A Climate of Fear?

There has been a fuss about the apparent hacking into and release of emails between staff of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/23/global-warming-leaked-email-climate-scientists). These were seized upon (as was seemingly the intention of the hackers) by 'climate change deniers' (the very term is an example of 'negative apperception' or choosing words that put a negative label on something) as evidence that parts of the scientific community have been involved in a conspiracy to concoct the 'illusion' of human involvement in global warming. It seems evident that some of the emails are questionable (perhaps reflecting a modern tendency for scientists to stray into advocacy when this should be left to politicians and lawyers). Other emails might well be inappropriately 'jokey' as scientists (poor souls) are often prone to 'gallows humour'. The thing I find surprising is the surprise that the hacking occurred (especially in a University).