Mystery of Watergate tape's missing 18 minutes may finally be solved

Mystery of Watergate tape's missing 18 minutes may finally be solved

www.timesonline.co.uk

One of the great political mysteries — what was said by President Nixon during a suspicious 18-minute gap on the Watergate tapes — could soon be solved thanks to a keen-eyed amateur sleuth and modern crime-fighting technology

“Wow — I suddenly realised that at the top of page two, the discussion of Watergate was ending,” Mr Mellinger told The Times, “The first page of notes went right up to the time they started discussing Watergate. I believe page two was about the last minute of the 18-minute discussion.”

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Mr Mellinger has convinced the archives to subject the existing notes to electrostatic detection analysis, which can capture indentations on paper. The hope is that what was written on the allegedly missing pages can be recreated.

This should be interesting! I cant wait until the results come out. So basically, they tossed the two pages with the incriminating evidence, but the indentions left on the page behind can reveal what was written!

Here is how t is done. From this link Special Techniques of Document Analysis

Electrostatic Detection Apparatus
ESDA is designed principally for the examination of single page documents, which are placed carefully over a gentle vacuum and then covered with an aerosol and/or glass beads. An electrostatic charge is induced over the document, and the combination of the vacuum and the static charge on the aerosol and glass beads highlights indentations by filling the grooves with visible material.

www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 29-7-2009 by MysterE]

reply to post by MysterE

Would've been so much MORE interesting back then!
Stars for you, MysterE!

Maybe those missing minutes contain conversation about a women's dress-up party at J. Edgar Hoover's house! LOL

But most likely, just a routine cover-up of malfeesence by another president, as we all believed. Which led to the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, whereby the National Archives is required "to provide the public with the full truth, at the earliest reasonable date, of the abuses of governmental powers popularly identified under the generic term "Watergate". Source

"Earliest reasonable date?"

HAH! . . What, 3 generations later?

And I've recovered ghost writing on a piece of paper by gently rubbing my pencil on it's side across the page! nyuk nyuk.

Keep us posted, will ya?