'Deep Throat' Saw Himself As 'Lone Ranger'

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/25/06 | Louise Chu - ap

[NormsRevenge]

SAN FRANCISCO - The man who revealed himself as Watergate's "Deep Throat" says in a new memoir that he saw himself as a "Lone Ranger" who could help derail a White House cover-up.

In the memoir, which hit bookshelves Monday, former FBI second-in-command W. Mark Felt explains what motivated him to become the key source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate investigation.

Felt said he was upset by the slow pace of the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in and believed the press could apply some much-needed pressure on the administration to cooperate.

"From the start, it was clear that senior administration officials were up to their necks in this mess, and that they would stop at nothing to sabotage our investigation," Felt wrote in "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington."

Co-written by family friend John O'Connor, who revealed Deep Throat's identity in a 2005 Vanity Fair article, the book includes excerpts from Felt's 1979 memoir, "The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside," and an unpublished memoir that Felt wrote in the mid-1980s.

Felt, now 92, was unable to offer much fresh insight in the book because of his age and weak memory, O'Connor wrote in his prologue. Felt suffered a stroke in 2001 and has been in declining health.

The scandal that brought down President Nixon began with a break-in and the attempted tapping of phones in the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate office building during the 1972 campaign. It went on to include disclosures of spying by Nixon's henchmen and retaliation against the administration's perceived enemies.

Felt discusses his hesitation about working with Woodward. On one hand, he didn't want the FBI to be blamed for allowing Nixon to get away with a crime; on the other, he feared criticism if he violated his loyalty to the agency.

O'Connor says in the introduction that Felt was angered when the reporters revealed they had a senior source in the executive branch that they were calling Deep Throat.

"Deep Throat was a journalistic joke; Mark Felt never accepted the name," O'Connor wrote.

Felt also dismisses speculation that he became Deep Throat because he was angry at being passed over as J. Edgar Hoover's successor and wanted to sabotage the new boss, L. Patrick Gray.

"It is true that I would have welcomed an appointment as FBI director when Hoover died. It is not true that I was jealous of Gray," he wrote.

The book reveals that Felt's wife did not die of a heart attack in 1984, as he told people, but killed herself with his service revolver following years of depression. Audrey Felt's suicide, revealed in O'Connor's introduction, is never directly addressed by Felt himself.

While drawing few conclusions about his role in Watergate, Felt remained stalwart in his belief that the public needed to know the truth.

"People will debate for a long time whether I did the right thing by helping Woodward," he wrote. "The bottom line is that we did get the whole truth out, and isn't that what the FBI is supposed to do?"

[NormsRevenge]

Joan Felt and her father W. Mark Felt appear in front of their home Tuesday, May 31, 2005, in Santa Rosa, Calif. A memoir released Monday, April 24, 2006 by the man known as 'Deep Throat' sheds little new light on former FBI agent Mark Felt's relationship with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Instead, 'A G-Man's Life: The FBI, 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington' combines unpublished writings with material from Felt's 1979 memoir. It also reveals that Felt's wife did not die of a heart attack in 1984, but killed herself with his service revolver because of the strain from his legal troubles and FBI duties. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File) (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

[NormsRevenge]

He wasn't a leaker, He was a whistleblower.

[true_blue_texican]

...was a whistleblower...

Wasn't that Monica's codename?

[YaYa123]

and Mary McCarthy sees herself as who?

[NormsRevenge]

Felt said he was upset by the slow pace of the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in and believed the press could apply some much-needed pressure on the administration to cooperate.

[Lekker 1]

Using the words Whistle-Blower and Deep Throat in the same article just ain't right.

[JmyBryan]

Who was Tonto?

[NormsRevenge]

Felt also dismisses speculation that he became Deep Throat because he was angry at being passed over as J. Edgar Hoover's successor and wanted to sabotage the new boss, L. Patrick Gray.

"It is true that I would have welcomed an appointment as FBI director when Hoover died. It is not true that I was jealous of Gray," he wrote.

[Lekker 1]

Watergate's "Deep Throat" says in a new memoir that he saw himself as a "Lone Ranger"

A couple of fine movies, I must say.

[Rakkasan1]

a thin broad.

[SteveMcKing]

Self-glorifying, lone wolf, wannabe hero.

Like any absolute loser who wants to make history by assassinating someone or becoming a double spy.... Oswald, Mcveigh, Robert Hanssen. And this guy.

[bmwcyle]

There is no fool like an old fool.

[toddlintown]

One more dick in a long line of dicks.

[sgtbono2002]

If he was so proud of what he did why didnt he come out instead of hiding all these years.

[Doogle]

...another example of the MSM trying to compare (or ease) McCarthy's deeds to something heroic....Sandy Berger will become a fine example of a heroic figure before long. ANYTHING to protect the legacy....???...what legacy?

[stop_fascism]

Or a senile old coot who Woodward has duped into believing that he was "Deep-throat". I still believe that there was no deep throat.

[NormsRevenge]

Yup, some might say, right up there with Harry Reid's soon to be released remake of

"Dirty Harry"
The Searchlight Kid

[PeaRidge]

I don't recall anything that he provided to Woodward and Bernstein that would have brought down Nixon.

Whoever was in charge of the Nixon tapes early on was the one that provided the first hand information that brought down the President.

And I don't think anyone knows who that was.

[Kimmers]

Special Report
Deep Throat and Genocide
By Ben Stein

Published 6/1/2005 12:22:42 AM
Re: The "news" that former FBI agent Mark Felt broke the law, broke his code of ethics, broke his oath and was the main source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's articles that helped depose Richard Nixon, a few thoughts.

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying, conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.

When his enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:

1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.

2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.

So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me.


Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu, and author of "Ben Stein's Diary" each month in The American Spectator.

[brivette]

L.Patrick Grey was my attorney in an action that I and my Navy cohorts brought against the Congress back in the seventies. We won, btw.

[MamaLucci]

That's funny, many people saw him as the back end of Silver. ;_

[Joe 6-pack]

This member of the Village People consider himself to be both 'deep throat' and 'the lone (rump) ranger.' Talk about being all things to all people....

[davisfh]

"...was a whistleblower... Wasn't that Monica's codename?"

A rooty-toot-toot and a rummy-tum-tum...

[Calvin Locke]

Whistleblower? He undermined the DOJ investigation that was going on at the time. From what I remember, DOJ people
resigned, rather than knuckle under to the Nixon Administration attempts to whitewash it.

Look at the DOJ now. Whitewaters, um, whitewashes everything: illegal aliens, theft from the National Archives, missing FBI files, ...

Coincidence? I think not.

Thank you, Mark Felt.

[tacticalogic]

I'm still trying to figure out what Nixon hoped to gain out of that burglary that he thought was worth risking his administration for.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

From the archives: Another suggestion has been that Tonto, (whose name means "stupid" according to some interpretations) responded by calling the Lone Ranger "qui no sabe" which roughly translates from Spanish as "he who knows nothing" or "clueless."

[capydick]

I'm still trying to figure out what Nixon hoped to gain out of that burglary that he thought was worth risking his administration for.

Especially since the election was his to lose. I seem to remember that rumors of Fidel Castro funding the DNC (not totally unbelievable!) may have had something to do with it.

[PeaRidge]

There has been much speculation about that. Just as in any complicated series of events during an election season, all sorts of motivations and characters appear. It is likely that Nixon did not know of the burglary and cover-up until well after the process began.

Nixon was at war with the Democrats. He would do anything to protect his people.

He was also fighting a war in SE Asia. At home the opposition was leaking information about the war and giving out confidential and secret information to the press.

If his people could get anything out of Lawrence O'Brien's office on illegal contributions, that would help.

There is one story that bounces around about Mo Dean's ties to prostitutes being documented at the office. Some suggest that John Dean wanted that information to cease to exist.

The men that were caught were all on the CIA payroll at one time or another. There were many in the CIA that did not support Nixon. If one rules out the far out possibility that they got themselves arrested purposefully by someone close to Nixon who would then send money and thereby implicate the slush fund and Nixon himself, one must simply say that it was a war and Nixon was saving his men.

But I do not think "Deepthroat" had that much relevancy with regard to tangible evidence that would cause Nixon to be impeached.

[RetSignman]

I hope I haven't become so skepical to believe that the appearence of this old senile f@rt, at this time, is orchestrated to coincide with firing of McCarthy.

Dare I say, that the MSM are going to start comparing the two?

[Publius6961]

'Deep Throat' Saw Himself As 'Lone Ranger'"

Lots of criminals do.
I happen not to agree with him and wonder why he's not in jail.

[geopyg]

"There is one story that bounces around about Mo Dean's ties to prostitutes being documented at the office. Some suggest that John Dean wanted that information to cease to exist."

Read "Silent Coup". (I forgot the writer - Colodny or something?). A good read with lots of footnoted backup.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Why don't I hear the William Tell Overture in the background?

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for posting that Ben Stein piece.


As noted, Nixon made many lifelong enemies as a result of his participation in the outing and prosecution of communists in the 40s and 50s.

[stop_fascism]

G. Gordon Liddy's claim that the burglary was initiated by John Dean to find evidence of his wife's career as a prostitute has never been refuted.

Basically, Nixon got screwed. He was one of our most liberal presidents, but the left could never forgive him for exposing Alger Hiss.

[MinuteGal]

This old guy in all likelihood doesn't even know this book was written or even what day it is. I believe the daughter and the ghost writer created the book according to their agenda and according to what will create enough interest to sell a respectable number of books.

I don't even believe this guy was "Deep Throat". I don't believe there ever was a "Deep Throat"......just a lot of creative, opportunistic journalism in the heady days of Watergate.

I believe Woodward and Bernstein cynically go along with this old geek and his weary story because it brings all the "romance" and glory days back into the public eye for a nano-second in the twilight of their professional journalism careers.

The whole thing is all so contrived and pat. All the current living and near/dead characters involved in this chapter in the history of American journalism are so unattractive and uninteresting that nobody cares any more.....and new scenarios have to be thought up periodically by fading Watergate ghosts and "legends" still trying to lap up some cream from the near-empty kitty bowl.

Leni

[surely_you_jest]

If this clown was the heroic, lone ranger character he now wants to claim he was, he would have come out of the closet decades ago.

I lived through this period, attending law school throughout. His explanation does not hold up. I'm not buying it.

[jw777]

he was really just Silvers road apples.

[tacticalogic]

Dare I say, that the MSM are going to start comparing the two?

I doubt they'll start comparing her to Linda Tripp.

[gusopol3]

When John Dean appeared before the Russ Feingold farce hearing on censure a few weeks ago, he gave the best explanation I've ever heard (liar that he is). He said that neither he (Dean) nor Nixon knew anything about the Watergate break-in ahead of time, but that there was a national security tie-in due to the existence of the Plumbers. He said "Nixon would have cut them (the Watergate burglars) loose," except that he was afraid the investigation of them would lead back to the White House and discovery of the Plumbers and their illegal national security inspired break-ins, like Ellsberg's psychiatrist (especially ironic in light of Felt's later trial on just such charges, huh?). BTW Lindsay Graham, who asked the question of Dean was clueless as to the history and also believed either Dean or Nixon had authorized the break-in. However, he was outstanding on explaining succinctly why Clinton was impeached, and it had very little to do with Monica. Remember how the Toon had contended that a sitting President could not be named in a civil law suit and got slapped down 9-0 by the Supreme Court (it was the Paula Jones suit.) He was impeached for perjuring himself in that lawsuit. This should be known and broadcast widely because it shows the contempt Toon has for the common man, as if there weren't plenty of legal maneuvers he could have used to delay the suit until he was out of office.

[Bernard Marx]

The man who revealed himself as Watergate's "Deep Throat" says in a new memoir that he saw himself as a "Lone Ranger" who could help derail a White House cover-up.

Describing himself as the Lone Ranger lends a lot of credence to this account of the Mormon "White Horse" prophecy which, in fact, mentions Felt (a Mormon) in the Deep Throat context:

White Horse Prophecy

[NormsRevenge]

The Lone Ranger..

White Horse..

Coincidence? 8-o

[Bernard Marx]

Have you read it?

[NormsRevenge]

Not completetly but it is certainly food for thought. Thanks for sharing it.

The reference to hanging by a thread, a possible reference to FR and its future impact as well. ;-)

[Bernard Marx]

Yes, I certainly agree with your last comment.

[NormsRevenge]

Better to hang by a thread then by a rope. ;)

[SteveMcKing]

'If he was so proud of what he did why didnt he come out instead of hiding all these years.'

Good point! That's what a court room ought to ask him, not only the press.....

[jmaroneps37]

The only good part about this that he "felt" like doing this and since he came forward we have "felt" like ignoring him. He has gotten none of the celebrity and money he thought he would get.