Deep Throats Identity Revealed and Confirmed

[Madame Butterfly 0]

Washington Post Confirms 'Deep Throat'

By GREG SANDOVAL, AP

 

 

 

CNN

Mark Felt was No. 2 at the FBI during the Nixon administration.

 

 

 

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (May 31) - The Washington Post said Tuesday that a former FBI official, W. Mark Felt, was the confidential source known as ''Deep Throat'' who provided the newspaper information that led to President Nixon's impeachment and eventual resignation.

 

The paper made its announcement on its Web site after Felt, 91 and living in California, talked to a lawyer who wrote a magazine article for Vanity Fair.

 

''The No. 2 guy from the FBI, that was a pretty good source,'' said Ben Bradlee, who had been the key editor at the Post in the Watergate era.

 

''I knew the paper was on the right track'' in its investigative stories, Bradlee said, citing the ''quality of the source.''

 

Felt, the second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s, kept his secret even from his family for almost three decades before confiding he was Post reporter Bob Woodward's source on the Watergate scandal.

 

''I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat,'' he was quoted as telling lawyer John D. O'Connor, author of the article in Vanity Fair magazine.

 

The existence of Deep Throat, nicknamed for a popular porn movie of the early 1970s, was revealed in Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling book ''All the President's Men.'' In the hit movie based on the book, Deep Throat was played by Hal Holbrook.

 

Among those named over the years as Deep Throat were Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson, deputy White House counsel Fred Fielding, and even ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer, who then worked in the White House press office. Ron Zeigler, Nixon's press secretary, White House aide Steven Bull, speechwriters Ray Price and Pat Buchanan, and John Dean, the White House counsel who warned Nixon of ''a cancer growing on the presidency,'' also were considered candidates.

 

In 1999, Felt denied he was the man.

 

''I would have done better,'' Felt told The Hartford Courant. ''I would have been more effective. Deep Throat didn't exactly bring the White House crashing down, did he?''

 

In 2003, Woodward and Bernstein reached an agreement to keep their Watergate papers at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

At the time, the pair said documents naming ''Deep Throat'' would be kept secure at an undisclosed location in Washington until the source's death.

 

In the family statement, Jones said his grandfather believes ''the men and women of the FBI who have put their lives at risk for more than 50 years to keep this country safe deserve recognition more than he.''

 

''On behalf of the Felt family we hope you see him as worthy of honor and respect as we do,'' Jones said.

 

 

AP-NY-05-31-05 15:04 EDT

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Interesting. Not who I had expected though. I had the thought that it may have been John Dean but it was really just a guess in the dark.

[Kor37 9]

Kind of a let down for it to be someone hardly anyone ever heard of.

[Capt_Picard 0]

I have some questions... where was he in the information chain? Did he have help? And how close to Nixon was he?

[HRH The KING 0]

They should have kept it a secret forever.

 

It's more dramatic that way.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

I actually spoke to someone that I know in the FBI today, and he was saying that this man could have lost his pension and many other things because he definitely broke many codes and rules.

 

There was definitely a reason why he chose to keep quiet.

 

And for it to be a celebrity [Diane Sawyer] or someone else in the White House was kind of sensational and also a bit obvious.

 

I don't think I've ever heard any one ever mention this man before.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I don't think I've ever heard any one ever mention this man before.

328165[/snapback]

It seems to me that I've heard him mentioned at some point in the past but I won't swear to it.

[deadmeatsecurityguy 0]

He was a deputy Director of the FBI. He briefed the president. I'm sure he was aware of every facet of the investigation at all times. He really didn't have to be that close to Nixon He was in the loop as it were.

[Madame Butterfly 0]

Felt also had been mentioned, but he regularly denied it. His motive for tipping off Woodward and Bernstein remains unknown, but the Post suggested in a story Tuesday night that anger over Nixon's decision to pass him over for FBI director after the death of J. Edgar Hoover could have been a factor.

 

Felt had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity, and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man, his grandson said. His family members thought otherwise. His daughter, Joan, argued that he could ''make enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the children's education.''

 

Well I'm glad she thought about the possibility of her father being prosecuted or losing the pension he had.

[Kor37 9]

I think that the daughter meant to say that he could make enough money...........to give to her. This poor guy's family is despicable.

[Tina 0]

I agree with the King

 

More dramatic if they would have not revealed it until AFTER his death

[gul_nodrog 2]

I also agree with the King. I've been huge Watergate buff all my adult life, starting around 1982. I own so many books by most of the key players I could write a doctoral dissertation without ever going to the library!

 

Although I thought I wanted to know Deep Throat's identity, now I just feel let down. I wish they'd never told us!

 

And this Mark Felt guy was "identified" by a young man back in 1999 as Deep Throat. The kid went to some sort of summer camp with the son of Carl Bernstein and apparently little Bernstein told him at that time. Then the kid wrote a research paper on the topic and backed up the identification.

 

He was on the Today show and everything in 1999. Then the other morning, they had him back on the show being interviewed by Couric and Lauer.

 

It was such a great mystery and I liked it better when I could picture Deep Throat looking like Hal Holbrook ...

[Kor37 9]

The poor guy didn't want his identity to be known til he was dead. His malicious family made him do this. The guy is 91 years old, senile and hes standing there in his pajamas waving at the reporters. How pathetic is that? What a vile, greedy family this guy has got.

[gul_nodrog 2]

The poor guy didn't want his identity to be known til he was dead. His malicious family made him do this. The guy is 91 years old, senile and hes standing there in his pajamas waving at the reporters. How pathetic is that? What a vile, greedy family this guy has got.

328454[/snapback]

 

I agree with you ... did you read that quote from his daughter? Something about using this whole thing to get them some money to pay off the debt she incurred for her son's college education. Now could someone please tell me why her son's college education expenses are the responsibility of his grandparent, in this case Mark Felt a.k.a. Deep Throat? Or why is it her responsibility for that matter? Shouldn't the grandson in question be responsible for his own student loans?

 

If she couldn't afford the school she sent her son to, then why didn't he go somewhere that he could afford? There are plenty of them out there.

 

And that crack she made about Bob Woodward getting rich on all of this while her father just drew his retirement pension? You know, no one forced these guys to do the things that Woodward reported on ... he made a choice to look into it, Mark Felt made a choice to feed him info. Who knew Bob Woodward was going to get rich from all of this? And it is my understanding that the identity of Deep Throat was kept secret at the request of Deep Throat himself. How exactly is that Bob Woodward's fault that Mark Felt is not rich as a result of his involvement?

 

Woodward had a great story on the whole thing today in the Washington Post. Now that was interesting ... the entire relationship between Woodward and Deep Throat explained at last. The how, why, when, where of the whole thing.

 

Yes, Felt's family sound like real pieces of work.