Whoa - Deep Throat Identity Revealed

daRk_heLmet

W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the "Deep Throat" source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.

[color=#d8ded3]http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8047258/[/color]

BTW, if you dont know about this stuff...go here.
[color=#d8ded3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate[/color]

Vikingod

wow, very interesting. Thats a piece of history and a half.

Tipstaff

I thought Linda Lovelace was 'Deep Throat'?

-Tip

BiGBrOwNPimpsta

wow so it wasnt the ninja from metal gear solid?!!

digerati

I wonder how long it'll take before this gets put into History books?

Lelisevis

Yeah but reeeeeeeaaallly 'Deep throat' is that the absolute best they could manage. And to think Austin Powers hadn't even been invented.

swatX

lol what the f***?

daedal

That's what I was thinking.

Duranix

-Grey fox / 1337 ninja / Frankie "just call me 'Deap throat"
-Snake "You mea the man from the watergate scandal?"
-Grey fox / 1337 ninja / Frankie "Nevermind..."

raid517

I just hope he gets to tell his side of the story before it's too late. It would be a great service to history if he does.

The question that interests me though, is what do people on the right here think of him? Is he a hero or is he a traitor? He after all uncovered a criminal conspiracy at the very highest level of American government. But I frequently hear attitudes from people on the right that they would rather the media didn't report such things - especially when a Republican government is in power.

So what do you guys think? Is he a hero or not - and how exactly do you think he should be remembered?

GJ

Ubergrendle

Definitely hero. The fact he has kept silent till now is his recognition that he did a morally suspect thing in terms of loyalty, but only in the interests of the greater good. His coming forth now is mainly to clear the historical record -- ask any questions still lingering before he passes on.

From what I understand, he was the choke point for information going from the FBI field office to the White House...he saw clear and deliberate interference in the interests of keeping the case closed. Everything he told to Woodward & Bernstein had to be independently corroborated 2x and 3x (Dan Rather, listen up). As I understand it, he provided some hints and clues in terms of direction for the investigation by the journalists...nothing more.

In many ways I think Nixon was actually a good president that had a fatal flaw (paranoia)...several presidents since Nixon have been actually more corrupt (e.g. Reagan: Iran/Contra) , but just haven't been caught. There's not enough Felts in the world unfortunately.

Sandok

Saw about it on the TV... Never knew anything about it... Well, I am not american so that explains why I never heard of this history story...

Captn

They should throw the old geezer in jail for what he did !

raid517

Lol! True to form... Despite being involved in one of the most despicable criminal conspiracies in American political history, you would rather that the story got covered up and Nixon was allowed to continue in government. You would have been happy with a crook in government, just as long as it was a 'republican' crook.

Well luckily enough that is not too hard to achieve - as as far as I can see, most republican governments end up becomming crooks one way or another anyway.

GJ

BiGBrOwNPimpsta

good he got rid of a republicans, but thats my more left wing bias talking

Captn

1st of all im not a republican, im a nationalist. Secondly Nixon was a crook and old geezer felt was a disgruntled employee. Theres other ways to go about turning someone in without leaking stuff like that to the media. What felt did was a crime in its own right. Oh yea & the last time I checked Republicrats & Demicans are both crooks!

raid517

How could he when his own boss and everyone above him was implicated in the cover up too? Who the hell could he have turned to? Take a look at who was actually implicated in the watergate affair. Most of Felts superiors ended up in Jail. The only person left he could have turned to was Nixon himself, and where exactly do you think that would have got him?

There simply weren't the same mechanisms in place in the 1970's to allow for whistle blowing of this kind. In the end Felt took the only path that was open to him.

GJ

br00ksintexas

You also forgot to mention Felt himself was a criminal, of which he was pardoned by, oh, that's Right, a Republican president: Ronald Reagan.
I don't think the moral of this story should have political bindings. Reguardless of your party affiliation, or whoever is committing the crime, if you know of someone breaking the law in a major, dispicable fashion, you should report it.
Of course, I'm not speaking of knowing someone's speeding, or ran a redlight, or they used some p2p shareing proggy. I'm talking about something that actually matters. Use your imagination.

raid517

Felt was a criminal? I was under the impression no one knew who he really was until just recently. That is after all the title of this thread, as in 'deep throat revealed.'

GJ

br00ksintexas

Felt was convicted in the 1970s for authorizing illegal break-ins at homes of people associated with the radical Weather Underground. He was pardoned by President Reagan in 1981.
Dow Jones Newswires 05-31-051929ET



I would pretty much say that THAT means YES he WAS a CONVICTED criminal. Atleast according to American law, the Press, and the majority of our public.


As I said, what Felt did, dropping the dime on someone because they were committing a major injustice, was cool. I would like to think it was his morals, and NOT his party affiliation that urged him to do this. I would also like to think most rational thinking individuals, not blind party zealots, think in the same manner. Act on morals, not because some larger group of nutbags (Dems and Reps, Conservatives and Liberals here AND abroad) think you should.

raid517

Erm but how was that connected to Watergate? The FBI did lots of screwy stuff like this in the 60's and 70's (heck maybe they still do). But clearly Watergate was a step too far, as it theatened to undermime the very foundations of American democracy itself. (Which I trust is an idea some folks here might be old enough to still remember). So maybe through a career of doing some very questionable things, he simply decided to do one thing right in his life for a change?

Maybe there was even something personal to it. Who knows? There were mumblings that he didn't like getting passed over for promotion. But hey the bottom line is whatever his motivations were, it was better that he broke the story rather than allow the conspiracy to continue.

Yes, he spoke to the press... But as I said, what exactly were his other options at that time? From what I understand of it, there really wasn't any.

GJ

br00ksintexas

I agree with what you're saying. Press, superior officer, whomever. Sometimes the truth has to get out. Most times, hopefully. I was just saying that I hope it wasn't politically motivated, but but instead, that he felt morally obligated. The world is so much bigger than just his side, or mine , or whomevers.