W. Mark Felt, Watergate source 'Deep Throat,' dies at 95
W. Mark Felt, the former FBI official who ended one of the country's most intriguing political mysteries when he identified himself as "Deep Throat" -- the nickname for the anonymous source who helped guide the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the Watergate scandal -- has died. He was 95.
A controversial figure who was later convicted of authorizing illegal activities in pursuit of members of the radical Weather Underground, Felt died of heart failure Thursday at his home in Santa Rosa, his grandson Rob Jones said.
Felt was deputy associate director of the FBI in 1972 when he began supplying information to Bob Woodward, who with Carl Bernstein made up the Post's investigative duo who doggedly pursued the story of the Watergate break-in and a conspiracy that led directly to President Nixon, who ultimately resigned.
The reporters continued to keep Felt's name a secret, but in 2005, at the age of 91, Felt told Vanity Fair magazine, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat."
His disclosure ended a mystery that had intrigued Washington insiders and journalists for three decades and provided the grist for many hotly debated newspaper and magazine articles.
While Felt's name was raised as a suspect on several occasions, he always managed to deflect attention, usually by saying that if he had been Deep Throat he would have done a better job of exposing the wrongdoings at the White House.
His disclosure in a Vanity Fair article by his family's lawyer, John D. O'Connor, provoked a national debate: Was he a hero who should be lauded for sparing the country the strain of further high crimes and misdemeanors by the Nixon White House? Or was he a traitor who betrayed not only his president but his oath of office by disclosing grand jury information and the contents of FBI files?
For the most part, reaction is split along political lines.
"There's nothing heroic about breaking faith with your people," said commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, a former Nixon speechwriter. Felt "disgraced himself and dishonored everything an FBI agent should stand for."
But Richard Ben-Veniste, a key lawyer in the Watergate prosecution team, said Felt's role showed that "the importance of whistleblowers shouldn't be underestimated, particularly when there are excesses by the executive branch of government -- which in this case went all the way to the executive office."
Felt's moment in history began to unfold shortly after five men in business suits were arrested at the Watergate complex in Washington on June 17, 1972, after breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler dismissed the incident as "a third-rate burglary," but details gradually tumbled out tying the burglars to the president's reelection campaign. Misdeeds in the White House were uncovered, hearings were conducted in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and for the first time in American history a president was forced to resign.
The relationship that defined a generation in journalism began about 1970 when Woodward was a Navy lieutenant assigned to the Pentagon as a watch officer. In his book, "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat," published after the Vanity Fair article appeared, Woodward wrote that he met Felt when he delivered a package of documents to the White House and struck up a conversation with him in a waiting room...
His disclosure in a Vanity Fair article by his family's lawyer, John D. O'Connor, provoked a national debate: Was he a hero who should be lauded for sparing the country the strain of further high crimes and misdemeanors by the Nixon White House? Or was he a traitor who betrayed not only his president but his oath of office by disclosing grand jury information and the contents of FBI files?
For the most part, reaction is split along political lines.
"There's nothing heroic about breaking faith with your people," said commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, a former Nixon speechwriter. Felt "disgraced himself and dishonored everything an FBI agent should stand for."
But Richard Ben-Veniste, a key lawyer in the Watergate prosecution team, said Felt's role showed that "the importance of whistleblowers shouldn't be underestimated, particularly when there are excesses by the executive branch of government -- which in this case went all the way to the executive office."
Felt's moment in history began to unfold shortly after five men in business suits were arrested at the Watergate complex in Washington on June 17, 1972, after breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Nixon Press Secretary Ron Ziegler dismissed the incident as "a third-rate burglary," but details gradually tumbled out tying the burglars to the president's reelection campaign. Misdeeds in the White House were uncovered, hearings were conducted in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and for the first time in American history a president was forced to resign.
The relationship that defined a generation in journalism began about 1970 when Woodward was a Navy lieutenant assigned to the Pentagon as a watch officer. In his book, "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat," published after the Vanity Fair article appeared, Woodward wrote that he met Felt when he delivered a package of documents to the White House and struck up a conversation with him in a waiting room...
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