the press has started to pick up on Wahl's admission that he deleted emails in response to Mann and Jones' request. hahaha the blood is in the water!
and the Wahl statement to the NOAA Inspector General
my oh my. poor Old Rocks will be disillusioned when he finds out that he was lied to, that the investigations really were just whitewashes after all.
As background, Phil Jones in the United Kingdom asked Mann, now at Penn State, by email to delete records being sought under the UKs Freedom of Information Act, and to get a colleague to do so as well:
Mike:
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. Hes not in at the moment minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I dont have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
Gene is Eugene Wahl, who now works for the federal government.
Manns terse reply included in pertinent part:
Ill contact Gene about this ASAP
Now, from Penn States supposed inquiry and exoneration of Michael Mann:
Allegation 2: Did you engage in, or participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions with the intent to delete, conceal or otherwise destroy emails, information and/or data, related to AR4, as suggested by Phil Jones?
Finding 2. After careful consideration of all the evidence and relevant materials, the inquiry committee finding is that there exists no credible evidence that Dr. Mann had ever engaged in, or participated in, directly or indirectly, any actions with intent to delete, conceal or otherwise destroy emails, information and/or data related to AR4, as suggested by Dr. Phil Jones. Dr. Mann has stated that he did not delete emails in response to Dr. Jones request. Further, Dr. Mann produced upon request a full archive of his emails in and around the time of the preparation of AR4. The archive contained e-mails related to AR4.
If the above excerpt accurately reflects Manns testimony, both Manns answer and his peers acceptance of it ought to raise red flags. Penn State asked Mann and only Mann if he destroyed records or was indirectly involved in destroying records. Mann said only that he did not destroy records. And that did it. Even though Phil Jones asked Mann to instruct Wahl to do so as well.
Allow me to translate this in relevant part:
PSU: This is potentially very grave. We must know: Did you do A or B?
Mann: I did not do A.
PSU: Ah. There we go. It appears there is no evidence he did A or B.
Close enough for academia, I suppose. But spare us the cleared tag and the claim to have conducted an inquiry.
Read more: Penn State whitewashed ClimateGate | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
and the Wahl statement to the NOAA Inspector General
From Capitol Hill come excerpted notes from the interview transcript between the NOAA Inspector General and Eugene Wahl. I am advised that its not a continuous chain, with some back and forth between the paragraphs excluded. I am advised that the excluded sections, often lengthy, do not place the excerpts in any different light than reading them as presented below.
Neither the Muir Russell nor Oxburgh inquiries took transcripts despite requests from the UK Parliamentary COmmittee to do so.
Q. Did you ever receive a request by either Michael Mann or any others to delete any emails?
A. I did receive that email. Thats the last one on your list here. I did receive that.
Q. So, how did you actually come about receiving that? Did you actually just he just forward the Michael Mann and it was Michael Mann I guess?
A. Yes
Q. That you received the email from?
A. Correct
A. To my knowledge, I just received a forward from him.
Q. And what were the actions that you took?
A. Well, to the best of my recollection, I did delete the emails.
Q. So, did you find the request unusual, that they were that the request that you were being requested to delete such emails?
A. Well, I had never received one like it. In that sense, it was unusual.
Q. I guess if the exchange of comments and your review was appropriate, I guess what Im just trying to understand why youd be ask to delete the emails after the fact, at the time that theyre it appears that the CRU is receiving FOIA requests
A. Yeah. I had no knowledge of anything like that. But thats what they were where they were coming from. And so, youd have to ask Keith Briffa that. I dont know what was in his mind.
my oh my. poor Old Rocks will be disillusioned when he finds out that he was lied to, that the investigations really were just whitewashes after all.