Thursday
Nov192009
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill ++++Huge climate story breaking?+++
Nov 19, 2009 Climate It is claimed that the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia has been hacked and there is a massive file of emails and code up on a server in Russia. If what has been posted is real then the balloon is about to go up.
Excerpts of the emails have been posted here. They include a CRU scientist welcoming the death of a prominent sceptic, discussion of how to fiddle results and so on.
Amazing. If true.
As someone says, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.
Reader Comments (14)
I suspect that there is a very involved and convoluted behind the data theft. It will be very hard to develop an informed opinion on the truthfullness of the revealed emails without knowing the provenance of the data. I've seen news repors of hackers who would steal valuable data such as credit cards and then ransom it back.
With so much at risk, be prepared for many long and twisted journeys full of law suits, FOIAs, official investigrations, etc. I wonder on which side, if any, the power of the state favors....especially given what is at stake (funding, reputation, policy).
Wouldn't it be ironic if removing (formerly) publically available data attracted the interest of a hacker organization? Something worth hiding must have value, no? One can only wonder if the hackers have the Hadley CRU archieve and what truths that may or may not reveal.
Yer Grace:
If anyone wishes to download the data for themselves, it is here:
http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fftp.tomcity.ru%2Fincoming%2Ffree%2F
In the U.S. we have a law that says any government employee who releases false info to the public is subject to criminal prosecution. Do you have a similar law in the UK?
Correction: Any government employee who KNOWINGLY presents false information to the public is subject to criminal prosecution. Also, any individual (government or civilian) who knowingly presents false information to congress is subject to criminal prosecution. Do you have similar laws in the UK?
Too good to be true?
But too big to be false. It would take a lifetime to fake this. And the honeytrap theory (that there are false nuggets embedded in a list of true emails, waiting to entrap Watts or McIntyre into a libel action) is too farfetched. Even if it weren’t actionable, the material here is too embarrassing for anyone to let it leak deliberately.
It’s been sensibly suggested (in comments at the Air Vent, Blackboard, and WUWT) that this is more likely a leak than a hack - Deep Cool.
The story will naturally break in America, but we pathetically few Brit bloggers can perform a useful task correcting the wilder errors of our colonial friends. I’ve already seen it suggested that the BBC is “censoring” this story.
Geoff
YYes, I'm concluding that the bulk of this must be real. It's too big to fake. Still the possibilit ythere may be fake stuff inserted.
PS
How will it end? Like Al Capone and prohibition? Like Watergate? (We have our Deep Freeze, but where are Woodward and Bernstein?) I’m betting on a Marquess of Queensberry / Oscar Wilde dénouement, with someone (your Grace?) going a glove slap too far, and Jones or Briffa issuing a libel writ. Go on, do it for Gaia.
Absolutely no surprise to me. You cannot look at the hockey stick and Yamal stories without suspecting collusion.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hadley_hacked/
See this post for some regularly updated extracts.
Fascinating stuff
It seems that Jones has admitted they've been hacked.
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-verification-of-hadley-cru-files.html
http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_briefing_room/2009/11/hadleycru-says-leaked-data-is-real.html
Bish
I await with eager anticipation your rendition of this story. Shouldn't have to wait long before you have enough to start methinks.
Its available right now on The Pirate Bay:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5171206/Hadley_CRU_Files_%28FOI2009.zip%29
Get it while it's hot!
To prove its faked all the Hadley CRU Centre has to do is immediately release the archive of email of Prof Jones for this period so we can compare with the source and any inserts will be exposed. Do it Immediately so they can't redact it. Seize it if necessary. If Phil is pure as driven snow, we will know. Do you think they will do that?
If they wont, that would be because,,errr, can't think of a good reason.
This is so called "Global Warming" about to go up in smoke, as it were.
Be careful if you quote Ian Wishhart (Investigate magazine, Air Con book, TBR blog).
He may be correct about AGW but he's got some odd views on other topics...