User:Tillman/CRU's data freely available?

For http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_documents#Freedom_of_information

"the great majority of CRU's data is already freely available"
This statement appears a couple of times in our Freedom of information section, but I feel it's somewhat misleading. A number of critics have pointed out that what's available is CRU's "value-added" data, but that there's no clear path from that back to the original raw data, and CRU no longer holds the raw data. For example, Roger Pielke, Jr. is quoted a The Times as saying, "The CRU is basically saying, ‘Trust us’. So much for settling questions and resolving debates with science" [Cite: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece]

Pielke goes on to quote the CRU:

"We are not in a position to supply data for a particular country not covered by the example agreements referred to earlier, as we have never had sufficient resources to keep track of the exact source of each individual monthly value. Since the 1980s, we have merged the data we have received into existing series or begun new ones, so it is impossible to say if all stations within a particular country or if all of an individual record should be freely available. Data storage availability in the 1980s meant that we were not able to keep the multiple sources for some sites, only the station series after adjustment for homogeneity issues. We, therefore, do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (i.e. quality controlled and homogenized) data."

[Cite:http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2009/11/cru-on-global-temperture-data.html]