-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  Book: France gave the Brit's codes to render the Exocet blind
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:25:35 -0700
From: [snip]
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]

Interesting if true concerning the British ability to render the Exocet
useless during the Falklands Ware after they were used on the Sheffield.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1879713,00.html

"...“Excuse me,” Mitterrand begins, apologising for his late arrival. “I
had a difference of opinion to settle with the Iron Lady. What an
impossible woman, that Thatcher! “With her four nuclear submarines on
mission in the southern Atlantic, she threatens to launch the atomic 
weapon against Argentina ­ unless I supply her with the secret codes 
that render deaf and blind the missiles we have sold to the Argentinians..."

"...In full flow, he told Magoudi that he had ordered the Exocet’s 
secrets to be handed over to the British at Thatcher’s insistence.

“She is furious,” he said. “She blames me personally for this new 
Trafalgar . . . I have been forced to yield. She has them now, the 
codes. If our customers find out that the French wreck the weapons they 
sell, it’s not going to reflect well on our exports..."


***********************************************************
Visit the Mahan Naval History Discussion List WebSite at:
            http://www.microworks.net/mahan
   for info on Subscribing/Unsubscribing and Digest and
         Links to other Sites of Naval Interest
***********************************************************




-- 
BT

Tracy Johnson
Justin Thyme Productions
http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/







NNNN

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *