Posted on 06/01/2005 5:16:40 PM PDT by CHARLITE
In its extensive coverage of "Deep Throat's" identity, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that former Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt has been conflicted all along -- about his major, anonymous and possibly criminal role in leaking confidential details of the Watergate scandal to the Washington Post in the early 1970s.
As the Post put it on Wednesday, Felt wondered if he was a "hero for helping the truth come out" -- or a "turncoat who betrayed his government, his president, and the FBI he revered."
The Washington Post reported that Felt "may have had a personal motivation" in leaking details of a criminal investigation to two young Washington Post reporters: Felt was passed over as FBI director when J. Edgar Hoover died.
The Post said although Felt was Hoover's "likely successor," the White House named an FBI outsider, L. Patrick Gray III, as acting director.
Felt may also have a personal motivation in finally coming forward with the truth at age 91: His family apparently needs the money that Felt's sudden fame is expected to bring.
According to the Vanity Fair article, Felt's daughter Joan remembers saying, "Bob Woodward's going to get all the glory for this (revealing Deep Throat's identity), but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education. Let's do it for the family."
(Joan Felt and other relatives on Tuesday refused to let Felt answer reporters' questions, possibly waiting for the big-bucks book deal.)
According to USA Today, Felt's attorney John O'Connor said he and Felt considered publishing a book to reveal Deep Throat's identity, but then they decided to "go for the dignity of it" by telling Felt's story to Vanity Fair -- which paid an undisclosed fee for the story.
USA Today quoted a Vanity Fair editor as saying that O'Connor's fee "was in keeping with what other freelancers are paid."
In spilling his long-kept secret to Vanity Fair, Felt scooped (and surprised) the Washington Post, which has lived up to its end of the agreement to say nothing about Deep Throat's identity until the leaker had died.
At age 91 and in failing health, Felt is now unlikely to face repercussions for obstruction of justice. His family only learned he was Deep Throat in 2002 -- and even then, only because Felt's close friend told the family, Vanity Fair said.
Felt's son told Vanity Fair that Felt would not have gone to the Washington Post during the Watergate era "if he didn't feel it was the only way to get around the corruption in the White House and Justice Department."
Felt's grandson Nick Jones read a statement saying, "The family believes that my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well."
Not everyone sees Felt that way, however.
"He had the trust of America's leaders and to think that he betrayed that trust is hard for me to fathom," Nixon's former White House Counsel Charles Colson told the Associated Press.
Colson worked with Felt during the Nixon years and in 1974, he pleaded no contest to obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. He served seven months in prison.
USA Today quoted Colson as saying that Felt should have gone to the FBI director with his concerns about White House manipulation; And if that didn't work, "He could have resigned in protest and blown the whole thing wide open."
USA Today quoted Colson as calling it "inconceivable...that a man of his caliber would be slinking around in dark alleys at night" to meet with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.
Press reports note that Felt himself was convicted in 1980 for authorizing illegal break-ins at the homes of people associated with the radical Weather Underground in the 1970s. President Reagan pardoned him in 1981.
Which was what?
I have to agree with him on one point. Why should Woodward and Bernstein be the only one's making money. Plus, his coming out actually hurts them in the wallet, which I like.
In a life and death situation, who would want Felt watching their back? Not me for one.
At the very least, in the end Nixon was loyal, perhaps too much so, he could have thrown all the conspirators overboard and survived the crisis.
Felt was just a gear in the wheel - maybe a big one but he played a role in the greater scheme. There are going to be a lot of other bigger shoes to drop.
STEP 1 TO OUST NIXON WAS FIRST TO OUST AGNEW [sounds like a plan, doesn't it?]
Spiro T. Agnew
Born: November 9, 1918, in Baltimore
Died: September 17, 1996
When Spiro Agnew died in September 1996, he had been out of public life for 23 years. But he was once only a heartbeat away from the presidency. Agnew rose suddenly to national prominence when he became vice president in 1969, and fell even more suddenly into disgrace four years later.
Agnew was elected county executive of Baltimore in 1962, and governor of Maryland in 1966. He was a moderate Republican who favored some government programs to improve people's lives but believed in dealing severely with lawbreakers. In 1968, presidential candidate Richard Nixon picked Agnew as his running mate. As vice president, Agnew became famous for his strident, sarcastic speeches, claiming to speak for the "Silent Majority"em dashworking people who favored law and order and opposed liberal programs. He attacked Democrats, activists, and reporters, calling them "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "pusillanimous pussyfooters." Nixon and Agnew were reelected, but in 1973, an investigation in Maryland revealed that Agnew had accepted secret payments from contractors. On October 10, he resigned to avoid being tried for tax evasion. Nixon resigned ten months later because of the Watergate scandal, and Gerald Ford, who had replaced Agnew as vice president, became president.
I can't say I am disappointed about the latter.
Say it again, Spiro!
Personal motivation = $$$$$
Plus his coming out means there's somebody to refute THEIR version of the story.
Of course, at this point in time, he nor his family is going to disagree with anything W & B say.
felt's daughter looks like jane fonda!
Another FINE "hero" family from the liberals, eh?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.