W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat

ABC News | 5/31/1955 | ABC News

[CaptainK]

Just in on ABC News. He and his family admit it through his lawyer. Will be in upcoming Vanity Fair.

[gopwinsin04]

Allen Ludden is so close it is scary...

[GOP_Proud]

< The one question that never got asked is "don't you understand that you asked Linda Tripp to commit a crime, and she made tapes to prove she was telling the truth." >

---

Absolutely. Everyone on the other side chooses to ignore this. Had Tripp not covered her own rear end she would have been in deep doo doo. The former POTUS and Lewinsky plotted for Tripp to lie.

Many people cite the phrase, "you don't tape record a friend". Well, you don't ask a friend to lie to a grand jury, either. I think one trumps the other when you want to stay out of jail.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Furthermore, Woodward and Bernstein (mark my words) won't confirm Felt as Deep Throat.

Of course, not. They said they'd reveal it when he dies. Why would they want to break their word? What purpose would it serve? None.

[SevenofNine]

OH MAN I am so disappoint LOLOL!
I thought it would been John Dean or somebody like that LOL!

[liberty2004]

Who will ever forget Al Haig telling the world that he was "in charge". Fun

to be precise, I believe Haig said, "I am in charge here ... at the White House." He didn't say he was in charge of the country (as the liberal press distorts his statement). He did specifically mention the White House and I believe at the time, he was the senior person there. He may have stated that way to try and calm things down. If you remember that day, the press was quite crazy with rumors and questions. It wasn't a big deal, but the press went stupid over it.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Perhaps some of what he did was illegal, and that's why they had to wait.

[Fudd Fan]

In the mid-80's I was at a luncheon where Al Haig was featured speaker. He joked about the "I'm in charge" quote at his own expense. Had a sense of humor about it and put people at ease.

[cvq3842]

You bet!

Also, there must be some awful pun in discussing Lewinsky on this thread. My apologies.

[Southack]

"Rehnquist was already out of the Justice Department and on the Supreme Court several months before the Watergate break-in occurred. It's hard to imagine how he would have been in-the-know about a lot of the stuff Deep Throat supposedly revealed."

Rehnquist was the original prosecutor of the Ellsberg burglary...the break in prior to the Watergate wiretapping.

Ellsberg was the leaker of the Pentagon Papers.

[Tatze]

Professor William Gaines of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign started the project with students in his Investigative Reporting class of the Department of Journalism.

From my quick review of their site (http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/spike/deepthroat/) and findings, Felt was barely a mention. He wasn't in the list of people ruled out, and didn't make the 7 Most Likely Deep Throat candidates. The prominent website they list on the right didn't work for me, but the report and conclusions can be found using the links down the left of the main site. The 7 finalists are listed here: http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/spike/deepthroat/
Patrick Buchanan, speechwriter and special assistant to the president.
David Gergen, speechwriter, then served as press spokesman for President Reagan.
Jonathan Rose, Attorney for White House relations.
Raymond Price, head speechwriter.
Stephen Bull, a special administrative assistant to Nixon.
Fred Fielding, top assistant to John Dean.
Gerald L. Warren, deputy press secretary under Nixon.

Their favorite as Deep Throat was/is: Patrick Buchanan

[liberty2004]

He also had several secret "conversations" with Bill Casey when Casey was in a coma and Casey's family never left his side and claim never to have seen Woodward.

Exactly! This incident alone provides good reason to believe Woodward would have NO problem lying to enhance his position - political or financial. W & B are shysters.

[kabar]

"Woodward noted that Deep Throat was a smoker and that he drank Scotch. "Aware of his own weaknesses, he readily conceded his flaws," the reporters wrote. "He was, incongruously, an incurable gossip, careful to label rumor for what it was, but fascinated by it. . . .He could be rowdy, drink too much, overreach. He was not good at concealing his feelings, hardly ideal for a man in his position."

From a 1999 article in Slate: Another Bulletin From the Deep Throat Desk

A difficulty with the Felt Hypothesis is that Woodward identified Deep Throat as a heavy smoker. Felt gave up smoking in 1943. In an earlier dispatch, Chatterbox said it was "possible the heavy-smoker bit was a phony novelistic detail that Woodward got wrong or invented." Apparently this thought has also occurred to at least one editor at the Washington Post. Here's Limpert in the August 1974 Washingtonian: An editor at the Post told us: "Woodward disguised Deep Throat. Woodward tried not to lie, but he tried to keep people off the track as much as possible. For instance, Woodward made a lot of Deep Throat smoking cigarettes, but I had the feeling that Deep Throat doesn't smoke."

Not knowing who the Post editor in question was, it's hard to assess whether that editor's "feeling" that Deep Throat didn't smoke was based on inside knowledge

[cyncooper]

Instead, *you* are simply falling for the latest fad theory on this subject.

He cited a 1974 source.

I have to say you seem to be resistant to the evidence and prefer to cling to your preferred theory.

Thanks for that Washingtonian reference, GSC.

[liberty2004]

Had a sense of humor about it and put people at ease.

yea, I remember that. It was funny.

[moose2004]

I agree.

[Southack]

In what part of the Executive Branch did Felt serve?!

[veronica]

The MSNBC article linked at Drudge is interesting. Apparently Felt's wife and family wanted him to spill the beans, so they could make some money. According to Chris Matthews, Felt was always the number 1 suspect as to the ID of Deep Throat.

[MonitorMaid]

This conversation, dated Oct. 19, 1972:

Nixon: Well, if they've got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can't Gray tell us what the hell is left? You know what I mean?...

Haldeman: We know what's left, and we know who leaked it.

Nixon: Somebody in the FBI?

Haldeman: Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can't say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there's a real concern. Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because--

Nixon: Do anything? Never.

Haldeman: If we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything ...

Nixon: What would you do with Felt?

Haldeman: Well, I asked Dean ...

Nixon: You know what I'd do with him, the bastard? Well that's all I want to hear about it.

Haldeman: I think he wants to be in the top spot.

Nixon: That's a hell of a way for him to get to the top.

Haldeman: You can figure a lot of--maybe he thought--first of all, he has to figure that if you stay in as president there's a possibility or probability Gray will stay on. If McGovern comes in, then you know Gray's going to be out ...

Nixon: Is he Catholic?

Haldeman: (unintelligible) Jewish.

President Nixon: Christ, put a Jew in there?

Haldeman: Well, that could explain it too.

http://slate.msn.com/id/1003301/

[Jim Noble]

threatening Helms with an exposure of the Agency's past relating to the Bay of Pigs

I was a major Watergate junkie in 1972-74, and I've always thought there was more to the break-in decision than met the eye.

Everyone here says, like everyone else, "It was the cover-up that was the real story".

Maybe not. Nixon paid a lot to cover it up. Perhaps there was more to cover up than we know.