Former FBI official W. Mark Felt is shown in this April 27, 1973, file photo. (AP Photo)
Posted on 05/31/2005 9:55:19 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - A former FBI official claims he was "Deep Throat," the long-anonymous source who leaked secrets about President Nixon's Watergate coverup to The Washington Post, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday.
W. Mark Felt, 91, who was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s, kept the secret even from his family until 2002, when he confided to a friend that he had been Post reporter Bob Woodward's source, the magazine said.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told lawyer John D. O'Connor, the author of the Vanity Fair article, the magazine said in a news release.
Felt was initially adamant about remaining silent on the subject, thinking disclosures about his past somehow dishonorable.
"I don't think (being Deep Throat) was anything to be proud of," Felt indicated to his son, Mark Jr., at one point, according to the article. "You (should) not leak information to anyone."
Felt is a retiree living in Santa Rosa, Calif., with his daughter, Joan, the magazine said. He could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press. His family members disagreed with their father, feeling that he should receive accolades for his role in Watergate before his death.
The Washington Post had no immediate comment on the report.
O'Connor is a lawyer at the San Francisco firm Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. A receptionist there said O'Connor was out of the office but confirmed he was the author of the Vanity Fair article.
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.
But his identity of the source whose disclosures helped bring down the Nixon presidency remained a mystery.
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.
And some theorized Deep Throat wasn't a single source at all but a composite figure.
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.
Former FBI official W. Mark Felt is shown in this April 27, 1973, file photo. (AP Photo)
View of the room from where five men spied on the Democratic Party headquarters across the street in 1972, in the Watergate hotel in Washington. Photo taken June 17, 1997. (Reuters/File/File)
I bet he was also the shooter on the grassy knoll.
What if he leaked some information and only thinks that he is DT? I think that it's credible that DT was an amalgam of credible leaks to the WaPo.
The author of this article misunderstood. Felt was actually speaking about his close personal relationship with J. Edgar Hoover.
Vanity Fair magazine said on May 31 2005 that Mark Felt, a former FBI official, had revealed himself to be 'Deep Throat,' the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to the Washington Post and brought down President Richard Nixon. Unmasking the identity of 'Deep Throat,' a key source for Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, would solve one of the greatest political and journalistic mysteries of recent history. Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon gives his farewell speech to members of his cabinet and staff in the East Room of the White House, following his resignation August 9, 1974. (Reuters/File/Bettmann-UPI)
Base one to unit one.
Base one to unit one.
Base one to unit one.
Hey, we got a problem here.
Base one to unit one...
MO Dean revealed at last.
Anything the democrats can do to keep Nixon and Watergate alive they will do. Clinton, by far, committed worse deeds than Watergate. The only problem is, the media won't report it. After all, don't you see, he is a democrat. Only Republicans get smeared.
I think he hired Craig Livingstone.
ahhh, but for a piece of tape.. ;-)
LOL...the best part of this is that it denies Woodward and Bernstein and the WashCompost their last big Watergate story. If the old FBI squealer makes a few bucks off this VF story, it's still better than having the Watergate slugs wring more profits out of it.
Your right, he and his family are going to look pretty foolish if they claim him to be DT, and have Woodward turn around after his death and deny it.
Is this supposed to be the AP's play on words?? "'Deep Throat' Reportedly Comes Forward"
Ewwwww....
AP: 'Deep Throat' Reportedly Comes Forward
Posted by NormsRevenge
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 9:55:19 AM PDT · 7 replies · 35+ views
AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/31/05 | AP - NY
Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'
Posted by jasoncann
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 9:00:38 AM PDT · 22 replies · 1,393+ views
msnbc ^ | 11:41 a.m. ET May 31, 2005
W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat
Posted by CaptainK
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 8:33:03 AM PDT · 291 replies · 8,754+ views
ABC News | 5/31/1955 | ABC News
Even better, this guy, while a snake, will cheat the Compost of their Big Story by answering questions and stating facts that will not jive with whatever further smear the Compost had planned.
The Compost was counting on "Dead Men Tell No Tales" lack of cross-examination.
Also, what's with the walkie-talkies? No earpieces? I know darn well they had Radio Shack in 1972. What a strange omission.
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