Who's behind the hoax?

Well, no one who really knows is really saying, though there is no shortage of well-founded speculation that it's The Yes Men.

They're a group of so-called culture jammers who engage in political hijinks and public misrepresentation for the sake of art, fun and politics.

As my colleague Kady has laid out so clearly, the whole Canada in Copenhagen spoof business began with a fake press release, that linked back to www.enviro-canada.ca. 

A whois search of that URL gives us some registration details.

Apparently someone named Morton Subotnils Esq., registered the site on Dec. 13.  Helpfully, Morton provided an email address -- frank@rtmark.com -- and a telephone number: (917) 209-3282.

No one responded to emails at that address. And there was no answer at the phone number, either.

Though Google went out and searched the Intertubes for me and reported that (917) 209-3282 was, at least at one-time, associated with a guy named Michael Bonanno, who was one of the star actors in The Yes Men movie.

Bonanno is, according to Wikipedia, a pseudonym for Igor Vamos, an artist, culture-jammer, techno-politico-activio-professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  Vamos is also co-founder, according to Wikipedia, of RTmark.com (hello Frank@RTmark.com!).

Vamos has not responded to phone or email messages. Neither has Bonanno's oft-time co-conspirator Andy Bichlbaum, whose American voicemail message puts him out of the country until Dec. 17.

At this point we'll pause and say The Yes Men have apparently already been active in Copenhagen over the past few days, so it's not a stretch to assume they're responsible for all this.

And if they were, they were pretty smart about it.

A second fake press release pointed us to www.ec-gc.ca which is a whole lot closer to the real deal www.ec.gc.ca but still not legit.

That site is reportedly registered to the Friends of Science Commission. The phone number worked, but reached a very annoyed woman who was definitely NOT associated with the group.

Friends of Science DOES exist. It's an organization that believes climate change does not exist in the way that you and I have been hearing all these years.

Douglas Leahey, one of the founders of the group, got back to me to say he was not a part of the hoax (and, given which side of the climate debate he is on, why would he be?)

One of the press releases provided an 819 number, the area code for Gatineau, Que., where Environment Canada's offices are. I called it and ended up speaking to two guys who claimed to work for Environment Canada (though that facade quickly dissolved).  

One said identified himself as Dick Impala, the other introduced himself as Barry Slidmore.

Anyway, it was a kind of conference call -- from Copenhagen, it seems. The conversation did not go well.

They gave me some lines about the importance of dealing with climate change and then played some tape of their Ugandan "delegate" down the phone line in case I'd missed her earlier video performance. They refused to actually identify themselves or discuss their motivation for the hoax.

Then they promised all would be revealed tomorrow at a news conference in Copenhagen at 1 p.m. local time (or 5 a.m. ET).

So, stand by.