AP: 'Deep Throat' Reportedly Comes Forward

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/31/05 | AP - NY

[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.

[NormsRevenge]

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.

-----

We have to look for any possible silver lining mighty close these days, ;-)

---

American journalist Carl Bernstein and his wife Christine arrive at the Henri-Nannen-Price 2005 ceremony in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, May 20, 2005. The prize, named after the founder of German news magazine 'Stern', Henri Nannen, honours journalists for outstanding reportage from the German-speaking region. Bernstein and his colleague Bob Woodward are the reporters of the Washington Post who investigated the Watergate break-in and first cracked the Watergate scandal in August 1972, which led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. (AP Photo/Fabian Bimmer)

[saveliberty]

I think it's because it would be too horrible for Democrats to own up to the corruption at their own door that they have to lay it on the Republicans'.

Methinks it be transferance. ;)

[Snardius]

One of these people looks like she's been ridden hard and put away wet...

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks!

[saveliberty]

Woodward will never release the information as to expose DT (if he/she truly is an amalgamation) would discredit some of their investigation.* Then he would have to account for who exactly said what. Who knows what he did with the notes?

*Note that the leaks were probably true, but that the issue would be how he would be able to back them up if the premise that one person leaked it were not true after all.

[JIM O]

If this guy was FBI and leaked information pertaining to a criminal investigation, didn't he commit a crime?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This guy is a FRAUD!

I AM DEEP THROAT!

IT WAS ME!

(Prelude to the raft of Deep Throat wannabes about to crawl ou of the Woodward... I mean woodwork.)

[brbethke]

Bernstein married a female impersonator?!?!

[Snardius]

I read that Nixon had to watch the movie "Deep Throat" three times before he could get it down Pat...

[kcvl]

If this guy was FBI and leaked information pertaining to a criminal investigation, didn't he commit a crime?

Not if you are trying to bring down a Republican administration. Otherwise, it would be. Two sets of rules from the OLD MEDIA "reporters".

[BluH2o]

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.

Remember well the unrelenting drumbeat of liberal media vitriol that saturated the airwaves for months leading up to Nixon's resignation over Watergate. It was a non-stop barrage ...

[laconic]

Its nothing to be proud of; he should be ashamed, if he's capable of it. The so-called Watergate "scandal" enabled the Democrats to ruin South Vietnam, screw the veterans who fought in the war their heroes JFK and LBJ mired us in; and gave rise to all sorts of truly rotten regulations and legislation due to the Democrats' veto-proof majority on the Hill that they gained in the 1974 elections. No, Mark Felt is not a hero, but he is scum.

[leprechaun9]

How long will it be before the Democraps nominate him for the Congressional Medal of Honor (with the blessings of the Al-Jazeera 7)?

[ET(end tyranny)]

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 agree with you. I just don't see why this was such a big deal. Both parties try to out think the other, steal each others play books, steal their ideas.

Could their have been another reason that we don't know about or are overlooking?

[tobyhill]

"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."

You should not because leaking proprietary information, while working for the government, is against the law even if it was done out of "good faith". He should be prosecuted as with every internal government employee that leaks information to the media when not being in the position to authorize the info to the media. Personally, I don't care how old he is.

[Soliton]

It turns out he was a disgruntelled FBI employee who was passed over for the Director's job. No nobility in the old fart, just sour grapes.

[elmer fudd]

Heck, they could have just damaged the striker mechanism so that it could be slid back with the tip of a knife. About 1/4 of all locks that I am inclined to break into are already in this state of disrepair.

[50sDad]

No, I'm Sparticus!

[Petronski]

They needed some of that Marine Epoxy used by the Blues Brothers.




Elwood: "This is glue. Strong stuff."

[1Old Pro]

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.

Ditto that.