Deep Throat Revealed??? - Press Clips

[base283 0]

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1) Why he did not reveal himself earlier I don't know, but I guess he was concerned about repercussions, or just did not want to compromise his privacy. Could be lots of reasons.

He wasn´t finished with his book. It´s all about the Benjamins.
take care,
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[Gravitymaster 0]

He could have gone to Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski. Instead he chose to hide in the shadows. Something to think about: J. Edgar Hoover had much on JFK he could have gone to the press about. Should he have?

[kallend 1,647]

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He could have gone to Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski. Instead he chose to hide in the shadows. Something to think about: J. Edgar Hoover had much on JFK he could have gone to the press about. Should he have?

Nixon could NOT fire the Washington Post like he did Cox.

I find it hard to believe that you REALLY remember the atmosphere at that time, and the tremendous abuse of power by the Nixon White House. Your statements seem rather naive.

Seems to me that Deep Throat did exactly the right thing. Going through "channels" likely would not have achieved much.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[lawrocket 3]

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Seems to me that Deep Throat did exactly the right thing. Going through "channels" likely would not have achieved much.

As I indicated in my first post, I'm always interested in why people do things. Maybe from trying to figure out why I do things sometimes.

I pointed with admiration at a person who did his duty despite personal motivations. It now appears that he may have violated his duties due to personal motivations.

Why did this guy reman silent? Why does he not view himself as a hero? It's likely due to his personal belief that he probably did things the worng way and for the wrong reasons. Sure, he helped to bring down a corrupt administration, but for a guy like him to do it the way he did must be tough for him to face.

He didn't do things "by the book." He didn't use proper channels. He did things his way.

I'll bet he feels a great deal bad about it. In a sense he bacame what he despised. Others view him as honorable, but he can't seem to view himself through the same glasses as others.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Gravitymaster 0]

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He could have gone to Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski. Instead he chose to hide in the shadows. Something to think about: J. Edgar Hoover had much on JFK he could have gone to the press about. Should he have?

Nixon could NOT fire the Washington Post like he did Cox.

I find it hard to believe that you REALLY remember the atmosphere at that time, and the tremendous abuse of power by the Nixon White House. Your statements seem rather naive.

Seems to me that Deep Throat did exactly the right thing. Going through "channels" likely would not have achieved much.

You are misunderstanding what I'm saying. I didn't say he should have gone public with his info, but he could have gone to Cox or Jawarski with the same info and it would have helped their investigations, instead he chose to go to the Washington Post. You do realize what he did was illegal and that even today, if he recieves any money for the information he provided, he could be charged with taking bribes.

It is you who is naive. Do a search for Alfred Baldwin. He was an FBI Agent who did exactly what Felts should have done. His information actually helped the Special Prosecutors. Felts did not. Felts information was provided as retribution about being denied a promotion to Director of the FBI.

[kallend 1,647]

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He could have gone to Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox or Leon Jaworski. Instead he chose to hide in the shadows. Something to think about: J. Edgar Hoover had much on JFK he could have gone to the press about. Should he have?

Nixon could NOT fire the Washington Post like he did Cox.

I find it hard to believe that you REALLY remember the atmosphere at that time, and the tremendous abuse of power by the Nixon White House. Your statements seem rather naive.

Seems to me that Deep Throat did exactly the right thing. Going through "channels" likely would not have achieved much.

You are misunderstanding what I'm saying. I didn't say he should have gone public with his info, but he could have gone to Cox or Jawarski with the same info and it would have helped their investigations, instead he chose to go to the Washington Post. You do realize what he did was illegal and that even today, if he recieves any money for the information he provided, he could be charged with taking bribes.

It is you who is naive. Do a search for Alfred Baldwin. He was an FBI Agent who did exactly what Felts should have done. His information actually helped the Special Prosecutors. Felts did not. Felts information was provided as retribution about being denied a promotion to Director of the FBI.

It is my opinion that without the public exposure, the entire affair would have eventually been covered up.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[storm1977 0]

Judge Andrew Napolitano was on tv yesterday and made some interesting points on how Felt could be arrested in the near future for bribary.

The complete act of bribary has not yet occured, however, if Woodward writes a book and profits, and then gives any money to Felt, that would be considered the second half of a bribe.

The statue of Limitations for bribary is 5yrs, however, that wouldn't begin until the bribe was completed which wouldn't occur until money changed hands.

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Sometimes it is more important to protect LIFE than Liberty

[dorbie 0]

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Judge Andrew Napolitano was on tv yesterday and made some interesting points on how Felt could be arrested in the near future for bribary.

The complete act of bribary has not yet occured, however, if Woodward writes a book and profits, and then gives any money to Felt, that would be considered the second half of a bribe.

The statue of Limitations for bribary is 5yrs, however, that wouldn't begin until the bribe was completed which wouldn't occur until money changed hands.

It would be a miraculous accomplishment to prove the action was contingent on the reward. It's bloody obvious to everyone it wasn't, amazing the sorts of shit a TV camera will extract from people, moreover Woodward would also be subject to prosecution in such a fantasy.

The most troubling thing in all of this was that this guy's transgressions (illegal FBI breakins) were pardoned.

This is exactly the kind of thing kallend would normally be screaming blue murder over, but this old buzzard gets a free pass because he brought down a republican. Heck can you imagine what would be said by the guys defending this self serving malicious old hypocrite if Bush pardoned someone in the FBI who illegally wiretapped moveon.org? Heck I'd like to see a Nexis search on what the left said when Reagan did pardon him.

[GeorgiaDon 340]

The Washington Post began publishing articles based on tips from Deep Throat in August 1972. It was only because of the pressure from the press that a special prosecutor (Cox) was eventually appointed on May 18 1973. If Felt had not leaked info to the press there would never have been a special prosecutor to investigate things, and Nixon and his gang would probably have been able to cover the whole thing up. Remember that the attorney general (Mitchell) and Felt's boss (Grey) at the FBI were both actively involved in the initial plot and/or the cover-up. Felt knew that Grey was assisting to destroy evidence. So who exactly should Felt have gone to? Your suggestion that he save his testimony for Cox makes no sense.

_____________________________________
Tolerance is the cost we must pay for our adventure in liberty. (Dworkin, 1996)
“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” (Yeats)

[kallend 1,647]

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Judge Andrew Napolitano was on tv yesterday and made some interesting points on how Felt could be arrested in the near future for bribary.

The complete act of bribary has not yet occured, however, if Woodward writes a book and profits, and then gives any money to Felt, that would be considered the second half of a bribe.

The statue of Limitations for bribary is 5yrs, however, that wouldn't begin until the bribe was completed which wouldn't occur until money changed hands.

It would be a miraculous accomplishment to prove the action was contingent on the reward. It's bloody obvious to everyone it wasn't, amazing the sorts of shit a TV camera will extract from people, moreover Woodward would also be subject to prosecution in such a fantasy.

The most troubling thing in all of this was that this guy's transgressions (illegal FBI breakins) were pardoned.

This is exactly the kind of thing kallend would normally be screaming blue murder over, but this old buzzard gets a free pass because he brought down a republican. Heck can you imagine what would be said by the guys defending this self serving malicious old hypocrite if Bush pardoned someone in the FBI who illegally wiretapped moveon.org? Heck I'd like to see a Nexis search on what the left said when Reagan did pardon him.

OK, with your 20/20 hindsight, tell us how YOU would have handled a situation where the most powerful people in the world with a bunch of unscrupulous hired crooks at their beck and call were covering up their own corruption and criminal acts, solely by restricting yourself to official channels.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[dorbie 0]

kallend, it's already been covered extensively. But since it's question time, why have you nothing to say about your new allie's own crimes for which he was pardoned. Gordon Liddy et.al. did their time while this guy was hiding in plain sight asking Reagan for a pardon.

No wonder the guy was ashamed.

[kallend 1,647]

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kallend, it's already been covered extensively. But since it's question time, why have you nothing to say about your new allie's own crimes for which he was pardoned. Gordon Liddy et.al. did their time while this guy was hiding in plain sight asking Reagan for a pardon.

No wonder the guy was ashamed.

He's not my ally, but I don;t see that he had any other realistic alternative with any chance of success.

You Nixon lovers continue to amaze me. The guy was a CROOK.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[dorbie 0]

You're incorrigible.

I'm not a Nixon lover and the topic of what he could have done has been covered at length, I think Kissinger said it best, but why repeat it, you have the means to read what he said if you're genuinely interested in your own question.

Stop evading, why have you nothing to say about this man's crimes? He sent a gang of burglers to jail when he'd committed similar crimes and while they were rotting in jail he managed to get a pardon from a sitting President.

[kallend 1,647]

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You're incorrigible.

I'm not a Nixon lover and the topic of what he could have done has been covered at length, I think Kissinger said it best, but why repeat it, you have the means to read what he said if you're genuinely interested in your own question.

Stop evading, why have you nothing to say about this man's crimes? He sent a gang of burglers to jail when he'd committed similar crimes and while they were rotting in jail he managed to get a pardon from a sitting President.

As I recall, Nixon also managed to get himself a pardon as a condition of his resignation.

That you compare Richard M. "I am not a crook" Nixon's crimes against the people of the USA with DT is just amazing to me.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[dorbie 0]

More deflection. I've listened to Ford's comments on the topic, there was no prior arrangement, and the pardon was pre conviction, not post.

I've drawn no such comparrison, but since we're here a comparrison is not out of line. Why do you absolutely refuse to aknowledge Deep Throat's crimes. Which b.t.w. were AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE USA. He was part of Hoover's big brother machine breaking in and wiretapping 'dissident' U.S. citizens, specifically war protestors. He was also the guy in charge of this at teh FBI, he had virtual autonomy and even nominal control of this towards the end of Hoover's tenure.

How can you ignore this? You seem to think it's OK because he tattled on Nixon for covering up the kinds of things he'd ACTUALLY DONE and ordered?

Do you think it would partly absolve Nixon to acknowledge Deep Throat's flaws? I don't, you seem hell-bent on elevating a guy who under all other circumstances you'd pillory.

[kallend 1,647]

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More deflection. I've listened to Ford's comments on the topic, there was no prior arrangement, and the pardon was pre conviction, not post.

I've drawn no such comparrison, but since we're here a comparrison is not out of line. Why do you absolutely refuse to aknowledge Deep Throat's crimes. Which b.t.w. were AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE USA. He was part of Hoover's big brother machine breaking in and wiretapping 'dissident' U.S. citizens, specifically war protestors. He was also the guy in charge of this at teh FBI, he had virtual autonomy and even nominal control of this towards the end of Hoover's tenure.

How can you ignore this? You seem to think it's OK because he tattled on Nixon for covering up the kinds of things he'd ACTUALLY DONE and ordered?

Do you think it would partly absolve Nixon to acknowledge Deep Throat's flaws? I don't, you seem hell-bent on elevating a guy who under all other circumstances you'd pillory.

I haven't commented at all about DT's "crimes" since I have no knowledge of them. We ALL have seen proof of Nixon's perfidy. Whatever DT's crimes, they pale in comparison to Nixon's.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[dorbie 0]

You profess no knowledge yet you say they pale in comparrison. Unlike Nixon, he was convicted of his crimes, no need to put the word in quotes to trivialize his transgressions. It's all a matter of public record, they don't pale in comparrison, he was at the center of numerous FBI abuses over a prolonged period all uncovered by a congressional investigations years later, he carried out and ordered this stuff for years. He was number 2 at the FBI when the Hoover was a sick old man and while the FBI was routinely flouting the law, and later while he was leaking info to the press to damage a fellow crook (Nixon) who wouldn't promote him.

Even as he was talking to Woodward he was breaking the law, and I don't mean by leaking; he was breaking the law and violating the rights of US citizens including war protestors contemporaneously with the Watergate incident. If you read Woodward's account this guy was a serial leaker, it didn't start because Watergate was a unique threat to him, he was leaking FBI investigative information to Woodward for years before Watergate ever happened.

On top of all this it turns out according to one report that Nixon knew through an undisclosed source that Felt was the leaker anyway, but was afraid to dismiss him because he'd spill all the beans immediately. You can't make this stuff up. It's more twisted than any plausible fiction we could conceive.

[dorbie 0]

It gets even better, on Felt's trial:

"On October 29, 1980, former President Richard Nixon appeared as a rebuttal witness for the defense, and testified that presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had authorized the bureau to engage in break-ins while conducting foreign intelligence and counterespionage investigations. It was Nixon's first courtroom appearance since his resignation in 1974. Nixon also contributed money to Felt's legal defense fund,"

Oh man this is too good.

[Gravitymaster 0]

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The Washington Post began publishing articles based on tips from Deep Throat in August 1972. It was only because of the pressure from the press that a special prosecutor (Cox) was eventually appointed on May 18 1973. If Felt had not leaked info to the press there would never have been a special prosecutor to investigate things, and Nixon and his gang would probably have been able to cover the whole thing up. Remember that the attorney general (Mitchell) and Felt's boss (Grey) at the FBI were both actively involved in the initial plot and/or the cover-up. Felt knew that Grey was assisting to destroy evidence. So who exactly should Felt have gone to? Your suggestion that he save his testimony for Cox makes no sense.

You read the Washington Post and other rags too much. Here's what really happened. AFTER five burglars, including James McCord, who was an employee of the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP), were arrested in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972, the FBI immediately located three important chains of evidence. First, within a week of the break-in, hundred-dollar bills found on the burglars were easily traced by their serial numbers through the Federal Reserve Bank at Atlanta to the Miami bank account of Bernard Barker, one of the burglars arrested in the Watergate. By June 22, the prosecutors had subpoenaed Barker's bank transactions, and had established that the hundred-dollar bills found in the burglary had originally come from contributions to the Committee for the Re- election of the President and specifically from checks deposited by Kenneth Dahlberg, a CRP regional finance chairman, and others. (Copies of these checks were leaked to Woodward and Bernstein by an investigator for the Florida state's attorney one month later, well after the grand jury was presented with this information-and they "revealed" it in the Washington Post on August 1.) And in early June, the treasurer of the Republican National Committee, Hugh W. Sloan, Jr., confirmed to the prosecutors that campaign contributions were given to G. Gordon Liddy, who by then was suspected of being the ringleader of the conspiracy.

Secondly, the FBI, in searching the premises of the burglars, found, within twenty-four hours after their arrest, receipts, address-books, and checks that linked E. Howard Hunt, White House consultant, to the conspiracy. (This information was leaked a few days later by the Washington police to Eugene Bachinski, a Washington Post reporter, and subsequently published in that newspaper.) The investigation into Hunt led the prosecutors to his secretary, Kathleen Chenow, who was flown back from England, and, in early July, confirmed that Hunt and Liddy were working on clandestine projects together, and had had telephone calls from Bernard Barker just before Barker was arrested in Watergate. (Months later, in September, defense attorneys who had been given the list of prosecution witnesses leaked Miss Chenow's name to Woodward and Bernstein, who then-after calling her-"revealed" this information to the public.) Thus, in early July, the prosecutors had presented evidence to the grand jury tying Hunt and Liddy to the burglars (as well as Liddy to the money).

The most important chain of evidence involved an eyewitness to the entire conspiracy. The day of the burglary, the FBI discovered a listening post at the Howard Johnson Motor Hotel, across the street from the Watergate, from which conspirators sent radio signals to the burglars inside Watergate (and received transmissions from electronic eavesdropping devices). By checking through the records of phone calls made from this listening post, the FBI easily located Alfred Baldwin, a former FBI agent, who had kept logs of wiretaps for the conspirators and acted as a look-out. By June 25, after the prosecutors offered Baldwin's attorney a deal by which Baldwin could escape prison, Baldwin agreed to cooperate with the government

By July 5, less than three weeks after the burglars were apprehended, Baldwin sketched out the outlines of the conspiracy. He identified Hunt and Liddy as being at the scene and directing the burglary; he described prior break-in attempts, the installation of eavesdropping devices, the monitoring of logs of the eavesdropping, and the delivery of the fruits of the conspiracy to CRP. All this evidence was of course presented to the grand jury in mid-July.

The prosecutors and the grand jury thus developed an airtight case against Liddy, Hunt, and the five burglars well in advance of, and without any assistance from, Woodward, Bernstein, or any other reporters. The case was presented to the grand jury and would certainly have been made public in the trial. At best, reporters, including Woodward and Bernstein, only leaked elements of the prosecutors' case to the public in advance of the trial. BY leaking fragments of the prosecutors' case, Woodward and Bernstein, as well as other journalists, did of course add fuel to the fire. But even here, they were not the only ones publicizing the case.

On June 20, three days after the burglary, the Democratic National Committee commenced a civil suit against the Committee for the Re-election of the President that compelled the responsible officials in CRP to give statements under oath. The General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, and Common Cause, a quasi-public foundation, meanwhile forced Republican officials to disclose information about campaign contributions which indirectly added to the publicity about Watergate. Preliminary legal actions taken by the prosecutors (as well as the Florida state's attorney) also divulged important elements of the case. For example, in motions opposing bail for the defendants, the prosecutors disclosed in a brief filed June 23, 1972 that Mexican checks were deposited in Barker's account (although the press, until a month later, when the checks were literally handed to reporters, failed to pursue the "money tree" exposed in the bail motions). In short, even in publicizing Watergate, the press was only one among a number of institutions at work.

[Gravitymaster 0]

On a side note:

Nixon in Office-

• Ended Vietnam war
• Brought home the POW's
• Ended the war in the Mideast
• Started relations with China
• Signed first nuclear weapons reduction treaty
• Saved Eretz Israel's life
• Started the Environmental Protection Administration

After leaving Office-

• South Vietnamese government defeated resulting in decades of death and terrine for Vietnam citizens.

• Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. They were one of the most ruthless governments of all time killing a third of their own people. Childeren often forced to kill their own parents.

[base283 0]

So how much money do you think he will make off his book? It all about the Benjamins.
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[base283 0]

The Nixon Administration had its skeletons as all do. BUT he did try to bring the POWs back home but his efforts were curtailed by congress. Read “Kiss The Boys Goodbye” and you might find that Richard had great intentions. USA publishers would not touch this book so it’s a Canadian print. I hold his efforts in high regard.
Take care,
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[SpeedRacer 1]

Interesting to read.

The local arts center will be showing All The Presidents Men tonight at 7:30 PM. Haven't seen it in many years. It was cool to read all this stuff before going to see the film tonight.

Speed Racer
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[flyingferret 0]

I read this a while back and thought it might add some discussion. It is a write by Stratfor, a company that does geo political forecasting and analysis for corporate accounts. A very interesting business really, considering that they get paid to predict an outcome, regardless of political fences. Anyway, one of their somewhate recent blurbs had an analysis of the deepthroat revelation which I found pretty interesting.
Pasted below.

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THE GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

The Motives of Deep Throat
June 07, 2005 17 56 GMT

By George Friedman

The United States (or at least its Baby Boomers) has been gripped by the

revelation that the fabled Deep Throat, the person who provided the legendary Woodward and Bernstein the guidance needed to cover the Watergate scandal, was Mark Felt, a senior official in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In spite of the claims of some, Felt was never high on the list of suspects. The assumption was always that Deep Throat was a member of the White House staff, simply because he knew so much about the details of the workings of the Nixon White House. A secondary theory that floated around was that Deep Throat was someone from the CIA -- that the CIA, for some unclear reason, wanted to bring Nixon down.

The revelation that Deep Throat was a senior FBI official -- in fact, so

senior that he was effectively J. Edgar Hoover's heir at the FBI -- is full of historical significance. Even more, it has significant implications today, when U.S. intelligence and security forces are playing a dramatically enhanced role in American life, and when the question of the relationship between the constitutional life of the republic and the requirements of national security is at a cyclical pitch. If Felt is Deep Throat, then the history and implications of this revelation need to be considered.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the question of Nixon's guilt. It has been proven beyond doubt that Nixon was guilty of covering up the Watergate burglary, a felony that required impeachment, even if presidents before him had committed comparable crimes. It is not proven, but we are morally certain, that Nixon knew about and possibly demanded the break-in both at the Democratic National Committee headquarters and in Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. There are too many hints of this in the famous Nixon White House tapes -- and in the existence of an 18-minute gap inserted into one tape -- to doubt that. Nixon was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

None of this, however, has anything to do with Mark Felt's motives in leading Woodward and Bernstein to water and teaching them the fundamentals of drinking. Felt's motives are important regardless of whether Nixon was guilty because they tell us something about what was going on in the FBI at the time and how the FBI operated. That is what has to be thought through now.

Felt's position has been simply presented. He is portrayed as a patriot who was appalled by the activities of the Nixon White House. Having had Patrick Gray slipped in above him for the top Bureau job, Felt believed that resorting to the normal procedures of law enforcement was not an option.

Gray, a Nixon appointee and loyalist, would have isolated or fired Felt if he tried that route, keeping Felt away from grand juries and the normal process of the legal system. The only course of action for Felt was, according to this theory, to leak information to the press. His selection of Woodward and Bernstein for the prize was happenstance. Felt needed national coverage, and that was provided by the Washington Post. Felt claimed a passing acquaintanceship with Bob Woodward, a very young and inexperienced reporter, and this became a convenient channel. In short, Felt was protecting the republic by the only means possible.

Let's consider who Felt was for a moment. He rose in the ranks of the FBI to serve as the No. 3 official, ranking behind only J. Edgar Hoover and Hoover's significant other, Clyde Tolson. He reached that position for two
reasons: He was competent and, of greater significance, he was absolutely loyal to Hoover. Hoover was obsessed with loyalty and conformity. He expected his agents, even in the junior ranks, to conform to the standards of the FBI in matters ranging from dress to demeanor. Felt did not rise to be the No. 2 of the Hoover-Tolson team by being either a free-thinker or a gadfly. The most important thing to understand about Felt was that he was Hoover's man.

As Hoover's man, he had a front row seat to Hoover's operational principles. He had to have known of Hoover's wire taps and the uses to which they were put. Hoover collected information on everyone, including presidents. It is well known at this point that Hoover collected information on John F. Kennedy's sexual activities before and during his tenure as president -- as he had with Martin Luther King -- and had used that information to retain his job.

Hoover stayed as head of the FBI for decades because he played a brutal and unprincipled game in Washington. He systematically collected derogatory information on Washington officials, tracking their careers for years. He used that information to control the behavior of officials and influential private citizens. Sometimes it was simply to protect his own position, sometimes it was to promote policies that he supported. At times, particularly later in his life, Hoover appeared to be exercising power for the sheer pleasure of its exercise.

One of Hoover's favorite tactics was the careful and devastating leak. Hoover knew how to work the press better than just about anyone in Washington. He used the press to build up his reputation as a crime fighter and to burnish the FBI's reputation. Reporters knew that maintaining good lines of communication with the FBI could make careers, while challenging the FBI could break them. In one famous case, Hoover leaked information to Life magazine that claimed that bodies were buried in the basement of a congressman who had angered Hoover. The rumor was that the congressman got Hoover to force Life to retract the story when the congressman threatened to go public about Hoover's homosexual relationship with Clyde Tolson. That

part may or may not be true, but we know that the story was retracted.

In most Washington insider cases, Hoover was not interested in the grand

jury route. The information he collected frequently was less concerned with criminal behavior than embarrassing revelations. What Hoover wanted to do was shape the behavior of people to suit him. It was the threat of revelation -- coupled with judicious leaks to the press, proving that Hoover was prepared to go all the way with it -- that did the trick. Hoover perfected the devastating leak -- and Mark Felt did not rise to power in the FBI by failing to learn that lesson or by following ethical codes other than J. Edgar Hoover's.

The first point that is obvious is that Felt wanted to be director of the FBI. When Hoover died and Tolson resigned, he expected to replace Hoover. When Nixon appointed Gray, it is clear from his book that Felt felt betrayed and angry. Gray was an outsider who, in his view, was loyal to the president and not to the Bureau. Now, forgetting for the moment that the president was Nixon, this raises the interesting question of whether the primary loyalty of a director of the FBI -- or any other security or intelligence organization -- ought to be to the organization he serves or to the president who appoints him. There are arguments on both sides, but when you take Nixon out of the equation, the elected president would seem to have

prima facie status in the equation. Loyalty to an institution, not superseded by loyalty to democratic institutions, would appear to be dangerous for a security force and a republic. On the other hand, insulation from politics might protect the organization, keeping it from being used as a political instrument. The question is complex. Felt chose to side with the institution.

One can debate the nature of the FBI. Felt himself admitted he was a disgruntled employee. We can infer his loyalty to Hoover. What we have, therefore, is a disgruntled FBI employee -- bitter at being passed over for promotion, angry at having the legacy of his patron dismantled and running a covert operation against the White House. Within days of the Watergate Hotel break-in, Deep Throat -- Felt -- was telling Woodward of the role of E. Howard Hunt. That meant that Felt knew what had happened. He could not have known what had happened had he not inherited Hoover's mechanisms for monitoring the White House. It is clear that Gray was not given that mechanism, and it is clear that Gray didn't know about it -- since Nixon

didn't know about it. But Felt did know about it. What the mechanism was, whether electronic eavesdropping or informants in the White House or some other means, is unclear, so we will refer to it as "the mechanism." What is clear is that Felt, without the knowledge of his director, was running an operation that had to precede the break-in. Hoover died in May 1972; the

Watergate break-in occurred in August 1972. Felt did not have time to set up his own operation in the White House. He had clearly taken over Hoover's.

Felt could not admit that he had penetrated the White House. The No. 2 man at the FBI could have forced a grand jury investigation, but he did not force one because to do so, he would have had to reveal his covert mechanism in the White House. Felt didn't go to a grand jury not because he was boxed in, but because he could not reveal the means whereby he knew precisely what Nixon and his henchmen were up to. It is fascinating that in all the discussion of Felt as Deep Throat, so little attention has been paid to how Felt would have acquired -- and continued to acquire -- such precise intelligence. It has been pointed out that Felt could not have been the only Deep Throat because he could not personally have known all the things he

revealed. That is true, unless we assume that Felt was the beneficiary of an intelligence operation run by Hoover for years deep into successive White Houses. If that is the case, then it makes perfect sense that Felt was the one and only Deep Throat.

Woodward and Bernstein, along with Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, didn't care, since they were being fed the goods. Nixon did care, and the leaks further damaged him by triggering wild-goose chases in search of the source. In fact, one of the most important consequences of Felt's leaks was that the White House spasmed and started looking for the leak. It compounded Nixon's paranoia -- he really did have enemies. Indeed, the entire plumbers unit built to stop leaks in the White House has to be re-evaluated from the standpoint of the FBI operation and its leakages. It would be interesting to determine how many of the leaks Nixon was looking for originated with his suspects (people like Henry Kissinger) and how many were the results of Hoover's covert penetration. If we think of Hoover in his last days less as an ideologue and more as a megalomaniac, the notion that he was trying to cripple Nixon is not absurd.

However, what is clear is that the White House was deeply penetrated, and Felt was operating the mechanism of intelligence. It is also clear that Felt decided not to proceed with the legal route but instead to continue Hoover's tradition of controlling his environment by leaking information. For the

leak, he chose a major newspaper with a great deal of credibility and two junior reporters sufficiently ambitious not to ask the obvious questions. That they were on the city desk and not the national desk was an added benefit, since they would lack the experience to understand what Felt was up to. Finally, Bradlee -- a close ally of the Kennedys and someone who despised Richard Nixon -- would be expected to fly top cover for the two

minor reporters.

What is critical is how Felt managed Woodward and Bernstein. He did not provide them with the complete story. Rather, he guided them toward the story. He minimized what he revealed, focusing instead on two things. First, he made certain that they did not miss the main path -- that the scandal

involved the senior staff of the White House and possibly the president himself. Second and more important, Felt made certain that the White House could not contain the scandal. Whenever the story began to wane, it was Felt who fed more information to Woodward and Bernstein, keeping the story alive and guiding them toward the heart of the White House -- yet usually without providing explicit information.

One consequence of this was John Dean. Felt, the veteran of many investigations, knew that the best way to destroy a conspiracy was to increase the pressure on it. At some point, one of the conspirators would bolt to save himself. Felt couldn't know which one would bolt, but that hardly mattered. As the revelations piled up, the pressure grew. At some

point, someone would break. It didn't have to be John Dean -- it could have been any of perhaps a dozen people. But Felt made certain that the pressure was there, treating the White House the way he would treat any criminal conspiracy.

What is most interesting in all of this is what Felt did not provide but had to have known: Why did the White House order the break-in to Larry O'Brien's office? Why was the break-in carried out with such glaring incompetence?

Consider the famous part in which a security guard removes a piece of tape blocking a door lock that had been placed horizontally rather than vertically, only to have it replaced by one of the burglars, leading to their discovery. If Felt had penetrated the White House and Committee to

Re-elect the President deeply enough to be Deep Throat, then he had to know the reason for the break-in. And what else did he control in the White House? Were G. Gordon Liddy's people as stupid as they appeared, getting

caught with revealing phone numbers on them? Could anyone be that stupid? Why was the break-in ordered, and why did professionals bungle it so badly?

This is the thing that Felt never gave to Woodward and Bernstein and which, therefore, Woodward and Bernstein never were able to explain. Yet Felt had to know it. The event wasn't random, and whatever else could be said about Nixon and his staff, they weren't stupid. They had their reasons, and it is hard to believe that Felt, who seemed to know everything about the conspiracy, didn't know this. We note -- in pure speculation -- that a covert operation not only uncover what is going on, but also can plant information that will trigger an action.

Richard Nixon was a criminal by the simplest definition of the term -- he broke the law and tried to hide it. His best defense is that other presidents were also criminals. Possibly, but that doesn't change Nixon's status. His closest aides were also, in many cases, criminals. Woodward and Bernstein were lottery winners, selected by Felt precisely because they were easy to lead and asked few questions. Felt, the dispossessed heir of J. Edgar Hoover, played out the hand of his master. He used his position to

bring down the president. That the president needed to be brought down is true. That he could have been brought down only by Felt's counterconspiracy is dubious.

There are three issues that must be raised here. One, does a senior FBI official have the right to leak the fruits of a clandestine operation in the White House to favored reporters in order to bring about a good outcome?

Two, does the press have a responsibility to report not only what is leaked to them but also to inquire about the motive of the leaker? Didn't the public need to know that Deep Throat was a senior FBI official -- and, at the very least, a disgruntled employee? Doesn't the manner in which the truth is known reasonably affect the public perception? Finally, and most important, who will guard the guardians when all have agendas?

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