- Thatchergate
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filename=Thatchergate.ogg
title="Excerpt of the Thatchergate tape"
description=Reagan: "Those missiles we followed on screen... You must have too, and not let them know. What do you hope to gain?"Thatcher: "What I said before: Andrew. As cruise go in, I want incentives at all levels."
format=Ogg sample box endThatchergate was the
colloquial title of ahoax perpetrated by members of theanarcho-punk bandCrass during the aftermath of the1982 Falklands War . Using excerpts from speeches byMargaret Thatcher andRonald Reagan , a recording was spliced together which purported to be a telephone conversation between the two leaders. During the course of the tape Reagan seems to state his intention to use Europe as a battle front to show theSoviet leaders the US's resolve in anuclear conflict , whilst Thatcher appears to imply that the HMS "Sheffield" was deliberately sacrificed in order to escalate the Falklands war.When the recording first surfaced into the public domain in
1983 , it was initially considered by theUS State Department to have beenpropaganda produced by the SovietKGB , a story reported by both the "San Francisco Chronicle " [San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 1983. Page 10 http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/1238.html ] and "The Sunday Times" [ The Sunday Times, 8 January 1984, page 3 http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/1238.html ] . However, coverage of the tape by the UKbroadsheet "The Observer " in January1984 identified the true source as Crass [ The Observer, Sunday, January 22, 1984 http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/1238.html] . Crass have stated that great care was taken to ensure their anonymity, and that to this day it is a mystery as to how "Observer" journalists were able to trace the hoax back to them [ "We were overcome with a mixture of fear and elation, should we or should we not expose the hoax? Our indecision was resolved when a journalist from "The Observer" contacted us in relation to 'a certain tape'. At first we denied knowledge, but eventually decided to admit responsibility. We had been meticulously careful in the production and distribution of the tape to ensure that no one knew about our involvement. How "The Observer" got hold of information that led to us is a complete mystery. It acted as a substantial warning, if walls did indeed have ears, how much more was known of our activities?" - From 'In Which Crass Voluntarily Blow Their Own', sleeve notes to "Best Before 1984" http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/ ]Excerpts of the recording can be heard in the Crass track "Powerless With A guitar" on the compilation LP "Devastate To Liberate" (Yangki - 1985 - Yangki 1).
Quotes
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Gee Vaucher on Thatchergate; "What course that took was beyond our control, really. Not always, we controlled it. Especially the "Thatchergate tapes," that took a long time to surface. They were sent out, what, a year before that. That was good fun. That was Pete's main instigation, to do that. Feedback from that was more than we thought it would be. We just really didn't think people would be taken in by it (laughs). It just goes to show what you can do. Anything goes, really. And if it didn't, we'd have to be very meticulous about the way we did something, to make it guide up a certain route. " [ 'G Sus interviewed by Richie Unterberger' http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/gsus.html ]References
External links
* [http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/1238.html Thatchergate transcript and press coverage]
* [http://www.discogs.com/release/176781 Details of LP containing Crass - "Powerless With A Guitar"]
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