Correspondence Began Same Day He Rejected Invitation to Debate
FEBRUARY 24, 2012 – The Heartland Institute today released all the emails Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick sent to The Heartland Institute for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining internal Heartland documents. The emails can be found at Fakegate.org.
The emails reveal how Gleick “phished” the documents by stealing the identity of a Heartland board member, an act to which he publicly admitted in his February 20 Huffington Post confession. Minor redactions have been made to the emails to protect the individual privacy of those involved.
Gleick originally portrayed all of the documents he circulated, including the fake climate change strategy memo, as originating from Heartland. Now he claims he received that memo from an “anonymous source” before his theft. But the emails Heartland released today reveal Gleick never asked for either of the two documents that are specifically cited and summarized in the memo, suggesting the memo was written after, not before, he received the phished documents.
The newly released emails also reveal the first email from Gleick to Heartland was sent on January 27, 2012 – the same day he rejected a cordial invitation to debate climate science at The Heartland Institute’s 2012 anniversary benefit dinner in August. Email correspondence between Gleick and Heartland Institute Director of Communications Jim Lakely can be found here. That correspondence makes it evident Gleick was aware of Heartland’s policies concerning the confidentiality of its donors.
We repeat our request that the fake climate change strategy memo be removed from Web sites and blogs such as DeSmog Blog, Think Progress, and the Huffington Post, along with documents that were stolen from Heartland. It is the ethical thing to do.
Previous press releases from The Heartland Institute plus links to dozens of news reports and commentary on Gleick’s transgressions can be reviewed at Fakegate.org.
###
Here is a screencap from one of the email sets, click to enlarge:
more at Fakegate.org.
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So he sufferred a momentary lapse of reason over the course of 20 days, finally fessing up after realising he was caught.
There are two sets of documents online at DeSmog – one set uploaded with DeMelle’s story and a different set, separately uploaded, with Littlemores story.
They are also available at Greg Laden’s blog and Think Progress.
The Board Meeting Minutes are still available at DeMelle’s DeSmog story.
The Board Directory were originally available but have been removed at DeSmog. The Board directory is still available at Laden’s and Think Progress.
In my opinion the reason the Board Directory was removed was because it points directly to when Gleick obtained documents from Heartland. Its Created Date is 1/29/2012 – so for any distribution from Heartland to Gleick to have included the Board Directory it would have had to be after 1/29/2012.
Heartland’s release of the email timeline today shows this to be exactly correct.
DeSmog was attempting to protect Gleick (or potentially their complicity) by removing this document which provided a key timeline piece of info. A clumsy attempt at best – since other sites hosted it, and it had been downloaded by many of us when it was posted at DeSmog.
Obviously Gleick wasn’t bright enough to not use a traceable IP, (I would have used a mobile, anonymous 3G PAYG stick,) so…
If he’s decided to dispose of the PC that received the emails, which would logically be the one he created the ‘memo’ on, any investigation will note that he didn’t retrieve the emails on the right date if he chose to recover them again on a different PC.
DaveE.
Correction – the “Board Directory “Created Date” was:
1/25/12 10:36 PM UTC/GMT
1/25/12 02:36 PM PST
1/25/12 04:36 PM CST (at Heartland)
The “Meeting Minutes document was created:
1/29/12 9:59 AM UTC/GMT
1/29/12 1:59 AM PST
1/29/12 3:59 AM CST
Speaking of IT and other resources implicated in Gleick’s frolic, if the police have not already seized records and equipment at Pacific Insitute, I would imagine the Institute is working overtime to figure out what fingerprints Gleick (and any conspirators) may have left on its systems. If the police seize its primary system, the Institute may have to go to a backup system and rebuild its institutional memory and competence. It will certainly need to figure out its exposure under criminal and civil law, under media and political scrutiny, and the impact on its donor base.
Just imagine how upset those donors would be, if they had expected confidentiality, and had it breached by some self-righteous twit who didn’t like their cause. …I would imagine that one of Heartland’s pressure points here is the cultural violation by Gleick: one side may call the other names, but it should never, never, go after the donors.
What if the secretary who sent out the information was temporary staff? I do not blame the person because it sounded very routine, but a temporary person is less likely to question something that looks out of the ordinary.
DirkH,
The icons you can’t see in the notification area are inactive. Anti-virus software is only effective when it is active.
Mann had previously e-mailed his suspicion that McIntyre was being secretly funded by a think tank. This was the “smoking gun” Gleick was after, I suspect.
How much time before Gleickian force take the tack that Heartland acquiesced so easily to his impersonation so as to entrapp him.
3 2 1……
Interestingly, ThinkProgress version of Gleick’s forged strategy memo and the DeSmogBlog version are different. Both are generated from the same Epson scan on 2/13/2012 at 12:41:52 PST, but the ThinkProgress version was written immediately using PDF 1.4, while the DeSmogBlog, HuffPo, and other versions, were written using PDF 1.5 a day later on 2/14/2012 at 12:36:20 PST.
This make me wonder if Gleick had a friend at ThinkProgress review the forgery for a day before sending it out for wider distribution.
Here is the data:
======== 2012 Climate Strategy (3).pdf
ExifTool Version Number : 8.78
File Name : 2012 Climate Strategy (3).pdf
Directory : .
File Size : 97 kB
File Type : PDF
MIME Type : application/pdf
PDF Version : 1.5
Linearized : Yes
Create Date : 2012:02:13 12:41:52-08:00
Modify Date : 2012:02:14 12:36:20-08:00
XMP Toolkit : Adobe XMP Core 5.2-c001 63.139439, 2010/09/27-13:37:26
Producer : EPSON Scan
Metadata Date : 2012:02:14 12:36:20-08:00
Document ID : uuid:0d826409-6a19-411c-ae09-b5f400186c52
Instance ID : uuid:e5477a6f-aa33-4521-b161-1ae07ed0a258
Format : application/pdf
Page Count : 2
======== 2012-Climate-Strategy-Thinkprogress-version.pdf
ExifTool Version Number : 8.78
File Name : 2012-Climate-Strategy-Thinkprogress-version.pdf
Directory : .
File Size : 97 kB
File Type : PDF
MIME Type : application/pdf
PDF Version : 1.4
Linearized : Yes
Create Date : 2012:02:13 12:41:52-08:00
Modify Date : 2012:02:13 12:41:52-08:00
XMP Toolkit : Adobe XMP Core 5.2-c001 63.139439, 2010/09/27-13:37:26
Producer : EPSON Scan
Metadata Date : 2012:02:13 12:41:52-08:00
Document ID : uuid:0d826409-6a19-411c-ae09-b5f400186c52
Instance ID : uuid:692440ef-d85e-4cec-afef-742d339ece7b
Format : application/pdf
Page Count : 2
Gleick refused to participate in the HI conference because of his unwavering commitment to transparency. Indeed Pacific Institute publishes a list of their donors. Therein lies another Gleick hypocrisy. Do his donors publish lists of their donors?
I note 19 anonymous donors in the Western Resource Advocate’s annual report. http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/media/pdf/wra_ar2010.pdf
Funny that Gleick wasn’t bothered by that lack of transparency.
A very simple point – at least some of the phishing emails were sent during work hours. If he was doing this on Pacific Institute time his troubles compound.
So we now have a timeline like:
1/13/2012 11:12 AM – HI invites Gleick
1/16/2012 01:39 PM – Gleick requests information on donors
1/17/2012 03:25 PM – HI provides general info and explains why no details will be given
1/27/2012 08:36 AM – Gleick posing as board member (GpaBM) asks to have his new email
address added to the board mailing list
1/27/2012 09:33 AM – Gleick now declines invitation
1/27/2012 12:10 PM – HI confirms that GpaBM’s new email address was added
1/28/2012 08:06 PM – HI informs Gleick that they keep their door open in case he changes his
mind
2/2/2012 04:50 PM – GpaBM asks for an update on the current Board schedule and the
most recent Board minutes and agenda materials
3/2/2012 08:37 AM – HI sends the upcoming dates for the board meetings and the MoM for the
previous meeting to GpaBM
3/2/2012 10:38 AM – HI sends “2 Agenda for January 17 Meeting.pdf“ and “Board Meeting
Package January 17.pdf“ to GpaBM
4/2/2012 04:16 PM – GpaBM asks for the actual minutes or the handouts
6/2/2012 08:57 AM – HI sends “(1-15-2012) 2012 Heartland Budget.pdf“ and “(1-15-2012) 2012
Fundraising Plan.pdf“ to GpaBM
6/2/2012 08:59 AM – HI sends “Binder1.pdf“, “Board Meeting Package January 17.pdf“,
“CHARLES LANG- Resume2011.pdf“ and “Minutes of January 17 meeting.doc“ to GpaBM
8/2/2012 11:59 PM – GpaBM asks for the most up-to-date contact list for the board with
emails/phone numbers
10/2/2012 09:56 AM – HI sends “Board Directory 01-18-12.pdf“ to GpaBM
13/2/2012 12:41:52 PM – Finally the fake “2012 Climate Strategy.pdf“ is scanned
Well, from 6th to 13th of February Dr. Gleick had exactly 7 days to fabricate the fake document. He might have been too busy during the week and had to wait for the weekend to come up with something that fitted his purpose. It would fit very well if he then scanned the fake document on Monday at lunch time (12:41:52). Well, at lunch time it is much easier to scan something without anybody else being around and for obvious reasons he wanted to be alone for that.
And then there is the point that he didn’t just decline HI’s invitation:
He declined one hour after he started posing as a board member!
And there are people who think he’s a hero because of exactly this behaviour? Unbelievable!
It is legitimate to ask: Where were the same ethical considerations with the E-mails actually stolen in what you refer to as the “Climategate’ incident?
There are too many games being played with this whole issue. The reality is that the climate is changing, causing massive losses of biodiversity, increasing acidification of the oceans, and huge losses of ice at the Poles and from glaciers. All these and other changes are well documented in scores of separate research papers in accepted peer reviewed Journals.
If we all stopped gaming around this crucial issue we could move ahead collectively to solve our common problems. This is a huge challenge but, I’m sure, with goodwill we can do this.
Hugh Pepper says:
Pepper is nuts. There is absolutely NO evidence that the Climategate emails were, in his baseless words, ‘actually stolen’. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows it was an inside job. They were leaked by a whistleblower.
Pepper is right, though, when he says there are too many games being played. But they are all being played by the alarmist side. The central issue – the only issue, really – is the fact that Gleick confessed to criminal activity. Everything else is peripheral. Pepper needs to acknowledge that, and condemn Gleick for his unethical, illegal acts.
Pepper says: The reality is that the climate is changing, causing massive losses of biodiversity, increasing acidification of the oceans, and huge losses of ice at the Poles and from glaciers. All these and other changes are well documented in scores of separate research papers in accepted peer reviewed Journals.
1. The climate is always naturally changing. Only Mann’s acolytes beleive otherwise.
2. There are no “massive losses” in biodiversity. The fact is that satellite measurements show an expanding biosphere.
3. The oceans are not acidifying. They hold well over 400,000 times as much CO2 as the air. Oceans control the atmosphere, not vice versa.
4. There is some natural, cyclical ice loss in the Arctic. It has happened regularly and repeatedly in the past. And Antarctic ice is growing. Some glaciers are receding as a direct consequence of the planet’s emergence frrom the LIA. Human activity has nothing to do with it.
5. There are plenty of peer reviewed papers dirctly contradicting all of the failed assumptions in Pepper’s #1 through #4 false claims.
Hugh Pepper summarizes the nonsense perpetuated by alarmist know-nothings. He is a True Believer. CAGW is his religion. There is nothing scientific about any of his beliefs.
@ChE: The keys need to be treated like … keys. Handed out on a need to know basis by the IT guy. In person. Only.
Generally impractical. The better alternative would be to rely on public key encryption and infrastructure. Send whatever you want to “directorsname@gmail.com” but encrypt it to his or her known Public Key and Gleick (or any other pfisher) sees nothing but apparently random characters.
For those of you who care or have been paying attention, Peter Gleick is also one of the 37 cosignatories to the Wall Street Journal article written by Kevin Trenberth in response to the January 27 WSJ article entitled, “No Need to Panic About Global Warming”, which was signed by 16 scientists with distinguished careers in climate science or related fields. Peter Gleick also sits on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE, Oakland CA), which plays an important role in K-12 science education in the US. Victor Yannacone and I wrote an op-ed to the WSJ pointing out the relationship of Peter Gleick to fraudulaent climate science and NCSE, but our op-ed was not published by the Journal.
Paul Westhaver wrote:
Anthony, Heartland gets a win on this eventually, but the Greens will not underestimate you guys again. They will regroup and lay a trap for Heartland
I doubt Heartland will fall for it. Greens simply do not understand their opponents, and so will not be able to entrap them except by luck. And I rather suspect Heartland et al has little to hide. After all, the science is firmly on their side and not that of the lying fearmongers.
Chuckarama, February 24, 2012 at 12:34 pm,
“They’re running RealVNC for remote desktop access, so I could attack that to get into their machines.”
VNC v4.6.3 supports session security with 256-bit AES encryption and with long enough passwords would be next to impossible to crack and there are no known unpatched vulnerabilities.
“All it will take is one interested employee (perhaps this one) to open the attachment and I’ve now got all of Heartland’s customer base from their ACT CRM, via VNC. …if Heartland is having troubles with simple Phishing and Social Engineering exploitation, that will be nothing compared to giving away information about softwares like VNC, WordPerfect, Outlook/Exchange and ACT!.”
With the latest versions of those programs fully patched (including Windows), that is highly unlikely.
Gee you know it just occurred to me that Peter Gleicks’ actions are similar to a 419 scammer. 419 eater Shiver Metimbers could fix him up real good. http://419eater.com/html/letters.htm
Poptech says:
February 25, 2012 at 5:01 pm
“With the latest versions of those programs fully patched (including Windows), that is highly unlikely.”
Spend a little time (with proper authority and permission of course) doing some penetration testing at your institution. You’ll find yourself wearing a tinfoil hat and wandering around mumbling something under your breath about your swingline stapler. It’s not the “known” exploits that worries you so much, although it’s amazing how many of those go unresolved, but the unknown exploits and zero day exploits. Maybe VNC doesn’t have any current exploits – hopefully (crossing fingers) they’re running that perfect version. ACT! hopefully isn’t vulnerable. Hopefully their Browser hasn’t been anywhere dangerous or done anything silly. We don’t know. They may not even know. But now the whole world knows where to start, because of a few screenshots.
Heartland clearly has enemies now and their numbers have swollen in the last couple of weeks as they get dragged through the mud in the blogosphere and “press”. Those enemies believe their cause is just and will do anything to “prove it.” This is the EXACT moral superiority complex that overtook Gleick allowing him to be justified doing nefarious things, to prove he was justified. I can pretty much guarantee you that Heartlands machines and softwares are under heavier assault than they were before. Their personnel will continue have more Social Engineering attacks than before. Don’t go giving away the store and making their attacks easier, with screenshots. That’s my only point – not what version of a specific software they’re running and how up-to-date it currently is.
With the help of the active digital forensics discussion at Lucia’s it appears that Littlemore’s copy of the forged strategy memo was opened in a PDF 1.5 reader and saved locally with “Save As…” (thus numbered suffix). I was mistaken to think that the metadata was re-written prior to Gleick’s distribution email. This preserved the document ID but re-wrote the metadata with an updated instance ID. Indeed, Demelle’s post, also at DeSmogBlog, almost simultaneous with Littlemore’s, uses the original forged memo. That changes the timeline inference that I had made earlier, about DeSmogBlog posting the document only 38 minutes after it was written. The revised timeline means that the documents were posted almost exactly 4 hours after being sent by Gleick.
Revised timeline:
* Friday, 1/13/2012 11:12 AM CST: Jim Lakey invites Peter Gleick to a debate on climate change at the HI Benefit Dinner.
* Monday, 1/16/2012 1:39 PM CST: Peter Gleick requests information about Heartland’s funding prior to accepting: ” … In order for me to consider this invitation, please let me know if the Heartland Institute
publishes its financial records and donors for the public and where to find this information. …”
* Tuesday, 1/17/2012 03:25 PM CST: Jim Lakey sends details of the invitation and an explanation of Heartland’s donor listing policy, and its history.
* Friday, 1/27/2012, 8:36 a.m. CST: The first of 8 email messages in which Gleick begins his identity theft by impersonating a HI board member, and asking that his email address be added to the board distribution list, but to keep the old one also, (so as not to arouse the suspicion by disconnecting the real board member).
* Friday, Fri 1/27/2012 9:33 AM CST: Gleick declines the invitation to debate at Heartland, a little less than one hour after his first identity theft message.
* Friday, 2/3/2012 10:38 AM CST: Gleick (posing as a board member) receives the 1/17/2012 meeting agenda and information package.
* Monday, 2/6/2012 8:56 AM CST: Gleick (posing as a board member) receives the 2012 Budget and the 2012 Fundraising plan documents. These are the last documents he will need to construct the “2012 Climate Strategy” forgery.
* Friday, 2/10/2012 9:56 AM CST: Gleick (posing as a board member) receives the 1-18-2012 Board Directory document, the last of the stolen documents.
* Monday, 2/13/2012 12:41:52 PST: Gleick scans and saves the strategy memo forgery with Epson scan software. (see metadata extracts in my comment above)
* Tuesday, 2/14/2012 09:13 AM PST: Gleick, as heartlandinsider@gmail.com, sends the package of pilfered HI documents and the forged strategy memo. [Ref: Climate Audit]
* Tuesday, 2/14/2012 12:36:20 PST: A recipient of Gleick’s message at DeSmogBlog reads the attachment in Adobe Reader, and then uses “Save As…” to save the forged document for subsequent posting.
* Tuesday, 2/14/2012 approx 13:13 PST: Demelle’s DeSmogBlog post of the forgery and the pilfered documents, using the original scan of the strategy memo forgery.
* Tuesday, 2/14/2012 (21:14:06 GMT) 13:14:06 PST: Littlemore’s DeSmogBlog post of the documents is announced on their facebook page, using the re-saved scan of the strategy memo forgery.