Deep Throat spills it

Gentle Giant · May-31st-2005, 12:19 PM

Ex-FBI man claims to be "Deep Throat" - U.S. magazine

By Reuters | May 31, 2005

Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday 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.

The magazine said Felt, now a retiree living in Santa Rosa, California, had admitted his role in the scandal to his family and had cooperated with the story. It is the first time a major potential source has claimed to be "Deep Throat."

Gentle Giant · May-31st-2005, 12:25 PM

From Slate, in 2002:

Why Did Bob Woodward Lunch With Mark Felt in 1999?
Was it to ask if he could unmask Deep Throat?
By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, May 2, 2002, at 7:29 PM PT

As Chatterbox noted yesterday, the best guess going about the identity of Deep Throat, Bob Woodward's crucial but anonymous Watergate informer, has long been W. Mark Felt, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In his haste to write yesterday's item, Chatterbox failed to chase down a tip he'd received (apparently first published in the Globe tabloid) that Woodward actually had lunch with Felt within the last few years. Today's Washington Times explains (in its "Inside the Beltway" column) that this information comes from a new book by Ronald Kessler, The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, due to be published next week. Like James Mann, who published the definitive Deep Throat piece 10 years ago in the Atlantic, Kessler worked at the Post during Watergate (he left in 1985), though Chatterbox doesn't know whether Kessler, like Mann, will speak out of school about what Woodward told colleagues at the time. Here, according to the Washington Times, is how Kessler relates the story of the Woodward-Felt lunch:

In the summer of 1999, [Bob] Woodward showed up unexpectedly at the home of Felt's daughter, Joan, in Santa Rosa, California, north of San Francisco, and took him to lunch, Joan Felt, who was taking care of him at her home, told me.

She recalled that Woodward made his appearance just after a mini-controversy broke in the press late July 1999 about whether Bernstein had told his then-wife, Nora Ephron, that Felt was Deep Throat. Woodward had been interviewing former FBI officials for a book he was writing on Watergate.

However, now confused because of the effects of a stroke, Felt was in no shape to provide credible information. Joan said her father greeted Woodward like an old friend, and their mysterious meeting appeared to be more of a celebration than an interview, lending support to the notion that Felt was, in fact, Deep Throat.

"Woodward just showed up at the door and said he was in the area," Joan Felt said. "He came in a white limousine, which parked at a schoolyard about 10 blocks away. He walked to the house. He asked if it was OK to have a martini with my father at lunch, and I said it would be fine."

A few caveats are in order. Chatterbox interviewed Felt in the summer of 1999, too, and found him fairly lucid, if annoyed to be asked once again if he was Deep Throat. (Maybe he had his good days and his bad days.) If Woodward was interviewing former FBI officials for a new book about Watergate, that would of course provide ample justification for Woodward to seek out Felt, even if Felt wasn't Deep Throat. (Felt was, after all, the No. 3 guy at the FBI during Watergate.) In 1999, Felt denied to Chatterbox that he was Deep Throat, just as Felt denied it, more recently, to Kessler (with the difference being that by the time Kessler asked him, Felt apparently had difficulty remembering exactly who Bob Woodward was).

Still, the timing is intriguing. When Woodward came calling, Felt had just been the subject of a flurry of stories about Chase Culeman-Beckman, a 19-year-old from Port Chester, N.Y., who'd revealed to the Hartford Courant that Bernstein's son, Jacob, 11 years earlier had blurted out at summer camp that Deep Throat was W. Mark Felt. (Click here for the full story.) Carl Bernstein and his ex-wife, Nora Ephron, quickly stepped in to explain that Bernstein had never told his wife or son Deep Throat's identity and that Ephron had just always guessed it to be Felt. But Ephron's intuition on this matter has to carry some weight, and it seems logical that in the aftermath of this awkward episode, Woodward would have felt the need to explore with Felt whether it was time to reveal their secret. Based on what the Washington Times passed on from Kessler's book, though, Kessler's evidence is not dispositive.

Timothy Noah writes "Chatterbox" for Slate.

tristano's ghost · May-31st-2005, 12:25 PM

What does Woodward say? If Felt was truly the source, it would seem BW is no longer bound by his pledge of confidentiality.

Gentle Giant · May-31st-2005, 12:26 PM

And 1999:

Deep Throat: The Game Is Afoot
Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, July 29, 1999, at 1:42 PM PT

Reporter David Daley of the Hartford Courant has found W. Mark Felt, the former FBI associate director believed by the late Richard Nixon and various other people to have been Deep Throat. (See "Another Bulletin From the Deep Throat Desk," "Deep Throat Revealed [Again]," and "Deep Throat Revealed [One Last Time].") Knowing that Felt had denied being Deep Throat before, Chatterbox wondered aloud earlier this week whether Felt would still deny it. Daley did better than wonder: In a story published in Wednesday's Courant, Daley tracked the 85-year-old Felt down in California and asked him if he was Deep Throat. "No, it's not me," Felt answered.

I would have done better. I would have been more effective. Deep Throat didn't exactly bring the White House crashing down, did he?

Chatterbox doesn't know what to make of Felt's claim that Deep Throat was "ineffective," but will set that aside for now. Daley's story, which was picked up by the Associated Press and MSNBC, broke the news that a 19-year-old from Port Chester, N.Y., named Chase Culeman-Beckman claims to have been told by Carl Bernstein's son Jacob that Deep Throat was ... Mark Felt. Culeman-Beckman says that 11 years ago he attended Hampton Day School Camp in Bridgehampton, Long Island with Carl Bernstein's sons, Jacob and Max, and that Jacob was the one who told him. According to Daley, Culeman-Beckman "said the young Bernstein told him the information came straight from his dad," who of course is one of the three people known to be party to the secret. (The other two are Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee.)

Chatterbox, who is increasingly drawn to the hypothesis that Deep Throat was indeed Felt, finds much to like in this story. As a father, Chatterbox knows that children tend to blab family secrets--and recalls that Joe Klein's authorship of Primary Colors came to light partly as a result of some things his kid talked about at school. And summer camp is a well-known crucible of intimacy. A paper that Culeman-Beckman has written on the subject tells the story most beguilingly:

I was in the "Herons" group along with about fifteen other 8, 9, and 10 year olds ... One Friday in July we went on a trip to Long Beach, Sag Harbor, and Jacob, Max and I ended up sitting in the sand precociously talking about politics. It was an election year and I was in favor of George Bush because he had gone to the Greenwich Country Day School where I was attending, while Jacob and Max were for Michael Dukakis, although I do not remember why. At some point, the conversation turned to Nixon and Watergate ... which I knew little, if nothing, about. During the conversation Jacob told me: "Deep Throat was Mark Felt, he's someone in the FBI. I'm 100% sure."

Still, it would be rash to consider Culeman-Beckman's paper (and Daley's story) dispositive. Most crucially, Culeman-Beckman does not back up Daley's reporting that Jacob Bernstein's information came from Carl Bernstein. Culeman-Beckman told Chatterbox that the context of the Deep Throat conversation was a discussion about Jacob Bernstein's dad. But when pressed, Culeman-Beckman admitted that Jacob Bernstein hadn't said that Carl Bernstein actually told him Deep Throat was Mark Felt. Culeman-Beckman just assumed that was how Jacob knew. "I think that would be the only way for an 8-year-old child to hear such a name," Culeman-Beckman told Chatterbox. But that isn't quite right. It's at least as possible that Jacob Bernstein got the idea from his mother, journalist-turned-movie-director Nora Ephron, who has stated publicly in the past her suspicions about Felt. ("I always thought it was Mark Felt, the third guy at the FBI," she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1993. "But Carl would never tell me. So I honestly don't know.")

Sure enough, today's New York Post has Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron both saying that Jacob was merely parroting his mother's Deep Throat hypothesis. Bernstein says that neither Ephron nor Jacob Bernstein knows Deep Throat's identity "any more than the man in the moon does," and that Jacob was "repeating his mother's guesswork." Ephron says that "Carl never told me who Deep Throat was, which was very smart because I would have told the whole world by now." (Ephron and Bernstein had a famously nasty divorce, chronicled in Ephron's novel Heartburn, later made into a movie with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.)

Incidentally, Culeman-Beckman's paper unearths a nifty Felt-related snippet from the White House tapes that Chatterbox didn't know about. As in the White House tapes excerpt Chatterbox previously cited, Felt is discussed as a probable leaker. This time, though, Nixon (who, among other things, will likely be remembered as America's last anti-Semitic president) expresses horror at discovering Felt to be Jewish. This conversation, dated Oct. 19, 1972, is even more Gothic than the last:

Nixon: Well, if they've got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can't Gray tell us what the hell is left? You know what I mean?...

Haldeman: We know what's left, and we know who leaked it.

Nixon: Somebody in the FBI?

Haldeman: Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can't say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there's a real concern. Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because--

Nixon: Do anything? Never.

Haldeman: If we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything ...

Nixon: What would you do with Felt?

Haldeman: Well, I asked Dean ...

Nixon: You know what I'd do with him, the bastard? Well that's all I want to hear about it.

Haldeman: I think he wants to be in the top spot.

Nixon: That's a hell of a way for him to get to the top.

Haldeman: You can figure a lot of--maybe he thought--first of all, he has to figure that if you stay in as president there's a possibility or probability Gray will stay on. If McGovern comes in, then you know Gray's going to be out ...

Nixon: Is he Catholic?

Haldeman: (unintelligible) Jewish.

President Nixon: Christ, put a Jew in there?

Haldeman: Well, that could explain it too.

[Update, 8/4/99: After much pestering online and by phone, Chatterbox has finally gotten The Atlantic to post on its Web site Jim Mann's watershed Deep Throat piece. Click here and wonder no more about Deep Throat's place of employment.]

Timothy Noah writes "Chatterbox" for Slate.

al j · May-31st-2005, 12:26 PM

I hope Felt is ready to spend the next few months drinking coffee while being interrogated. Should Bernstein and Woodward confirm that he is Deep Throat, I'll patiently await the book that should be written.

Brian Olewnick · May-31st-2005, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Nixon: Is he Catholic?

Haldeman: (unintelligible) Jewish.

President Nixon: Christ, put a Jew in there?

Haldeman: Well, that could explain it too.

Dialogue like this never ceases to amaze me though it should have, long ago. I have little doubt that its equivalent has gone on in every White House since then. Yecch.

bostontricky · May-31st-2005, 12:46 PM

Fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

John Dean: [ standing over Nixon's desk; a microphone is unseen underneath a small lamp on the desk ] ..Plus.. there's a real problem.. in raising money.

[ Dean holds up handwritten sign: "Let's Pretend There's A Cover Up"; Nixon laughs, removes lampshade to reveal hidden microphone ]

John Dean: Uh.. Mitchell.. Mitchell has been working on raising some money.. feeling he's got, you know.. he's one of the ones with the most.. to lose

President Richard Nixon: [ covers microphone with hand, tries not to laugh ] Martha!

John Dean: ..but.. there is no denying the fact that the White House - Ehrlichman, Haldeman.. [ points to himself ] ..Dean - are all involved in some of the.. early.. money decisions.

President Richard Nixon: [ stands slightly to speak directly into the microphone ] How much money do they need?

John Dean: Well.. I would say these people are going to cost, uh.. uh.. [ looks to Nixon for help, who sticks both thumbs in the air to silently cue Dean to pick a high number ] ..a million dollars! Over the next.. two years.

[ Nixon and Dean pound on the desk to subdue their laughter ]

President Richard Nixon: We could get that.

John Dean: [ stifling laughter ] Uh-huh.

[ Nixon scribbles on a pad, then, laughing silently, holds it up to reveal the message: "Let's Talk In Incomplete Sentences" ]

President Richard Nixon: Uh.. uh.. You, uh.. on the money.. if you, uh.. need the money, I mean, uh.. you could get the money. Let's say, uh..

John Dean: Well, I think if we're going to, uh..

President Richard Nixon: What I meant is, uh.. you could get, uh.. you could get a million dollars. And you could get it in cash.

[ Dean stick two pencils up his nose, resembling a walrus; Nixon practically falls out of his chair laughing at the sight ]

President Richard Nixon: I, uh.. I know where it could be gotten!

John Dean: Uh, huh! [ puts lampshade on his head and dances in a circle, to nixon's amusement ]

President Richard Nixon: I mean it's not easy.. but it could be done!

[ Dean drops his pants and continues to dance with lampshade on his head; Nixon falls to the floor laughing, as Dean pounds on the desk in a fit of laughter ]

Dialogue like this never ceases to amaze me though it should have, long ago. I have little doubt that its equivalent has gone on in every White House since then. Yecch.

tristano's ghost · May-31st-2005, 01:15 PM

Sure looks like it is indeed Felt.

Gentle Giant · May-31st-2005, 02:32 PM

BTW, I was going to name this thread "Deep Throat Comes Clean" but thought better of it.

frankiepop · May-31st-2005, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Dialogue like this never ceases to amaze me though it should have, long ago. I have little doubt that its equivalent has gone on in every White House since then. Yecch.

and statements like that made with virtually no supporting evidence...never cease to amaze me....some people are so full of .........

Brian Olewnick · May-31st-2005, 02:52 PM

Yeah, Protestant prejudice against Jews and Catholics is such a rarity and politicians, especially those who make it to the White House, are generally of such high moral fiber. You're probably right.

groover · May-31st-2005, 03:39 PM

Well, we know Clinton was Jew-friendly, or at least he was to Monica. He was also a strong supporter of Israel. I have my doubts about the post-Nixon Republican presidents, though.

Brian Olewnick · May-31st-2005, 03:49 PM

Yeah, and Nixon had Kissinger.

Not for sex, though, I don't think.

Monte Smith · May-31st-2005, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

BTW, I was going to name this thread "Deep Throat Comes Clean" but thought better of it.

Thank goodness some of us are mature enough not to make the predictable "Deep Throat" porn movie references. See, I would have called this thread "91-Year-Old Former Official Exposes Himself."

Squaredancecalling Steve · May-31st-2005, 04:17 PM

Hot local story!!

Felt's relatives have been appearing on the media, confirming the story, saying that in the past he felt it was dishonorable to have brought down a president, but now that he sees that history views him as a hero he feels comfortable admitting it.

Brian Olewnick · May-31st-2005, 04:22 PM

Felt felt remorse.

Squaredancecalling Steve · May-31st-2005, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Felt felt remorse.

There's an old print shop exercise that goes like this:

There were two typesetters, Willy and Had. Willy had had HAD HAD, Had had had HAD HAD. HAD HAD had had the editor's approval.

crawjo · May-31st-2005, 04:43 PM

I thought we already knew that Deep Throat was Hal Holbrook?

patricia · May-31st-2005, 05:57 PM

Felt being "Deep Throat" has been confirmed by Woodward and Bernstein within the last few minutes. So, it's official.

Monte Smith · May-31st-2005, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patricia

So, it's official.

Official and disappointing. I always liked the speculation that DT was a really big fish. Like Haig, Kissenger, or even the former President Bush.

Gentle Giant · May-31st-2005, 08:06 PM

I feel bad that he "felt" for so long that he had done something wrong. He absolutely is a hero and should be officially recognized and rewarded for doing the work of a real patriot.

frankiepop · May-31st-2005, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Yeah, Protestant prejudice against Jews and Catholics is such a rarity and politicians, especially those who make it to the White House, are generally of such high moral fiber. You're probably right.

yeaaaah, that's what this is all about..

Monte Smith · May-31st-2005, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

I feel bad that he "felt" for so long that he had done something wrong. He absolutely is a hero and should be officially recognized and rewarded for doing the work of a real patriot.

According to the Post, Felt apparently was animated by feelings that he should have been given the top slot at the FBI. Now, "heroes" don't always have the best motives. And I don't think Richard Nixon was a good President, despite doing good things in office and despite having been a fantastic Senator and Ike's veep. But you'll forgive me if I don't get on the liberla train that wants to ride Felt toward hagiography or heroism. He's a dude who mixed it up in the mother of all capital scandals--making -gate an unfortunate household suffix for decades. But he didn't stand alone to bring down the President with a whispered hint. That's the stuff of Hollywood. He's really just a loose end.

Anyway, I eagerly await the next columns from Bob Woodward, Ben Bradlee, and Carl Bernstein.

ormsbop · May-31st-2005, 09:55 PM

I get most of my news from BBC radio, Newshour etc. I'm looking forward to hearing Judy Swallow explain how Deepthroat's Felt.

al j · May-31st-2005, 10:01 PM

Speculating on Deep Throat's indentity was the next greatest intrigue about Watergate, after Nixon closed the book himself.

If anyone deserves commendation it's Woodward and Bernstein. Journalism's best kept secret is now history. If only more in the media knew about the honor in keeping a mouth shut and a pen capped.

curmudgeonpatrol · May-31st-2005, 10:02 PM

They held every drop.

GoodSpeak · May-31st-2005, 11:01 PM

As if we needed some sort of verification.

Squaredancecalling Steve · June-1st-2005, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

But you'll forgive me if I don't get on the liberla train that wants to ride Felt toward hagiography or heroism.

Not likely to happen since Felt was also indicted -- and CONVICTED -- of criminal charges for illegal wiretaps on the Weather Undeground.

Monte Smith · June-1st-2005, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

Not likely to happen since Felt was also indicted -- and CONVICTED -- of criminal charges for illegal wiretaps on the Weather Undeground.

OK, I would shovel coal into the Felt hero train for that.

Tom Storer · June-1st-2005, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

According to the Post, Felt apparently was animated by feelings that he should have been given the top slot at the FBI. Now, "heroes" don't always have the best motives.

Quite true. But I could easily imagine a mix of disgruntlement and sincere indignation. Not only was he passed over for the top spot in favor of a Nixon crony who didn't come up through the FBI ranks, but that crony promptly began holding back the FBI's investigation of the Watergate affair. Not only did Felt get the shaft, but the new director was tarnishing the Bureau's honor. (In the old-school FBI that Felt came up in, the FBI should have been pulling the President's strings, not the other way around!)

Quote:

He's really just a loose end.

Neither the single romantic figure who brought the whole edifice tumbling down, nor just a loose end. Apparently he was central to the Washington Post's investigation by confirming or dismissing information from other sources and by orienting the direction the journalists took. It was he who allowed Woodward and Bernstein to work so swiftly and boldly, by accelerating their fact-checking time, giving them confidence, and helping them avoid fruitless paths.