Around mid December 1989, a cell phone conversation was picked up between Charles and Camilla by some unknown source and this was made known to Charles shortly -- within a few days or so. Naturally to cover himself and provide tit-for-tat leverage, he had Diana's landline bugged, and finally hit the payload about 2 weeks later, on New Years Eve, with a steamy conversation between Diana and Gilby. Now the trick was to get the steamy talk out to the public airwaves, seemingly by accident.
It was known that Squidgygate was taped on New Years Eve because the conversation itself set that time. However, the amateur radio sleuth who picked up the recording always mentioned and wrote that January 4th, 1990 was the day he recorded the conversation. So figure out what that means. It's as easy as 2+2=4. Three independent expert analyses of the "Squidgygate" tapes showed beyond any doubt that the recorded conversation had been the result of a direct tap on Diana's landline with some background noise added to make it sound like it was from a cell phone.
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In other words, three independent expert analyses of the "Squidgygate" tapes showed beyond any doubt that the recorded conversation had been the result of a direct tap on Diana's landline. Since Sandringham, like all the Royal Palaces, has its own exchange, the person who installed the tap must have had access to the premises. The person or persons responsible had then edited and remixed the fruits of their eavesdropping, doctored it to look like a live transmission by adding data bursts, and had then rebroadcast it, four days after the recording, in the vicinity of a locally-known snooper's 20ft aerial.
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What had happened? The circumstances surrounding the release of the Royal tapes are still poorly understood. The "Squidgygate" and "Camillagate" tapes were both analysed by experts. The "Camillagate" tape showed no signs of suspicious treatment, and appeared to be just what it was claimed to have been: a recording, "from air", of Charles and Camilla talking privately on 18 December, 1989. Unlikely as it may seem, the chance interception of high-level communication is not unknown: during the 1982 Falklands conflict, a radio ham in London had intercepted and taped a conversation between the Prime Minister's press secretary and the Assistant Director-General of the BBC, in which the BBC was pressurised into sharing war footage with commercial rivals ITN [35]. The "Squidgygate" tape, however, showed clear signs of having been doctored and rebroadcast on 4 January, 1990; four days after its initial interception on New Year's Eve, 1989.
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The Queen was so disturbed by the "Squidygate" episode that she requested MI5 to conduct an investigation to discover the culprit or culprits. ............................. .......... In 2002, Diana's former protection officer, Inspector Ken Wharfe revealed that the investigation had "identified all those involved, but for legal reasons I cannot expand further, and nor is it necessary to do so."
Wharfe adds, however, that: "It does [..] lend credence to the Princess's belief, so often dismissed by her detractors, that the Establishment was out to destroy her [37]."
Wharfe adds, however, that: "It does [..] lend credence to the Princess's belief, so often dismissed by her detractors, that the Establishment was out to destroy her [37]."