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.

[GraniteStateConservative]

If the FBI knew of the gap on Nixon's secret tapes, then they were actively engaged in open treason.

You'd be surprised?

[GraniteStateConservative]

Also, like I said, certain people knew about the gaps. All Felt needed was to know what they know, and there are all sorts of ways to learn what others know.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Having read "Silent Coup: The Removal of a President" several years ago I was certain "Deep Throat" was Haig based on the fact that Woodward had been a Naval Intelligence officer in the Pentagon and knew Haig from his briefings to him.
Will have to go back and see if that book mentioned Felt and what was said about him by the authors.
It does make sense that Felt was the man given he had such access to the raw FBI files and all information was flowing in his direction.
I just wonder why he had not come forward many years earlier when he could have basked in his own reflective glory and appeared on the talk show circuit to defend and glorify his actions.
Too bad Nixon did not live long enough to find out it was Felt all along.
So many good people have been tared by the accusation on being "Deep Throat" that I now wonder what all the reaction will be. You can bet Larry King will have an extensive show on this with all of the usual Intellectual Left Wing Lefties to comment like Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, etc..
Well at least all of the "suspense" is over now.

[Southack]

I'd be surprised if Nixon didn't unload on someone egaged in open treason. Nixon kept score.

Deep Throat knew about the gaps on the White House tapes. If Deep Throat wasn't a White House insider, then we've got ourselves a security breach of epic proportions.

[Jedidah]

Nixon's secret taping system was unknown to all but those who ran it (and Nixon himself, of course) until Alexander Butterfield revealed its existence to the Senate Select Committee on Watergate in 1973, a year after the first arrests. The FBI didn't know.

I remember watching the hearings live when he testified. It was an absolutely jaw-dropping moment.

[freebilly]

Rush Limbaugh counseled/advised folks that this was NOT related to Linda Lovelace and "Deep Throat".

Felt is from Sonoma County. Thousands of men perform Linda's trick out on the Russian River....

[GraniteStateConservative]

Maybe someone else was bugging Nixon and he got the info from them.

[AFPhys]

Yes: more than one UofI "class investigation", I guess.

I appreciate that some like Southack regard this "confession" as suspect, but personally, I would LIKE to believe it is true - because of the way it exposes the inadequacy of our present day "history" writers and "investigative" journalists.

All these web sites are very overloaded now - I have to quit trying. It would be smart to grab a copy of them when you succeed, though, because of the present day tendency for liberals to erase their wrong conclusions...

(Recall sKerry's RESTOREHONESTY.COM ... LOL... I've got a bunch of copies of the changing versions of that...)

[Southack]

"Also, like I said, certain people knew about the gaps. All Felt needed was to know what they know, and there are all sorts of ways to learn what others know."

Woodward and Bernstein staked their reputation on Deep Throat being a White House insider who personally knew of the gap on Nixon's tapes.

Felt, as you've outlined above, could only have known about those gaps second-hand.

Ergo, Felt isn't Deep Throat.

[Eva]

I was thinking the same thing, that if Felt was deep throat, he should have served time for his crimes.

[Southack]

"Nixon's secret taping system was unknown to all but those who ran it (and Nixon himself, of course) until Alexander Butterfield revealed its existence to the Senate Select Committee on Watergate in 1973, a year after the first arrests. The FBI didn't know. I remember watching the hearings live when he testified. It was an absolutely jaw-dropping moment."

Precisely. The FBI didn't know.

[AFPhys]

Apparently the fatal error of one of the class attempts:

http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/spike/deepthroat/10.html

"After reaching a conclusion that Throat was in the White House, the students pursued a direct approach. They got the official Congressional Directories for 1972 and 1973, which together listed 72 names of officials in the executive office of the president in order of rank."

Since Felt wasn't WH staff, they wasted their time on 72 others instead of where the pay dirt was.

[Southack]

"Maybe someone else was bugging Nixon and he got the info from them."

That would still be secondhand.

Woodward and Bernstein staked *everything* upon Deep Throat being their DIRECT source. Felt, however, was not in a position to be the original source. At most he might have gotten some information from someone else. At most.

[Southack]

" Since Felt wasn't WH staff, they wasted their time on 72 others instead of where the pay dirt was."

How would non-White House staff have access to thousands of hours of Nixon's secret tapes?!

[KC_Conspirator]

Oh, I am not saying I am right. Just the opposite, I am just saying for the record it looks like I was wrong. I thought that Deep Throat was a compilation of leads and just added for a bunch of reasons. Rumor had it an original script of the book did not have any mention of a a Deep Throat.

I can just see two weeks of the liberal media reliving the halcyon days of Vietnam and Nixon, where they almost broke America over their knee.

[Jedidah]

Felt -- or anyone in the FBI -- could have known what was on the tapes by the fall of 1973 when Nixon finally turned them over to investigators when forced to by subpoena. After that, Deep Throat told Woodward about the gaps. So Felt could easily have had that knowledge.

[Southack]

"Maybe someone else was bugging Nixon and he got the info from them."

Just to be clear, bugging the White House wouldn't tell you about an 18 second gap on the White House tapes...

[kcvl]

#2 guy at the FBI

Because Nixon passed over him for FBI director according to Fox News.

[cajungirl]

I was watching Butterfield on those hearings too, it was electric.

[cajungirl]

I feel so old, how could anyone not know who Deep Throat was.