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What Richard Nixon knew about Watergate: forensic experts investigate
Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | November 20, 2009 | Alex Spillius

Posted on 11/20/2009 5:26:13 AM PST by Schnucki

Forensic investigators have been called in to solve one of the greatest mysteries of US presidential history by discovering what exactly Richard Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in.

Thirty-five years after Nixon was forced to become the only US president to resign, government investigators remain determined to find out the extent of knowledge of the raid on the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington.

Investigators appointed by the US National Archives are to analyse notes taken by the White House chief of staff HR Haldeman at a meeting with the late president just three days after Nixon campaign members were arrested for breaking into the Watergate building.

Their mission is to find out what Nixon and Haldeman discussed during the 18 ½ minutes missing from tape recordings of the meeting and also from the aide's large yellow note book.

Experts have given up trying to unlock the mystery from the erased tape. The new search will instead scour Haldeman's notes for incriminating clues.

Investigators will use electrostatic detection analysis, which is capable of detecting and highlighting indented images, such as those left on a sheet of paper when a pen has written on a sheet above it. This might show evidence that certain pages were destroyed and even point to words so far lost to history.

Techniques known as hyperspectral imaging and video spectral comparison also will be used to study the ink and look for hidden clues to missing material.

The prospect of confirming that a gap exists in the notes, corresponding with the gap in the recording, has Nixon historians on tenterhooks.

"My best scholarly guess is that Nixon asked Haldeman if anyone in the White House had advance knowledge of the Watergate break-in," said Luke Nichter, a Texas A&M University assistant history professor.

Test results are expected

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: nixon; obama; presidents; watergate
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1 posted on 11/20/2009 5:26:14 AM PST by Schnucki
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To: Schnucki

Yet the Clintons steal 900 FBI files in order to blackmail other politicians and the MSM doesn’t raise a brow.


2 posted on 11/20/2009 5:29:24 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare for survival.)
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To: Schnucki

“What did the President know, and when did he know it?” - Howard Baker


3 posted on 11/20/2009 5:29:30 AM PST by babble-on
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To: Schnucki

I still look at Watergate and the cover up as no big deal because I’m sure it’s been done in kind....1000 times before.


4 posted on 11/20/2009 5:30:08 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Sacajaweau
Compared to the actions of Kennedy and Johnson, Watergate was only a modest transgression.
5 posted on 11/20/2009 5:35:18 AM PST by MBB1984
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To: Schnucki

John Dean orchistrated the whole thing.
He lied to Nixon about the objective (after the fact) and lied to the “plumbers” regarding the authority.
The area surveiled and accessed contained records only Dean was interested in.
The DNC chair’s office that would have been the natural political target, was on the opposite side of the building, and never surveiled or accessed.
Nixon believed Dean’s story and made the mistake of covering for his guys, after the fact.


6 posted on 11/20/2009 5:37:37 AM PST by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe

Stunning, isn’t it? Stolen FBI files, a suspicious suicide by a presidential adviser complete with sanitized office files, 84 Americans incinerated at Waco, a little boy sent back to a communist hellhole at the point of a gun, missile technology given/sold to the Chicoms, and, lest we forget, that small matter of the wall between the CIA and the FBI, but none of what the Clintons did holds any interest for the MSM. No, almost forty years later they’re still doing a circle jerk over Watergate because running Nixon out of office and forever tagging him as a crook is just not enough to satisfy their bloodlust for him.


7 posted on 11/20/2009 5:43:44 AM PST by Dahoser (The missus and I joined the NRA. Who says Obama can't inspire conservatives?)
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To: Schnucki

Another opportunity for leftists to add to the lies and to reconstruct events in their docu-novel. Nixon had the guts to go after commies, unlike the current GOP.


8 posted on 11/20/2009 5:46:02 AM PST by gorilla_warrior (Metrosexual hairless RINOs for hopey-changey bipartisan-ness)
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To: Schnucki
Their mission is to find out what Nixon and Haldeman discussed during the 18 ½ minutes missing from tape recordings of the meeting and also from the aide's large yellow note book.
'Rosebud'
9 posted on 11/20/2009 5:48:54 AM PST by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: G Larry

Don't see much difference, except one wears glasses.
The only reason anyone was really paying attention to him was because his wife was hot.
10 posted on 11/20/2009 5:49:22 AM PST by BigEdLB (Now there ARE 1,000,000 regrets - but it may be too late.)
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To: Dahoser

It all goes back to the Pro-Dem Media....Again and again and still....


11 posted on 11/20/2009 5:49:29 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Schnucki
Funny how this nearly 40 year old "greatest mystery" is being re-hashed now... When it involves a Republican in the hot seat. Even though it is a thoroughly dead issue.

Yet the Democratic Clintons' activities get a pass. Even though the Clintons are still very active in current politics.

I'm more interested in the motivation(s) behind the investigation than I am in the investigation itself. obama and his cohorts in crime have a fairly limited playbook, and distraction would seem to be one of their staples...

12 posted on 11/20/2009 5:49:51 AM PST by ThunderSleeps (obama out now! I'll keep my money, my guns, and my freedom - you can keep the change.)
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To: Sacajaweau

And I’m convinced RN did NOT know about the break-in until John Dean told him . . . then he obstructed justice, just like Clinton, and covered it up, and should have been removed. I think “Silent Coup” and Liddy’s interpretation of this are correct.


13 posted on 11/20/2009 5:51:22 AM PST by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." (Hendrix))
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To: G Larry
*** John Dean orchistrated the whole thing. He lied to Nixon about the objective .... ***

(shush) You'll blow someone's Grant Money.
:-)

14 posted on 11/20/2009 5:52:46 AM PST by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe

Yet the Clintons steal 900 FBI files in order to blackmail other politicians and the MSM doesn’t raise a brow.

&&&
That’s right. And Sandy Burglar’s stuffing documents in his pants is no big deal either.

Funny, I was just thinking about that incident yesterday, for some reason, and I asked myself once again why in the heck they would have documents around and no duplicates made of them and stored in another location. Something is just not right with that story.


15 posted on 11/20/2009 6:33:53 AM PST by Bigg Red (Palin/Hunter 2012 -- Bolton their Secretary of State)
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To: Schnucki
This is the way Democrats encourage Bipartisanship.

LOLARMAOOTF

16 posted on 11/20/2009 6:39:05 AM PST by sr4402
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To: G Larry

Go ahead with the explanation of why John Dean was the originator of the investigation...........I will listen with great interest.


17 posted on 11/20/2009 6:39:28 AM PST by PeaRidge
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To: Dahoser

Very well stated.


18 posted on 11/20/2009 6:42:17 AM PST by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (Prepare for survival.)
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To: BigEdLB
Dean went on to become a big time leftie, although he likes to call himself an 'independent'. LOL.


19 posted on 11/20/2009 6:58:19 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Hope....Change...Unemployment!)
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To: BigEdLB

“...because his wife was hot”

THOSE are the records Dean was having retrieved!


20 posted on 11/20/2009 11:14:22 AM PST by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
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