New York) to Wei-Chung Wang:
Chiefio’s comment:
…and later on, anent one of Prof. Jones’ communications:
Damn. I’ve gotta start following this guy’s blog.
At 6:38 AM on 16 December, Robin Hewitt had submitted:
Well, for all the “Liberal” idiots’ fantasies about how their Mombasa Messiah was gonna “Change” everything, the Gitmo madrasah is still open and going strong, and there are those renditions still going on under the administration of our Hopenchangey Hubshi.
If H.M. government wishes to “disappear” the guy who derailed Barry Soebarkah’s bid to retire from the White House as one of those “carbon billionaires” on the warmista side (look into his involvement in the Chicago Climate Exchange), I should think that our President-With-an-Asterisk would be only too happy to accommodate ’em.
At 8:03 AM on 16 December, enneagram had written:
You got a source for that specific figure on power yield? That could be extremely useful, but if anybody’s gonna cite it there’s gotta be a solid support behind it.
If you’re gonna shove something up a warmista’s nose, shove it hard.