Well, the secret is out. The 30-year mystery identity of who was Deep Throat--the highly placed anonymous source who provided key information to Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon's presidency--is now identified as W. Mark Felt.
Who the heck is W. Mark Felt?
According to an article released by Vanity Fair today, Felt was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 70s. As of 5:27pm ET, the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward and their former top editor Benjamin C. Bradlee have confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat. Deep Throat was responsible for providing guidance and politically explosive information which propelled the two young reporters to unravel the Watergate break-in of the Democratic National committee headquarters and subsequent cover-up by the Nixon White House. As a result of the exposure of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon was forced to resign from the presidency. Felt was called Deep Throat for both the quality of his deep background of information and as a nickname for a popular porn movie star of the 1970s.
This is an incredibly fascinating news story. The rumors and mystery surrounding Deep Throat are so widely varied and somewhat off-the-wall. Deep Throat was rumored to be Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, deputy White House counsel Fred Fielding, former speechwriter Patrick Buchanan, and even ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer who was working in the White House press office. Deep Throat was also considered to be a composite figure of several sources rather than a single source. What is even more amazing is that the identity of Felt as Deep Throat has remained secret for over 30 years--even amid all the speculation and rumors.
This revelation is going to rewrite the history books on the Nixon presidency. What is really interesting is that the source of Deep Throat did not come from the White House, but rather from the FBI. So the big question is why did Felt help Woodward and Bernstein? What was his motives and politics behind this scandal? The Washington Post article alludes to some conflicts between the White House and the FBI, who was investigating the Watergate break-in. The Watergate break-in came shortly after the death of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was Felt's mentor, and Felt probably had hoped that he would become the next FBI director. Nixon instead appointed a political insider, assistant attorney general L. Patrick Gray, to the post. Was Nixon's appointment of a political insider a means for the White House to deflect the Watergate investigation by the FBI away from Richard Nixon? Was Felt betrayed by Nixon when he wasn't offered the director's job at the FBI? What did Gray and Felt know of the investigation or of the cover-up and when did they know it? What were their responsibilities during the FBI's investigation of Watergate? The entire Watergate scandal has taken a new turn with a fascinating story of the conflicts between the Nixon White House and the FBI. It is a story which has yet to be written.
No comments:
Post a Comment