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’m not convinced by your suggested USB secure stick.. it doesn’t say the data is encrypted. It wouldn’t be too hard to pop the flash memory off the board and then read it without the security.
Proper secure sticks are a lot more expensive: Google Ironkey.
Well you cannot use the IMG tags needed for static images on most WordPress blogs (only moderators and administrators can use them as you can tell from the top posts and some article comments). I looked at the two links and grabbed the direct URLs for the doormat images you mentioned.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515g9i2fyfL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ggjaUllrL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
You can use those on other blogs and sites anywhere that the IMG tag is allowed (well as long as Amazon maintains the images on their servers naturally).
The HTML code would be like so …
<IMG SRC=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515g9i2fyfL._SL500_AA280_.jpg”>
<IMG SRC=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ggjaUllrL._SL500_AA280_.jpg”>
Note that there is no closing tag for IMG. You would just copy and paste either of the above literally into the comment and the picture will replace the code (when permitted). To see what happens when those tags are not allowed, I will paste them immediately after this sentence …
and Vaclav Havel dies …
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/18/vaclav-havel-dies
I have donated.
Sorry to see that Vaclav Havel dies.
That Concressman Markey says what he does, togheter with Obama signing this new law, is really sad news. Many sad news at the end of 2011. I guess that law is meant for FOIA when they find him/her.
Regarding my speculation that, in Tucci78’s words, “East Anglia’s really stupid disposal of “unsanitized” computer hardware”.
This happens every day to hundreds of corporations. Thats why Infomation security is BIG business. Because if its not done properly, there are sometimes severe consequences.
Read this from the British version of computer weekly.
=================
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240082250/Government-IT-disposal-poses-security-breach-risk
Some 70% of central government departments do not check that data has been wiped from IT equipment they are disposing of, exposing them to potential security breaches, a report released yesterday by the National Audit Office has found.
The report said that although 90% of central government organisations wipe data from IT equipment before it is recycled or resold, most do not obtain evidence that data wiping has been carried out.
“Inadequate data wiping could give rise to security breaches if classified data is not properly removed, or the equipment on which it is held is not handled in a secure manner,” said the report.
==============================
If this is the case, it explains a lot.
1) why the archive is so somplete
2) why they never apparently caught the hacker
3) why the archive ends so abruptly
4) why the trail is apparentely cold
ITguy
ITguy, that’s a plausible theory, but ‘FOIA’ still appears to know his way around the innertubes. At least well enough to drop these files without leaving a trail. Most people wouldn’t be able to do that.
@MJW says:
Before all, Tallbloke´s blog, it is and it was, taking into account his background:
I’m a qualified engineer and a graduate of the History and Philosophy of Science. I’m interested in finding out how the solar system works and how Earth is affected by changes in it.
An “Agora” of philosophy, of philosophy of science, as in the times of the ancient Greek “Agora”, an open temple under the Sun, a corner of a city`s square where free citizens congregate to talk about what the rest of “commoners” do not care or can not care, because of having to deal with the daily struggle for survival. A source of higher energy to be transmitted, shared, given, to the confused and afflicted by current conflicts and personal enigmas.
Such a phenomenon has repeatedly arisen in the history of humanity as a beacon to guide with its light to real knowledge in order to answer to answer the old burning question: Who am I?
A reiterative Delphi fighting against darkness.
Then it is not about “freedom of press” or whatever it may be called in our “modern times” ,this “Age of the Feuilleton”, as the “Magister Ludi” could call it (*), it is about the fight between the forces of good, of negentropy versus the forces of evil, following the involutionary tendencies, of entropy, the self indulgence of thanatos, the self destructive desire. Eros vs. Thanatos (Thanatos (Greek: Θάνατος (Thánatos), “Death,”[1] from θνῄσκω – thnēskō, “to die, be dying”[2]) was the daemon personification of death.)
The thanatophile can not bear himself a lonely death, he wants us all to follow him in his self destructive quest, thus he associates with others sharing his irrational tendencies, and, while he is convinced he is doing the best for the rest, he and his comrades, destroy the fruits of the labour of the normal and sane people: This is why liberals, free thinkers of the west, in special after the so called democratic “French Revolution”, share common ideals with those fanatics of the east.
Then let us be clear about what it is happening now in the world and let us not worry about: Life, eros, always prevails.
(*)Herman Hesse´s “Magister Ludi” or “The Glass Bead Game”
Richard S Courtney says:
December 17, 2011 at 1:04 pm
… I don’t believe in conspiracy theories….
___________________________
Nor do I, sir (too much), and yet, here we are.
The whole effort of the CAGW race to tyranny certainly has it’s conspiratorial elements, but is better likened to a bandwagon of deceit with powerful hands on the reins.
You are correct that many will use this opportunity to back away from previous support, but others have just doubled down, e.g. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
As mentioned, most of them just aren’t that smart.
Still, without the internet and the noble efforts of Anthony Watts, et al, we would be much closer to universal enslavement, as there would otherwise be no equitable dissemination of information to the majority of people in the world.
The calls of the faithful to just ‘give up our freedoms for a little while’ (until the world is saved), would be enforced with iron fists (as is already apparent), instead of reliance on the willing submission of the “concerned”.
Whether the man in the street is aware of it or not, the dark forces have been set back and they know it.
Their next move, already underway, is to suppress the voices of the internet.
______________________________
Brian H says:
December 17, 2011 at 2:23 pm
…
_______________
No clue, really
Wrong Vaclav. It is Vaclav Klaus who is the climate realist.
Blade says:
December 16, 2011 at 10:04 am
=========
I completely agree, its silly to speculate given the lack of information but its an interesting mystery.
I’ll never understand why they simply don’t make the data and code available, in a limited way, to replicate the basis for their conclusions. This would end the current debate and move the issues onto a more logical path for resolution under AR5. I’m probably missing something obvious.
Fenbeagle comments!
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/211/
Yes, you are missing the obvious example of Harry in the Climategate I e-mail trying to torture the data at the behest of his superiors and finding that neither he or his superiors could make any reasonable sense of the messed up artificial construct of data they were creating, adjusting, and recreating through a number of iterations. How can they afford having the public see the actual data they worked with when they can’t even accurately reconstruct their own data sets much less reproduce the methods and actual data adjustments used to reach their reported results?
For those who “don’t believe in conspiracy theories”, please get a grip.
Do you not think that lots of people go to jail throughout the UK/US for conspiring to commit criminal acts? Do you think all such conspirators get caught? Do you think everyone in government and its agencies is an angel? Do you not understand that many thing which were once thought to be ‘conspiracy theories’ have since, due to the release of previously classified documents /the efforts of proper journalists/ other events, been shown to be the truth.
Stop regurgitating the “we will not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories” meme you’ve been brainwhashed into believing. Spare me. Think for yourself. Here’s a hint for starters: define (to yourself) what you mean by a conspiracy theory.
Sorry to be so blunt.
Kitefreak says:
December 18, 2011 at 11:25 am
define (to yourself) what you mean by a conspiracy theory.
Exactly! There are, of course, real conspiracies. Then there are the kind which their advocates simply won’t let be challenged or falsified – such as, “the gov’t or Big X is [always] hiding the secret to the 200 mile/gal. fuel system in a 5000lb. car, the cure to cancer, or whatever strikes my fancy” – but which makes such apparent claims linguistically meaningless, because in practice the claims can’t be destinguished from the possibility of the gov’t or Big X not having the info. According to their advocates, “having it” and “not having it” mean the same thing. Zilch.
As already quite well established by their use of terms and the actions of its advocates, the “climate change” = “CO2=CAGW” propaganda op. functions as both kinds of conspiracy theories: its advocates simply won’t let their apparent claims or “theory” be challenged by any evidence whatsoever, and they are conspiring to keep it that way.
Kitefreak:
At December 17, 2011 at 1:04 pm I wrote:
“… I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.
However, ‘cockup’ and ‘damage limitation’ are common.”
You have replied at December 18, 2011 at 11:25 am saying;
“For those who “don’t believe in conspiracy theories”, please get a grip.
[snip]
Stop regurgitating the “we will not tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories” meme you’ve been brainwhashed into believing. Spare me. Think for yourself. Here’s a hint for starters: define (to yourself) what you mean by a conspiracy theory.”
I don’t do ‘Humpty Dumpty’ definitions.
The On-Line Dictionary gives this:
con•spir•a•cy (kn-spîr-s)
n. pl. con•spir•a•cies
1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.
Clearly conspiracies do exist. But they rarely last long. Only one conspirator needs to break ranks for a conspiracy to fail.
The AGW-scare has existed for 30 years. Several countries have supported it and some have opposed it. Two years ago in Copenhagen most abandoned it. If the AGW-scare were a conspiracy then those who have opposed or abandoned the scare have reason to proclaim the conspiracy they have opposed or abandoned. None has.
The AGW-scare always was a bandwagon travelling towards what many hoped was justification for new taxation justifications or for wealth transfer between nations.
Nobody needs to conspire to get others to stay on or to join a bandwagon which is going in the direction they all want to go.
Why suggest the existence of a conspiracy for which there is no evidence and whose existence is denied by the failure of ex-AGW-supporters to mention it when all that has been seen is a bandwagon?
Richard
Criminal Who Manufactured Climategate Caught?
http://planetsave.com/2011/12/…
Now Planet Save is going after Tallbloke, with a title “Criminal Who Manufactured Climategate Caught?” and a large image of him underneath.
You will have to scroll down the page to see that they say “Not Exactly”. But the idea is to create the impression about Tattersall first and then declare well really it’s not true but the reader only discovers that if they the article, which may not happen. It seems the blog post and image is intended so that the message gets repeated that Tattersall is the person behind climategate and the blog post is being used to create a viral falsehood. Planet Save are walking a fine line by using an image of him as if he was the person that “manufactured climategate”.
The damage is done before the article is read. They have smeared this man’s good name. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and a judge may feel the same…….
John from CA says:
December 18, 2011 at 10:18 am
Blade says:
December 16, 2011 at 10:04 am
=========
I completely agree, its silly to speculate given the lack of information but its an interesting mystery.
I’ll never understand why they simply don’t make the data and code available, in a limited way, to replicate the basis for their conclusions. This would end the current debate and move the issues onto a more logical path for resolution under AR5. I’m probably missing something obvious.
Perhaps that releasing code and data has done no such thing?
Phil. says:
December 18, 2011 at 2:35 pm
======
Phil, has the code and data been demoed and released to a group of critics for review that are not hand picked proponents of the AR4 conclusions? A group of qualified skeptics who would logically then help to put the debate in perspective and on a more supported path.
Did they publish their findings?
D. Patterson says:
December 18, 2011 at 11:22 am
How can they afford having the public see the actual data they worked with when they can’t even accurately reconstruct their own data sets much less reproduce the methods and actual data adjustments used to reach their reported results?
=========
Exactly if it proves to be true, either way it would allow both sides to agree on the degree of accuracy, the real issues, and to dismiss this endless waste of time related to the definition of the problem we already understand.
700 comments. Time for a Part II?
Footnote to my comments:
I’m down with a bug that had me planted in front of the tube yesterday and watched the History Channel’s Little Ice Age: Big Chill special. My logic may be as running as my nose but I thought I’d share.
I was struck at the writer’s willingness to document the various warm and cold periods and the impact the little ice age had on the northern hemisphere and century’s of social change.
There was one segment of the program that gave me pause; ‘Imagine the Unthinkable’. ‘Imagine the Unthinkable’ was a worst-case scenario developed under a Pentagon research grant and the part that gave me chills was the idea that natural global warming trends can cause ice ages.
They proposed several scenarios related to the several camps of scientific thought which all appear to fail to see the issue in the context of a complete system of interactions and understanding, yet fresh water input can stall the thermohaline circulation and its impact jumped out.
Have we dammed to many fresh water sources that fed the system? Robbing fresh water from the Indian Ocean would logically cause an increase in thermohaline circulation in Greenland. Robbing the Pacific of the same will cause increased salinity into the Arctic and more melt thus counterbalancing the lack from the Atlantic? The combination could thus cause a drag to the point of unusual climate cycle phases.
Is fresh water input a big problem and will it cascade to the point the Earth simply compensates with an Ice Age to start the cycle over in search of equilibrium?
It would be “swell” if the IPCC’s AR5 team can finally put some system context in front of their regionalized conclusions?
PS I honestly don’t care who screwed up in the past, is this AR5 round Designed to deliver Trust and insight?
John from CA~’Exactly if it proves to be true, either way it would allow both sides to agree on the degree of accuracy, the real issues, and to dismiss this endless waste of time related to the definition of the problem we already understand’
—–
In other words, we will be able to get back to real situations, and not this hocus-pocus they’ve been trying to foist upon us for 30 years.
So glad you agree!’
Why would the AGW prponents ever want “to agree on the degree of accuracy”? If “it”, whatever it may be, “proves to be true”, agreement on the “degree of accuracy” would provide a firm value which the opposition could then target for obfuscation and falsely discredit, or so they think. If “it”, whatever it may be, “proves to be [not] true”, agreement on the “degree of accuracy” would provide a firm value which the opposition could then target for enlightenment and truthfully discredit, or so they may think. So, disclosure of the “truth” and accurate data sets improves their current ability to garner political support just how?
What is this “definition of the problem”, and on what basis can you claim “we already understand” it?
“This is clearly an attempt to sabotage the international climate talks fo a second time, and there has not been enough attention paid to who is responsible for these illegal acts,” (Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)), and;
“If this happened surrounding nuclear arms talks, we would have the full force of the Western world´s intelligence community pursuing the perpetrators. And yet, with the stability of our climate hanging in the balance with those international climate treaty negotiations, these hackers and their supporters are still on the loose. It is time to bring them to justice.” (Ibid.), via http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/crackdown-u-s-representative-ed-markey-d-ma-its-time-to-bring-them-to-justice/ , December 17, 2011.
Mr. Markey, and other AGW alarmnists, climate change is a natural fluctuation. (There is no anthropogenic global warming (AGW).)
Global Warming Hoax is a Junk Science, as well as, Eugenics/Racial Hygiene, Malthusianism, and Lysenkoism.
Global Warming Hoax are destroying Rationality, the Scientific Method, and Science.
SAY NO TO GLOBAL WARMING HOAX
SAY NO TO JUNK SCIENCE
SAY NO TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Rob says:
December 18, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Criminal Who Manufactured Climategate Caught?
http://planetsave.com/2011/12/…
Now Planet Save is going after Tallbloke, with a title “Criminal Who Manufactured Climategate Caught?” and a large image of him underneath.
Yes, they themselves are manufacturing an Alinskying of Tallbloke and also implying that he manufactured all the Climategate emails and files to boot. So there, Sceptics! Who ever said that Climate Science’s materials and methods are not transparent!