Individuals who made Freedom of Information inquiries of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit have come under police scrutiny, including interviews to determine their political beliefs, scientific qualifications, and details regarding computer usage, according to an article in The Financial Times. [Link requires registration.]

Even more troubling, local police are being aided in their investigation by members of the National Domestic Extremism Team, the unit set up to counter home-grown terrorists and radicals. The purported reason for their involvement is their skills in computer forensics and their experience dealing with environmental terrorists.

But it’s curious that, given the very real threat of terrorism, both in the U.K. and the U.S., precious resources are allocated to tracking down a culprit who would be glorified as a “whistleblower” if his politics were different.

The muckraking leftist press glorifies the whistleblower, regardless of the legality of his/her leaked information or the consequences of the leak.

From Daniel Ellsburg with the Pentagon Papers, to ex-CIA agent Philip Agee, to Deep Throat of Watergate fame, to Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco industry whistleblower, information thieves have been lionized by those who believe that the end justifies the means. This stuff is standard fare for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the network “newsmagazines”.

But this time it’s different; the mainstream press has already chosen sides. It has gone “all in” in support of the Climate Change agenda, and the quest of the U.N. and the statists in their quest for control of the industrialized Western economies. That being the case, they emphasize the “illegality” of the “stolen” or “hacked” emails, all the better to distract from the damning content contained therein.

Terrorism, apparently, is in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on whose ox is being Gored.

Cross-posted at VladEnBlog.