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.
They must be looking for all of the deleted emails from Mann and Phil.
benfrommo says:
December 14, 2011 at 6:38 pm
There are several troubling aspects to this….
I have no issues with terrorism and the US DOJ in general but this has nothing to do with them. This is a case of a UK citizin and a UK case involving a UK university so what the heck is the US DOJ doing mucking itself around in the UK’s dirty laundry?…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You forget that one of the e-mails shows that the US Department of Energy “ordered” Jones to evade the FOIA requests.
The head of the Department of Energy at the time had just served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Department of Energy.
This could be a very big CYA for the US government.
I sure wonder what is in the hidden e-mails…
tallbloke says:
December 14, 2011 at 5:05 pm
They were polite and promised to return the kit after cloning the disks.
They say I am not a suspect for any crime.
______________________________________________
As a retired LEO in the US what right do they have seizing your personal property? Copying it? or any other invasion if YOU are not the subject of their investigation? Who was the magistrate that authorized the search and what specifically was it they intended to find?
this stinks bad… there is something very fishy about this…
Bill
Tallbloke, I wouldn’t even feel confident wiping the drives and reinstalling everything. Complete new hardware! Seriously. I, and many others here will cover your costs for thks, and any legal costs. Speaking of, GET. LEGAL. REPRESENTATION.
SOMEONE GET THIS TO DRUDGE FAST!!!
Noblesse Oblige says:
December 14, 2011 at 5:00 pm
“Rest easy: This is mostly for show to demonstrate that the gov takes the leaks seriously. But in reality they do not really want to apprehend the culprit(s) because they would need to charge them with some crime or other. This would likely produce a ‘trial of the century’ in which the defendant would be branded as the worst criminal since (fill in the blank), while being hailed as hero by skeptics aroudn the world. Famous lawyers would rush to be chosen to defend the case. And here is the rub: The media would be forced to cover the case, and this is the last thing the gov wants.”
Noblesse, I appreciate your insightful comment. And I hope that you’re right. On the other hand, The Land of Orwell has done some backsliding on the rights of the accused. I remember reading a year or three ago that some bloke or blokes charged with bank robbery were denied the centuries-old right to trial by jury! What’s next? The resurrection of the Star Chamber?
Okay. Reported the link here @ur momisugly WUWT to Drudge.
Bill H says:
December 14, 2011 at 8:26 pm
tallbloke says:
December 14, 2011 at 5:05 pm
They were polite and promised to return the kit after cloning the disks.
They say I am not a suspect for any crime.
______________________________________________
As a retired LEO in the US what right do they have seizing your personal property? Copying it? or any other invasion if YOU are not the subject of their investigation? Who was the magistrate that authorized the search and what specifically was it they intended to find?
this stinks bad… there is something very fishy about this…
—————-
LEO…..L.E.O.?????
tallbloke says:
December 14, 2011 at 5:05 pm
They were polite and promised to return the kit after cloning the disks.
They say I am not a suspect for any crime.
So, just a random disk cloning? Yeah, that happens all the time.:)
This is something they could have done after the first “climategate” release but they didn’t. Now we get the second release which now shows complicity with media, more context around the gyrations they underwent in order to get the data to fit the desired result, and the close association with NGOs among some of these climate people.
It is now beginning to impact people who are huge political donors to very powerful people. The first release was about the science, this release begins to impact on the policy discussions and as the README shows, the potential impacts of these policies on the poor.
They could have done this two years ago. They didn’t. Someone, somewhere is starting to sweat.
This sounds like a poke and hope….
nothing more that poking the pile to see what pops up….
i would really like to see those other E-mails.. i hope this poke unlocks the mess.. which is my Hope….
Bill
Johnnythelowery says:
December 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Law Enforcement Officer “LEO”
I’ve served search warrants … and they are very specific.. and that warrant has to be served on the subject… this is a very bad thing.. the officers statements sent up big alarm bells… I hope Tallbloke had goof representation..
LamontT says:
December 14, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Actually Gail Combs it isn’t that the police are your enemies….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In my neck of the woods they most certainly are. Crooked does not even begin to cover the bunch in my county or in the county next door. It is an open secret they are neck deep in drug dealing and so are several county officials. A friend over heard the county officials talking and two neighbors, one a cop have independently verified the drug dealing connections.
If someone high up is putting the pressure on the cops ARE your enemies because they are looking for a scapegoat to hang.
I am sure Tall bloke’s ancient equipment just saved his rear. It is hard to convince anyone that someone is a “Hacker” if he doesn’t have new and sophisticated toys.
This whole mess has been reported at the Instapundit, which is one of the most widely read blogs in the US. A post on Instapundit often produces an avalance of readers and lurkers on a server. Anthony should see huge spike in readers.
DECEMBER 14, 2011
CLIMATEGATE UPDATE: UK police seize computers of skeptic blogger in England. Hmm. Could it be politically motivated? Some think so.
UPDATE: The U.S. DOJ is going after blogs too, reportedly. None of this is increasing my confidence in the disputed climate science . . . .
Gail Combs;
This could be a very big CYA for the US government.>>>
Not likely me thinks. If they were trying to cover something up, ordering the electronic records to be preserved would be the LAST think they would want to do.
LEO = Law Enforcement Officer (i.e. policeman)
think…thing…same ting?
Law Enforcement Officer.
And the government can access your data any time they want with a subpoena. In fact, if you have left the data there more than 180 days, government doesn’t even need a subpoena! There is a little loophole that says if you have left data on a provider’s server for more than 180 days, then it is “abandoned” and the government (in the US) may have a copy of it at any time simply for the asking. This also goes for any email you might have on such a service as hotmail, google, or yahoo. If it is more than 180 days old, the government may have it for the asking without requiring a judge to be involved.
Same goes for the “commercial” cloaking services where you have a VPN to them and they mask your true IP address behind one of theirs. This is very useful for people like patent trolls and people who are perusing their competitors websites. But they also have a very cooperative relationship with law enforcement. You can’t use a commercial service to keep data private unless it is offshore in a place with very strict privacy laws and that might not even help if enough money is involved.
Look, SCAGW is a multbillion dollar business deal. Thousands of careers have been made on it. Political careers have been made on it. People are going to “protect” it.
Shades of Keystone Kops … at least till they come a-knockin’ at your door.
Now, if FOIA starts leaving more comments on blogs in the near future …
They did the identical thing at Climategate 1. They are desperate to cover up this info. I suspect this push is from bureaucrats and not politicians, as it was before.
Everyone thought the eco-green police in that SuperBowl video were just actors. Now we know better. Tallbloke, did you ever say “AGW is total crap” or “all AGW believing climate scientists are complete fakes” in any of your posts? That might be what they are really digging for.
I’m assuming you must have been clean on batteries-in-the-trash and have changed all your bulbs to CFLs.
Pamela Gray says: Does this mean that climate warming causes seizures?
One of your very best, Pamela,
As soon as Obama signs the DAA, and he has come out and confessed that he will, suspending our unalienable rights, and declaring the entire US a ‘battlefield’,
the military will be able to seize anyone and anything without warrant or cause. Maybe even use a Hellfire from one of the Predators they are now using in domestic law enforcement. Combine that with SOPA and the pre-existing power to shut down the cell phone networks, and there will be no reporting or communication about people disappearing, if the Administration desires that.