Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'; CONFIRMED BY WP

[RBA]

Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'
Magazine quotes him as saying he was 'doing his duty'

MSNBC
Updated: 12:01 p.m. ET May 31, 2005

W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the "Deep Throat" source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue.

Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa, Calif. reportedly gave O'Connor permission to disclose his identity.

"The Felt family cooperated fully, providing old photographs for the story and agreeing to sit for portraits," Vanity Fair stated in a press release.



Felt said he was "only doing his duty" and did not seek to bring down Nixon over the cover-up of a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

Carl Bernstein, who with Bob Woodward broke the story as Washington Post reporters, issued a statement neither denying nor confirming Felt's claim. Bernstein stated he and Woodward would be keeping their pledge to reveal the source only once that person dies.

NBC News commentator Chris Matthews, who wrote a book about Watergate, said he wasn't surprised, adding that Felt "has always been the leading suspect."


© 2005 MSNBC Interactive
© 2005 MSNBC.com


URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8047258/

[RedFanAlways1966]

WHAT?!? I was always convinced that it was Linda Lovelace. Oh well!

My first thought when I heard this this morning was, "Is the Felt family trying to cah in on this?" Why else would it be important to reveal Gramps to the rest of the world while he is still alive? I heard that his son and grandson convinced Gramps to tell the world that he is the one. But in the world of ebay, Jerry Springer and the rest.... I am not surprised. Criminal activity is nothing to hide. I feel that Deep Throat did a good thing by revealing the Dem HQ break-in.

And remember... the Watergate break-in happened less than 3 years after Sen. Ted Kennedy left a woman in his auto at the bottom of an ocean inlet. Good thing Mr. Felt did not work for the Kennedy Clan! There is a truth that has yet to be told (officially).

[guttle11]

Originally Posted by RedFanAlways1966

WHAT?!? I was always convinced that it was Linda Lovelace. Oh well!

good one!!

[RedsBaron]

I wish Woodward and Bernstein would now either confirm or deny this report.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Originally Posted by RedsBaron

I wish Woodward and Bernstein would now either confirm or deny this report.

Keeps their names in the media for at least 5-10 more years. Good for their pocketbooks and egos, I would think.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Something that I just did and I found interesting... W. Mark Felt as a Google search. Read the "conspiracy sites" and others that have their ideas about the identity of Deep Throat. Some are sure that it is someone else. Most mention Felt as a prime candidate. Alll were written of course before this late news about Felt admitting to the role.

[Blimpie]

Originally Posted by RedsBaron

I wish Woodward and Bernstein would now either confirm or deny this report.

By my count, there has now been about 125 different people who have claimed to be "Deep Throat." Either of these two authors could put it to rest with a simple press release. However, at that point, they are both deemed historically irrelavant IMO.

[creek14]

I agree RedsBaron. If the source comes forward do they still have an obligation to protect that source? I'd have to say no.

What really freaks me out is that a lot of people under the age of 35 will read this article and go "huh"?

[paintmered]

Originally Posted by creek14

I agree RedsBaron. If the source comes forward do they still have an obligation to protect that source? I'd have to say no.

What really freaks me out is that a lot of people under the age of 35 will read this article and go "huh"?

huh?

[Unassisted]

Originally Posted by creek14

What really freaks me out is that a lot of people under the age of 35 will read this article and go "huh"?

"All the President's Men" is available on DVD. The unenlightened can always go plunk down a few bucks at Blockbuster to get enlightened. Or... <gasp> read the book.

[Roy Tucker]

Originally Posted by Unassisted

"All the President's Men" is available on DVD. The unenlightened can always go plunk down a few bucks at Blockbuster to get enlightened. Or... <gasp> read the book.

What is this "book" that you speak of? I am unfamiliar with this term.

[SunDeck]

I was sure it was Elvis Presley.

[Red Leader]

I thought Taylor Wayne was "deep throat"?

[RBA]

Washington Post Confirms Felt as 'Deep Throat'

By William Branigin and David Von Drehle
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

The Washington Post today confirmed that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon.

Woodward said Felt helped The Post at a time of tense relations between the White House and much of the FBI hierarchy. He said the Watergate break-in came shortly after the death of legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Felt's mentor, and that Felt and other bureau officials wanted to see an FBI veteran promoted to succeed Hoover.

Felt himself had hopes that he would be the next FBI director, but Nixon instead appointed an administration insider, assistant attorney general L. Patrick Gray, to the post.

Bradlee, in an interview this afternoon, said that knowing that "Deep Throat" was a high-ranking FBI official helped him feel confident about the information that the paper was publishing about Watergate. He said that he knew the "positional identity" of "Deep Throat" as the Post was breaking its Watergate stories and that he learned his name within a couple of weeks after Nixon's resignation.

"The number-two guy at the FBI, that was a pretty good source," he said. "I knew the paper was on the right track," Bradlee said. The "quality of the source" and the soundness of his guidance made him sure of that, he said.

"We made only one mistake ..... and that had nothing to do with 'Deep Throat,'." Bradlee said, referring to an error in reporting grand jury testimony.

Bradlee said that over the years, "it was interesting to watch people flounder around with odd choices" about the identity of "Deep Throat," a nickname borrowed from the title of a pornographic film. Although he knew the source's identity, Bradlee said, "I've never met Felt. I wouldn't know him if I fell on him."

In a family statement released today, Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, said, "The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice." The statement added, "We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well."

Jones said in the statement, "My grandfather is pleased he is being honored for his role as 'Deep Throat' with his friend Bob Woodward. As he recently told my mother, 'I guess people used to think "Deep Throat" was a criminal, but now they think he was a hero.'"

The Vanity Fair article, by California attorney John D. O'Connor, described Felt as conflicted over his role in the Watergate revelations and over whether he should publicly reveal that he was the anonymous source whose identity has been a closely guarded secret for more than three decades.

"On several occasions he confided to me, 'I'm the guy they used to call "Deep Throat,".'." O'Connor wrote. The author wrote that Felt "still has qualms about his actions, but he also knows that historic events compelled him to behave as he did: standing up to an executive branch intent on obstructing his agency's pursuit of the truth."

The article concluded, "Felt, having long harbored the ambivalent emotions of pride and self-reproach, has lived for more than 30 years in a prison of his own making, a prison built upon his strong moral principles and his unwavering loyalty to country and cause. But now, buoyed by his family's revelations and support, he need feel imprisoned no longer."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...pthroat31.html

[ochre]

Originally Posted by RedBloodedAmerican

...
Woodward said Felt helped The Post at a time of tense relations between the White House and much of the FBI hierarchy. He said the Watergate break-in came shortly after the death of legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Felt's mentor, and that Felt and other bureau officials wanted to see an FBI veteran promoted to succeed Hoover.

Felt himself had hopes that he would be the next FBI director, but Nixon instead appointed an administration insider, assistant attorney general L. Patrick Gray, to the post.

...

In a family statement released today, Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, said, "The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice." The statement added, "We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well."
...

I sense some conflict in the altruistic portrait painted by the family and the hopes the individual expressed toward achieving further status.

Not so much a question of whether what he did was right, or not, but his motivation for doing so.