When downloading data with wget using SSL, https, just add the —no-check-certificate option and you’re good to go.

wget "SSL connection cannot be established" Error

$ wget https://github.com/downloads/facebook/tornado/tornado-1.2.1.tar.gz
--2011-06-18 21:59:33--  https://github.com/downloads/facebook/tornado/tornado-1.2.1.tar.gz
Looking up github.com in DNS... 207.97.227.239
Connecting to github.com|207.97.227.239|:443... connected.
ERROR: certificate verification failed for github.com (issuer: /C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/OU=www.digicert.com/CN=DigiCert High Assurance EV CA-1):
  Unable to verify issuer's authority.
To connect to github.com without security verification, use '--no-check-certificate'.
SSL connection cannot be established.

wget --no-check-certificate for SSL, https Connection

As shown in the wget command error message, adding —no-check-certificate allowed the download to work.

wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/downloads/facebook/tornado/tornado-1.2.1.tar.gz

That’s all from the Gemba.