Silent Coup
"A distinguishing mark of the American coup [as they refer to Watergate] is that it should remain concealed from its victims and history even after its successful execution," he continues. 'It was -- and has been -- a cruel hoax to pretend that the most powerful institutions of the media did not have the wherewithal to uncover this story, not to mention the train of putative historians and writers who have rehearsed the fiction since."
(Fleming's Dick certainly falls within that camp.) "The result has been an American version of treason of the clerks, nothing less than a Constitutional betrayal of trust," concludes Morris. According to Colodny and Gettlin, Woodward was tapped to join a Yale secret society called the Book and Snake, a less well known version of Skull and Bones. Later as a Navy lieutenant, during his secret Pentagon job from 1969-70, he joined the ranks of other famous former Navy briefers like Indiana Senator Richard Lugar and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, former CIA deputy director and former NSA chief.
Another former briefer, Fletcher Prouty, author of The Secret Team, wrote that within the government's power centers, "one of the most interesting and effective roles is that played by the behind-the-scenes, faceless ubiquitous briefing officer who sees the important people almost daily." During this time, Woodward traveled to the White House NSC office and had many meetings with General Alexander Haig, fingered as the most likely candidate for Deep Throat. The General's motives in leaking to Woodward and his duplicity while serving as Nixon's chief of staff are a part of history.
In the postscript to the book, the authors write that "the [Washington] Post threatened by the publication of Silent Coup and what it reveals about Woodward's relationship with Alexander Haig, suppressed facts about the book and twisted its coverage hoping to discredit the book before it reached the public."
"Woodward had lied about his Navy career and his briefings of Haig, and the Post, knowing of Woodward's fabrications, then lied to its readers and to hundreds of papers that subscribe to its national wire service in an effort to cover up for Woodward and protect the Watergate myth... [a myth] which sold millions of books and papers, spawned a hit movie, and made investigative reporting seem a profession of glamor and unshakeable integrity," write the Silent Coup authors.
MAY I ask about this..........."Another former briefer, Fletcher Prouty" .... was this the name of the guy who indicated that the JFK assassination had already been written up in newspapers somewhere down near New Zealand at least an hour BEFORE he was shot........or am I wrong?
Prouty was in New Zealand when Kennedy was shot, and believed that the Christchurch Star reported on Oswald's background far too quickly. It smelled to him like a CIA-planted cover story. Researcher David Perry looked at this issue to see whether the initial reports on Oswald and his background contained any suspicious information. He found that all the information in the paper was available in the files of U.S. newspapers and ready to be quickly sent over the news wires. And Bob Cotton, Chief Reporter of the Christchurch Star, has explained how the paper they published that day was the result of journalistic diligence, and not conspiratorial machinations.
Uhhuh.