Deep Throat to be named

John Dean, the White House counsel whose revelations about the Nixon presidency were the first flames in the volcano of Watergate scandal, is about to turn up the heat again by revealing the identity of Deep Throat.

including panelists Oliver Stone and Arianna Huffington, moderated by Chronicle Columnist Bob Scheer -- Dean said "The Deep Throat Brief" will be published online by Salon.com on June 17.

Dean told TIC yesterday that he'd spent about 20 years going through archives and tapes. "I thought that 30 years of hiding was long enough. It's a great brainteaser, and an avocational pursuit that I finally got serious about buttoning up for the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in." June 19, two days after publication, is also the anniversary of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's first conversation with Throat about Watergate, says Dean, who's familiar enough with the protagonist to call him by one name.

As new Nixon material comes to light with grinding regularity, those whose lives were most closely intertwined with him have watched with fascination. "As Woodward said, 'It's the gift that keeps on giving,' " said Dean. "I did a book called 'The Rehnquist Choice' based on Nixon's recorded conversations about all the people involved in filling the two vacancies on the Supreme Court. I put it together as dialogue, and it fell into a three-act play. . . . He astounds. He just never stops surprising us. His anti-Semitism has now become old hat, but his take on women is amazing. He didn't think they should be educated, he didn't think they should vote, he didn't think they should be in his Cabinet. He was serious about putting a woman on the Supreme Court for political reasons." Reading the archived material, "I would just break out laughing."

The advantage of publishing an e-book, said Dean, who did not receive an advance from Salon, is that "I can work on it up to the last minute." Time magazine is planning to run an excerpt.

"There's one person who's headed into Richard Nixon's eternal history who outranks me as his worst enemy, and that's Deep Throat. Nixon said Dean was a traitor and Deep Throat was even worse. I wanted to visit with this person."

There was only one individual who fits all of the following criteria: (i) He knew in advance, unlike all of those excepting the burglars themselves, when the Watergate break-in would occur, (ii) He shredded vital documents pertaining to 'Watergate', (iii) He knew more than H.R. Haldeman or anyone else in the White House about the activities of Liddy and his superiors in the White House, (iv) He was indicted by the Sirica court, (v) His was the only Watergate testimony that was not heard in open court, but only in camera, (vi) He was the only one indicted by the Sirica court who never served one second of jail time, (vii) He fits all of the criteria attributed to 'Deep Throat' by Woodward & Bernstein, including the only physical characteristic that was attributed to Deep Throat in anything W & B wrote about him: his lower jaw quivers when he is under stress, something that was plainly visible when he appeared on TV during the Watergate hearings.

There is only one individual who, based on information that has been known to the public for the past 27 years, conforms with the following criteria: (i) He knew, in advance, unlike all excepting the Watergate burglars themselves, when the Watergate break-in would occur, (ii) He shredded more vital documents pertaining to 'Watergate' than any other single individual, (iii) He knew more than anyone else in the White House about the activities of Liddy and his cohorts, including all of Liddy's 'controlling authorities' and associates in the White House, (iv) He was duly indicted by the Sirica court but his was the only Watergate testimony that was not heard in open court, only in camera, (v) He was the only one indicted by the Sirica court who never served one second of jail time, (vi) He fits all of the criteria attributed to 'Deep Throat' by Woodward & Bernstein, including the only physical characteristic attributed to Deep Throat in anything W & B wrote about him: his lower jaw quivers when he is under stress, something that was plainly visible when he appeared on TV during the Watergate hearings, (vii) In spite of all of these qualifications, he has never been suspected by any in the Nixon administration because he has been seen as a 'loyal soldier', someone whose views were more conservative than most others around Nixon. Noting that many conservative Republicans despise(d) Nixon even more than the most ardent McGovernites, then and now, this has always seemed to me to be a dubious reason for thinking he could not have been Deep Throat.

What mitigating circumstance could have led the Sirica court to grant such unique leniency to an individual who had foreknowledge that the crime was to be committed, and afterward, had shredded key evidence of the crime ? Before identifying him, I'll wait a respectful time for others to venture to provide his name, and also invite others to weigh-in on the subject of whether or not anyone who uniquely satisfies these criteria is as likely to be 'Deep Throat' as any candidate that John Dean might have in mind. One clue: he is not older, if as old as W & B themselves, suggesting that the 'death watch' usually placed on the identification of 'Deep Throat' might be much longer than is generally assumed. Of course, if I'm wrong, I'll apologize.

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Al Haig!