George Rebane

– raw Earth temperature data destroyed intentionally
– another view of the White House security fiasco

The 29nov09 London Times now confirms (here) that the original (raw) temperature data that was collected from thousands of realworld sources has been permanently lost.  This invaluable data was processed to yield a modified dataset which in turn was processed with all kinds of corrections, adjustments, and normalizations to give the final temperature graph in the shape of the famous ‘hockey stick’.  It is this hockey stick graph which purports to show a recent calamitous rise in earth’s temperature history.

Then up popped ClimateGate – the revelation of the massive fraud from the CRU emails recently hacked and made public. This was reported here and over the rest of unblinded world.  The Climate Research Unit of Britain’s University of East Anglia is the mother temple of earth’s temperature history, and the basis for the UN’s IPCC reports that set off the political palpitations in the hearts of Team Gore and the global warmists.  Which palpitations, by the way, have yet to miss a beat on their way to the upcoming Copenhagen conference that will attempt another revival of the insane Kyoto greenhouse gas protocols, which no one ever implemented and/or lived up to.

But the bottom line of the Times article is that the ‘scientists’ destroyed the raw temperature data that started all this.  This is something you NEVER do in science; raw data is sacrosanct, because from it all subsequent datasets are generated.  The permanent archiving of such raw data allows follow-on investigators to confirm or not the correctness of the revised dataset(s)’ production pathway.  Now all such work is conveniently no longer possible.  Like Hillary’s law firm billing records of yore, they have disappeared, and the CRU admits that they were destroyed.  Now that would be an inconvenient truth.

[1dec09 update] Dr Richard Lindzen of MIT is one of the world’s most respected meterologists and climate scientists.  He and many of his peers have spent the last ten years publishing research and reasoned articles in the world’s press that point out the foibles, fantasies, and fiascos of the AGW hysteria mongers.  In today’s WSJ (here) he has again summarized the science that counters the politicized arguments which form the basis of the upcoming Copenhagen conference where Obama will try to promote his cap and tax legislation, or worse.  The worse part is the Copenhagen treaty on global warming that has been kept under wraps and may surface there for a surprise signing.  The voluminous treaty portends a Marxist world government with teeth to enforce the destruction of economies, and the transfer of wealth from the richer to the poorer countries.  Lord Christopher Monckton gave a recent talk on the subject (video here) in which he warns Americans about the loss of our sovereignty.  The leftwing promoters of our socialist future simply ignore all this and bet that so will you. 

The Virginia couple Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a White House state dinner the other day, and everyone’s undies are in a bundle.  And well they should be for all the reasons that the talking heads have explained.  If I thought that they had covered the waterfront, I wouldn’t bother bringing up this national dust devil.  But I disagree with them all, and thought I’d put my two cents down for your consideration and comment.

First with a name like Tareq Salahi, you’d think those two would have been put through a body cavity search at the “outer security ring” of the multi-ring system set up by the Secret Service for such occasions.  Nope – they just waltzed through, were announced no less, and spent the rest of the evening in photo ops with the likes of Rahm Emanuel, Joe (three sheets to the wind?) Biden, and the President himself.

Should they now throw the book at the Salahis?  Well, before puzzling this one out I think that, besides their crashing the party, we should also take into account their intentions.  If, as everyone to date seems to agree, they were just publicity hounds hoping to capitalize on the media coverage, then we should consider giving them a commendation.

They performed an extremely valuable service that revealed a systemic flaw in one of the country’s most important security systems – the one charged with the safety of our Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief.  And since they had no other motive than to be photographed with the nation’s leaders during a social occasion, I believe that they should be exhaustively debriefed, and then released with a tongue-in-cheek commendation.  An admonition not to do it again should, of course, be included.  But let’s put a human face on this fiasco, and thank the Lord that such a breach was successfully attempted by a couple of clowns instead of some sleeper Islamo jihadist like the infamous Major Malik Hasan of Ft Hood.

I would go a step further and make it an undeclared policy to commend innocent, successful, harmless, and subsequently declared penetrations of the country’s security apparatus.  Call it the ‘no harm, no foul’ policy.  The more of these holes that are revealed by loyal Americans, the better.  Yes, better to patch such holes after a good chuckle and egg on your face, than after hauling bodies to the morgue.