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President called Felt a `traitor' in '73
Chicago Tribune ^ | 06/02/05 | William Neikirk and Mike Dorning

Posted on 06/02/2005 6:57:28 AM PDT by Pikamax

President called Felt a `traitor' in '73

By William Neikirk and Mike Dorning Washington Bureau

June 2, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 15 months before his 1974 resignation, President Richard Nixon described W. Mark Felt as a traitor who should be required to take a lie detector test, according to previously undisclosed tapes of White House conversations stored at the National Archives.

Felt was identified this week as the Washington Post's Watergate source known as Deep Throat. While a national debate erupted over whether Felt is a hero or a villain, tapes previously disclosed showed that Nixon had concluded as early as October 1972 that Felt, then the deputy director of the FBI, was leaking damaging information on the Watergate scandal.

The newly disclosed tapes also show Nixon and his aides firmly believed Felt was leaking information to The New York Times and Time magazine on a variety of topics, including wiretaps of reporters and a White House-authorized burglary of the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, who earlier had leaked the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's internal history of decision-making in the Vietnam War.

In a tape that was recorded May 12, 1973, Nixon brought up Felt's name in a telephone conversation with Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, saying that Felt apparently had "blown the whistle" on the administration's involvement in investigating Ellsberg.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1973; deepthroat; markfelt; nixon; traitor

1 posted on 06/02/2005 6:57:28 AM PDT by Pikamax
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To: Pikamax

"The newly disclosed tapes also show Nixon and his aides firmly believed Felt was leaking information to The New York."

Then WHY didn't he do something about it?


2 posted on 06/02/2005 7:01:18 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Pikamax

Just who came up with the name "Deep Throat" for this guy? I mean, his real name was Felt, that's not much better...it's as if Bill Clinton himself named the guy.


3 posted on 06/02/2005 7:02:22 AM PDT by RockinRight (Conservatism is common sense, liberalism is just senseless.)
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To: nmh

"Then WHY didn't he do something about it?"

Yeah, old G Gordon would have made quick work of Felt.


4 posted on 06/02/2005 7:02:40 AM PDT by Altair333
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To: Pikamax

Nixon did not lie about his being a traitor.


5 posted on 06/02/2005 7:06:06 AM PDT by Piquaboy (22 year veteran of the Army, Air Force and Navy, Pray for all our military .)
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To: Pikamax
Interesting comments from Haig in a NewsMax interview. I have always believed that Haig was a leaKer as well.

"Asked what he thought might have been Marl Felt’s motivations in cooperating with Woodward and Bernstein, Haig said he didn’t know."

"Having resigned from three presidencies myself for reasons that involved my conscience," he said, "I can understand how one who has been an enforcer of law and order all of his career would be outraged if he saw something that was not correct."

"Despite the criticism of some who believe that Felt betrayed President Nixon or that he should have gone public with his information, Gen. Haig stood by Felt.

"I do know he was a very highly regarded professional FBI leader, and for that he and his family can be very proud," said Haig

6 posted on 06/02/2005 7:08:22 AM PDT by kabar
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To: nmh
Then WHY didn't he do something about it?

If Clinton had been President, the guy would have gotten "Arkancided" fast...

Maybe Republicans aren't as vicious as one might be led to believe.......

7 posted on 06/02/2005 7:08:34 AM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: Pikamax
Wonder where Neil Boortz got this from then..??..

DEEP THROAT IRONY

An interesting sidebar to the Mark Felt saga that hasn't received as much coverage as the revelation that Felt was Deep Throat. After Felt retired from the FBI in a huff because he was passed over as a potential successor to J. Edgar Hoover, he himself was indicted for his own break-ins.

While at the FBI, Felt had authorized warrantless break-ins and searches of people associated with a radical group called the Weather Underground. This was a group of communists that advocated the overthrow of the US government and its capitalist system. At any rate, at Mark Felt's trial, Richard Nixon testified on his behalf. That's right....unbelievably, the former president was unknowingly assisting the man who was most responsible for the destruction of his presidency.

Further adding to the irony, once Felt was pardoned by Ronald Reagan in 1981, he received a congratulatory bottle of champagne from Richard Nixon along with a note that said "justice ultimately prevails." Nixon went to his grave not knowing who Deep Throat was.

Reports say the bidding has started at $1 million on a book by Mark Felt about his Deep Throat years. It remains to be seen whether his advanced age and faulty memory will allow him to deliver the goods.

Either way, the family is hoping to cash in. It's always about the money, isn't it?

8 posted on 06/02/2005 7:14:44 AM PDT by Jay Howard Smith (Retired(25yrs)Military)
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To: Pikamax
Felt was identified this week as the Washington Post's Watergate source known as Deep Throat.

Does he also post on FR under the handle 'MD4BUSH'?

9 posted on 06/02/2005 7:15:21 AM PDT by Sloth (I don't post a lot of the threads you read; I make a lot of the threads you read better.)
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To: Pikamax

the new left removed a u.s. president,

and would do the same today, if allowed.

they tried it last year with dan rather's photocopies.

the tyranny of the left must cease.


10 posted on 06/02/2005 7:17:36 AM PDT by ken21 (if you didn't see it on tv, then it didn't happen. /s)
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To: nmh
Why didn't he do something about it?

Unfortunately, back during the Watergate hearings there was no honest news. Only the so called main stream media which had been infiltrated from the top on down by the KJB and other communist organizations.

Therefore the people of the US never got an accurate picture of President Nixon. If you read the transcripts of the congressional hearings real carefully, you will come across the Director of the Department of internal Security being questioned, the question: “...was Internal Security involved ...?” His answer: “... if Internal Security had been involved, there would be no witnesses.” President Nixon heard this, inquired and said: “... has no place for an organization like this...”

President Nixon was a socialist, no way around that, but he had a strong sense of right and wrong, he held very strong convictions on police powers. Unfortunately for him, his positions on such things as abortion, china and price controls left him with far fewer friends than he needed. Maybe more than he deserved, but fewer than he needed. Maine’s Republican William, the traitor, Cohen was one of his biggest detractors, not because of Nixon’s pro-socialist, pro-abortion or pro-price control stances, for those traits Cohen shared with Nixon, but because he just hated Nixon. And that endeared Cohen to the Kennedy’s who convinced Clinton that Cohen could be trusted and therefore got him the appointment as Secretary of Defense. Where he promptly did to the military what he and his commie friends did to Nixon.

And it is because of Nixon’s refusal to use police powers to eliminate enemies and his knowledge that there was a spy in the FBI and probably other agencies, he dismantled the only agency that could have and maybe would have bailed him out, The infamous Department of Internal Security, whose job description boiled down to “eliminate the threat”

Done mostly from memory, so let's just say, this is my opinion.

11 posted on 06/02/2005 7:24:15 AM PDT by newsgatherer
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To: Pikamax
>>>"President called Felt a `traitor' in '73"<<<

TexasTransplant called Felt a 'traitor' in '05
12 posted on 06/02/2005 7:40:47 AM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: Pikamax
I wonder if we will find out all the sources he leaked to and what he leaked. It would help fill in the picture of those times. Nixon thought he was leaking to the New York Times and Time. Was he giving different pieces of the puzzle to each of them so they could put it together for themselves? Did his leaking distract the press from other issues involving the FBI?

How did Woodward and Bernstein treat him when CONTINTELPRO was being exposed?
13 posted on 06/02/2005 8:25:40 AM PDT by airedale ( XZ)
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To: kabar
"Asked what he thought might have been Marl Felt’s motivations in cooperating with Woodward and Bernstein, Haig said he didn’t know." "Having resigned from three presidencies myself for reasons that involved my conscience," he said, "I can understand how one who has been an enforcer of law and order all of his career would be outraged if he saw something that was not correct." "Despite the criticism of some who believe that Felt betrayed President Nixon or that he should have gone public with his information, Gen. Haig stood by Felt. "I do know he was a very highly regarded professional FBI leader, and for that he and his family can be very proud," said Haig

Felt was very similar to Pollard.

14 posted on 06/02/2005 8:27:38 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
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To: Pikamax
With Nixon believing what he did, he surely had good reason to scorn Felt and regard him as a mortal enemy. But Nixon, after he resigned, still testified on Felt's behalf when the Carter administration prosecuted Felt for black bag jobs against the radical, bomb prone Weather Underground. Is the article wrong about what Nixon thought as to Felt? Not at all. Nixon was a far better man than he has commonly been given credit for being.
15 posted on 06/02/2005 8:34:13 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Jay Howard Smith

"Richard Nixon testified on [Felt's] behalf..."

I do not remember MSM reporting this. Nowdays of course...

"once Felt was pardoned by Ronald Reagan in 1981, he received a congratulatory bottle of champagne from Richard Nixon along with a note that said "justice ultimately prevails." Nixon went to his grave not knowing who Deep Throat was."

I'll bet he did know, and I'll bet Felt was really spooked by the President's note.


16 posted on 06/02/2005 9:15:12 AM PDT by cloud8
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