Posted on 06/02/2005 8:48:23 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Deep Throat is Mark Felt, the former deputy associate director of the FBI — except for the parts of Deep Throat that clearly aren't Mark Felt, like all the stuff Throat supposedly confirmed after Felt left the FBI in June, 1973.
Well, that's going to be something of a problem, isn't it?
Dean analyzed the meetings Woodward describes in All The Presidents' Men and methodically analyzes what others have glossed over. For Woodward's version to be literally correct, his source had to be able to have access to specific information (and disinformation — Dean estimated last night that half of what Throat told Woodward was materially wrong) at specific times. He also had to be physically in Washington to conduct the meetings Woodward wrote about in the book, which were presumably relied upon in the vital day-to-day coverage he and Bernstein wrote for the Post in 1972, 1973, and 1974.
For us, he offered the startling fact that possibly the most vital information Throat gave Woodward — that there were "erasures" on at least one of the surreptitious tapes of Richard Nixon's Oval Office conversations (the infamous "18 minute gap") — was dispensed in November, 1973 — nearly five months after Felt had left his position in the FBI.
So where did Felt-Throat get that information? Gossip? Where from?
"How is he going to explain Felt having some of the information he had," Dean continued, "when it just isn't in the realm of possibility that he had access to it, even as third or fourth hand hearsay?"
Dean's e-book for Salon three years ago was called Unmasking Deep Throat, and unlike all the other attempts to identify Throat, it is meticulous and scholarly.
To paraphrase [Senator] Baker, "What did Deep Throat know and when did he know it?"
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
That sounds like the official version of Watergate to me...
Eewwww, JWR carries the creepy KO? Damn.
>>>>Was Nixon expressing surprise because he thought Hoover was an anti-Semite?
I don't know. But I would love for the focus to stay on the leak part. The other thread went nuts with the anti semetism.(sp?)
This is great!
"Unmasking Deep Throat"
John Dean, on a decades-long quest to identify history's most elusive news source, brings new evidence to the fore in his new book.
snip
When did you decide Throat was not a composite, and why?
Actually, it was Bob Woodward who persuaded me. I happened to state publicly in a speech, not long after his book came out, that I thought Throat was a composite, and that was picked up by the Washington Post. I had first met and had dinner with Bob not long before the speech, and when he sent me a message assuring me it was not a composite, I believed him.
So you take Woodward at his word about all this?
Absolutely. Over the past 30 years I've gotten to know Bob, and everything I know about him reeks of honesty and sincerity. I don't think he has ever lost his Midwestern values, and I can't imagine him playing games. He has staked his professional reputation on his reporting, and while other journalists carp, and complain about his use of unidentified sources, I believe he reports as accurately and candidly as humanly possible.
In your new book, "Unmasking Deep Throat," you write that you have relied on Woodward's honesty in figuring out who might be Deep Throat. Did you find anything in your research that might change your mind?
To the contrary. I was able to locate a copy of the unedited manuscript of "All The President's Men," which runs about 900 pages. It is probably twice as long as the published book ended up. Not only did I find clues about Deep Throat that for one reason or another did not make it into the book, I found many examples of both Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's candor -- like explaining who had undertaken various activities, and how it took time to develop what has now become their lifelong friendship. For anyone to not accept Woodward's information about Throat, in the manuscript, in the book and in his statements over the past two and half decades, would make searching for him futile. If Woodward has not been honest, it would make Deep Throat a hoax. I don't believe that is the case, and few have peeled apart his work like I have.
http://tinyurl.com/9kf48
How Throat got so much wrong, and why his leaks were not only ethical but required by government rules
Read "Unmasking Deep Throat" and learn:
# Why Throat couldn't have been an FBI man;
# The surprising amount of misinformation Deep Throat passed along to Woodward;
# How a White House attorney who fit all the clues turned out to be the wrong man;
# And nearly everything else you ever wanted to know about Deep Throat.
As Woodward describes him, "He was, incongruously, an incurable gossip(He hated talking on the phone or at his office), careful to label rumor for what it was, but fascinated by it."
Although Woodward, Bernstein, former Post editor Ben Bradlee and Deep Throat himself are the only ones in the know(He said he didn't know his name only where he worked), that hasn't stopped any number of former insiders and would-be experts from offering their theories.
CANDIDATES:
Here's a look at several Deep Throat suspects put forth over the years:
MARK FELT: The former FBI official is considered a leading candidate. White House tapes from 1972 recorded Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman telling the president that most of the leaks were coming from Felt. Also, the Hartford Courant newspaper reported that a 19-year-old it interviewed in 1999 said Bernstein's son Jacob had told him that Felt was Deep Throat. Bernstein and his ex-wife, Nora Ephron, deny he ever told his son.
CHARLES BATES: The former assistant director of the FBI's General Investigative Division is considered another top candidate, according to journalist James Mann, who also listed Mark Felt. Bates had supervisory authority over the break-in.
L. PATRICK GRAY: The former acting FBI director fits Woodward and Bernstein's description, lived close to Woodward, and was the only one of the suspects who could have met with Woodward on the pertinent dates, according to a CBS documentary.
ROBERT KUNKEL: The former special agent was in charge of the FBI's Washington field office.
HENRY KISSINGER: The former national security adviser and secretary of state is often cited as a candidate, if only for his proximity to Nixon, but there's little evidence that he's the guy.
DAVID GERGEN: The Nixon adviser, who also served in the Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations, threatened legal actions against Esquire magazine when the publication in 1976 named him as its top candidate. Former NBC correspondent Jim Miklaszewski has said he thinks Gergen is Deep Throat.
PAT BUCHANAN: University of Illinois students working on a Watergate project unanimously fingered Buchanan in a recent study. Buchanan, was a speechwriter and special assistant in the Nixon administration. He later became a TV commentator and presidential candidate.
RON ZIEGLER: Former White House press secretary
LEONARD GARMENT: Former White House counsel and Nixon friend
NAMES BERNSTEIN OR WOODWARD RULED OUT: Nixon chief of staff Al Haig, Watergate prosecutor Earl Silbert, Republican operative John Sears, CIA director William Colby (deceased), White House aide (now ABC anchor) Diane Sawyer, CIA official Cord Meyer (deceased).
There is one problem that Woodward never prepared for..That Felt would live into his 90's...I'm sure they all thought he'd be long gone by now..how else can you explain the near panic and double talk .
That has been addressed all along. Felt did have a source in the WH (and in the fog of morning---it's only just after 6am here---I can't recall who) in addition to access to FBI material. There is zero doubt he served in the role known as "Deep Throat" as conjecture and analysis has consistantly pointed to over the years, since 1974.
Do I deny there were other sources in addition to Felt as the Deep Throat informant? Of course not.
You insist this is "sudden". It is not, as multiple sources speak of being approached by the Felts over the last 2-3 years. Trying to connect it to somehow getting Newsweek out of hot water makes no sense. It doesn't serve in any way except to cause you and perhaps others to fret that currently the spotlight is off of Newsweek.
Make no mistake. This media and this current bunch of Democrat "leaders" (who aren't worthy of the term) are dreaming of bringing down yet another Republican president.
Excuse me, but you're late to the game of what I and others have been saying for years.
Evidently that's exactly what that kid did---the one who Jacob Bernstein told in '88 that Mark Felt was Deep Throat when the kids were 8 & 9.
I saw the boy (now a man but looking boyish) on MSNBC the other day. He wrote a term paper when he was a senior in high school asserting Felt's identity and presenting analysis exactly as you propose, down to the original nickname W&B had given him of "My Friend" having Mark Felt's initials. I wish we could see the term paper. The kid received a "B". LOL
I heard he does drink Scotch (or did--the man is now 91), just not heavily.
Someone on the day it was revealed who knew him stated this on one of the cables.
Also, someone who had engaged over the years in "who is Deep Throat" speculation had deduced several years ago that he wasn't a smoker as presented by Woodward and Bernstein.
As Woodward describes him, "He was, incongruously, an incurable gossip(He hated talking on the phone or at his office)
On the day Felt was revealed, several people--not just one--stated Felt was known to be accessible to reporters.
Ephron states just the opposite. She wrote on the Huffington Post the other day how she did tell her son and anyone else she felt like telling:
I knew that Deep Throat was Mark Felt because I figured it out. Carl Bernstein, to whom I was married for a brief time, certainly would never have told me; he was far too intelligent to tell me a secret like that. He refused to tell his children too, who are also my children, so I told them, and they told others, and even so, years passed and no one really listened to any of us.
~snip~
Bless her heart.
She wrote "Heartburn" about their marriage.
I have my copy from when it first came out. The movie starred Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.
I always liked that she named his mistress "Thelma" in the book.
LOL
Oh my...I just looked it up at Amazon and someone entered a review on June 2 saying how they re-read the book every couple years and pulled it out that day because of the Mark Felt revelation. The reviewer points out that she called the Bernstein character "Mark Feldman" in her book. I pulled out my copy to verify and she did!
Howlin, I've seen you mention the book before. Check out the review I note above. Just an interesting aside.
Book came out in 1983...
OMG, how did you remember that? That is one of my favorite books -- EVER. I died laughing the entire time I was reading it.
I told my friends, "He may have cheated on her, but she got him back."
My absolute favorite part of the money was when she was in her therapist's office and said "I want Mark back." The therapist said, "You're making progress; last week you wanted him dead," to which she said, "I want him back, but I want him back dead."
In fact I just found it summed up at geocities and posted it on another thread. It shows the same dustcover I have:
Rachel Samstat, cookbook author and transplanted New Yorker takes time and recipes to come to terms with the fact that her husband Mark Feldman has been spending his afternoons out; not buying socks, as he claimed, but having an affair...
Subtle jab or subconscious?
Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, PC, is a British politician for the Labour Party.
Her father is former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, and she was educated at Blackheath High School. In 1969, she married fellow-journalist, Peter Jay, who was later appointed ambassador to the United States of America by Callaghan. While in the USA, she met Carl Bernstein, with whom she had a much-publicised relationship in 1979 -- with the result that she was unflatteringly depicted in a novel by Bernstein's wife, Nora Ephron. She and Jay were divorced in 1986, after eighteen years of marriage.
She was a journalist with the BBC before her creation as a Baroness in 1992. She was an opposition Whip, and after her party's election victory was made Minister for Women and later Leader of the House of Lords. She retired from politics in 2001.
Thanks. I'm going to have to re-read my book---it's not long. I don't think I ever knew who "Thelma" ("Thelma Rice" actually) was in real life, or if I did I didn't retain the knowledge.
Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter. Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has "a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb and you should see her legs" is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron's irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes. Heartburn is sinfully delicious novel, as soul-satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect souffle.*
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