Deep Throat tinfoil hat theory

[Horse with no Name]

Is this a red herring?
I've been watching responses from people who were involved with Watergate, responses from here, etc.
Many do not believe this to be true.
How plausible is it that Felt is taking the heat for someone higher up?
Did someone threaten his family to step up?
So what is the likelihood that Buchanan and his ilk will get their way and have Felt prosecuted for treason?
Then junior can pardon him.
End of story. End of theory.
But even more diabolical is that it will send a message to anyone that is thinking of speaking out against this administration that they will be prosecuted.
I personally am thinking that the mystery of Watergate is just beginning.
:tinfoilhat:

[smoogatz]

1. Woodward and the WaPo both confirm it was Felt

and any possible grounds there might be to prosecute him have no doubt long ago expired under the statute of limitations. So you can put the tinfoil back on the meat loaf.

[Skip Intro]

2. I keep coming back to that great quote

"no matter how cynical you are, its impossible to keep up" or something like that.

I think Lilly Tomlin said it.

[Mnemosyne]

15. Right, Lily did say it!

[dweller]

3. he's already pardoned

by Rayguns.
thread is here on DU somewhere.


but here's a question: why would the Repugs want to draw attention to this sordid affair in their history?

dp

[pretzel4gore]

20. the bombing campaign against iraq before the 'war' started

that story went south fast eh....

[BurtWorm]

32. He was pardoned for something entirely different.

For authorizing illegal wiretaps while looking for members of the Weather Underground.

[Bluzmann57]

4. I , personally, think you may be insane

Sorry, but thats what I think.

[Jara sang]

5. We won't really know until Woodward dies.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Call me a bit paranoid now days

but that's the first thing I thought of. How perfect would it be now? All the stuff going on with Bush. It will make the republicans turn away from what we're saying.

[AlCzervik]

7. St. Ronnie pardoned him already

[DURHAM D]

12. Not for Watergate - but it does not matter. eom

[autorank]

8. Very interesting or as the Church Lady says: "How convenient!"

Mr. Felt is in his 90's, not much time for heat is there? He's a tough guy and can take any thing that's dealt out in any likely scenario. Nothing happens to him and the real Deep Throat takes a walk. How convenient!

One of the fascinating things in the article released was hearing about Woodward checking up to see how Felt was doing. Woodward was on public record as saying that he wouldn't release Deep Throat's name until the informant had passed on. How utterly morbid.

I can see it as a combination of factors: Felt was one of perhaps several sources; Felt was doing this as part of a larger scheme; and you can be sure that anyone working for Hoover embarked on this type of escapade ONLY with Hoover's full knowledge.

Who were Hoover's allies?

Great post, as a fellow tinfoiler myself. Or is this really me speaking, maybe some one speaking in my behalf.

[WoodrowFan]

13. Hoover's full knowledge??

Um, Hoover was dead. he died in May 1972. Did Felt use a Ouiji board??

[autorank]

23. No, the communication was through Jean Houston. Don't confuse

me with the facts. Oops! :blush:

[napi21]

9. Well, I heard the statute of limitations has run out on prosecution

so that's a non-starter.

Listen to John Dean on Keith Olberman's show tonight...he's on now. He was posing a lot of questions about this issue and everyone seems to be hoping that Woodward & Berstein will provide the answers.

[Lugnut]

26. In watching Dean on KO

It seemed to me that he's not completely sold on the Felt revelation. As he said it begs more questions. KO agreed with him.

I always wondered if "Deep Throat" was really a composite of more than one person. I'll be very interested to read what Woodward and Bernstein will produce in their current corroboration.

[Fridays Child]

10. This is a red herring in the sense that it distracts from the real news...

...about the continuing depradations of the current murderous regime in DC. It always seems like so much flies under the radar, whenever we pay too much attention to other stories.

[xynthee]

11. My, aren't we cynical?!

That just shows that some of us are learning!!

Has the MSM been chattering about it non-stop since it was revealed (I wouldn't know, since I can't stomach the MSM)? If so, there's your answer!! They wouldn't be talking about it if our lovable criminal overlords didn't want them to be!!!

Don't look now, but there's probably a real story (or STORIES) breaking right now!!

[DURHAM D]

14. This was a spooks against the White House thing. Hoover

had just died (perhaps done in) and the White House wanted the secret files and to take over control of the FBI after 4 or 5 decades. The FBI got even with them - showed them that the spooks have it over the political types any day.

[EVDebs]

16. W. Mark Felt , Assoc of Former Intelligence Officers

http://www.namebase.org/main4/W-Mark-Felt.html

Mr Felt has military intelligence background just like Bob Woodward ! Who'da thunk it. The military wanted Nixon out of office so bad with the navy especially. Pages 246-247 of Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, by Sherry Sontag and Christopher/Annette Drew, shows us why:

"Kissinger had made a glaring mistake during arms negotiations that threatened to leave the Soviets with a dangerous lead in submarine-based ballistic missiles. In secret talks away from his military advisers, he had agreed, offhandedly, not to ask for limits on the Soviet's massive efforts to build the Deltas, a new class of submarines that would far surpass the Yankees and carry ballistic missiles with ranges of 4,000 miles. Zumwalt was furious, convinced that Nixon had given away the barn in their zeal to get SALT completed before the year's elections." (1972)

Also see http://www.watergate.com/stories/obit.asp

This link ends with the same speculation about Woodward's naval intelligence background. More reporters should ask Woodward about that...

[H2O Man]

17. On Felt, Woodward, etc ....

Take it a step further: McCord, who the Nixon administration was willing to leave out to dry, was a lieutenant colonial in a reserve unit of the Pentagon's Office of Emergency Preparedness. The OEP was in charge of drawing up "lists of radicals and (to) help develop contingency plans for the censorship of the news media and U.S. mail in times of war." (All the President's Men; page 23)

What was Felt convicted of? Then pardoned by Reagan? Think about that!

[Zen Democrat]

18. Illegal wiretapping.

[H2O Man]

19. Illegal wiretapping of

the "radical anti-war leaders."

Small world.

[dweller]

22. i hope you have more to say about this matter

and will look forward to reading it.

:thumbsup:

dp

[H2O Man]

24. Felt was one of

J Edgar Hoover's top students. And if anyone wants to get a idea what his worldview was in the early 1970s, think of Hoover. Felt's hero had just died. Was Felt's activities remarkably different than JEH's pushing the package of information on King? No. Felt is a Hoover man, who connected Edgar to the inside scoop from other intel agencies.

Was it good that Nixon was knee-capped? Sure. But let's examine who did it, and why. Felt isn't a great guy in my book.

[H2O Man]

27. From "All the President's Men"

We know that Woodward was a Naval officer who specialized in communications before becoming a reporter. There are a couple curious quotes from page 15 of the book:

"Berstein knew that Woodward couldn't write very well. One office rumor had it that English was not Woodward's native language."

"Bernstein thought that Woodward's rapid rise at the Post had less to do with his ability than his Establishment credentials."

[Tsiyu]

21. CBS News covered this story tonight

and reported that the family pushed to have this story brought out in the open; Felt wanted to take his identity to the grave and didn't even reveal his past to his family until three years ago.

Felt believed he was hated and regarded as a criminal (only by idiots, but...) and the family wanted him to see that he was a hero and to receive accolades while alive. So the story goes...

Rather commented in the story, claiming that without Felt's assistance, the Republican conspiracy would have been successful.

[cornermouse]

29. CBS's John Roberts interview with spokesman.

I think prior to admission by Woodward was straight out of the neo-con's handbook. They're playing it (the out-of-date interview) on the early news this morning. Its probably an indication that they really are grooming him for anchorship. In which case, since I still like to watch when I can, I'll have to find another network.

[Tsiyu]

30. I agree

Roberts is a little too smarmy for me as well. I try to flip around the channels to see what's being covered for the half hour the networks give over to "news."

Roberts and CBS closed last night with a story about peacocks. It's insane, really, what qualifies as news.....

[Geek_Girl]

25. Is Carl Bernstein confirming this

I see, Felt and Woodward have both confirmed this, but what is Carl saying. I don't really trust Woodward he gave cover to Bush admin on Iraq by indicating faulty intelligence on WMDs. Because of the Downing Street Memo there is proof that it is pure BS and I'd bet a biscuit Woodward knew it was BS as well.

[H2O Man]

28. Yes.

He and Woodward were filmed going into Carl's home, carrying a couple suitcases, last night. They are expected to make some comment soon. I have heard that Woodward has a book completed, and was waiting for Felt to die before publishing it. I expect it to come out very soon, as Woodward is money conscious.

[theboss]

31. I think it's 99 percent true

I still think it's possible that Deep Throat was a composite, but I believe that Felt provided the bulk of the information attributed to "Deep Throat." It was always assumed that it was someone in either the FBI or White House counsel's office. And Felt is about as high as you could get in the FBI without actually getting into the White House.

Buchanan is nuts. There is no "treason" here. Deep Throat almost certainly committed several crimes by revealing classified information. However, I imagine the statutes of limitations has long since expired on any of those crimes. And besides, who is going to prosecute a 92-year-old man for a non-violent crime?

Finally, Ben Bradlee says that it is true and he has always been one of the good guys.

[H2O Man]

35. "Buchanan is nuts" !!!

It amazes me that this guy on occasion sounds rational and insightful. It is almost always on foreign policy and economics, though. On social policy he is strange indeed .... damaged by his fear of pleasure, thanks to the church .... and scared to death of non-white people.

But Pat is never more odd than when he talks about the Nixon years. It is amazing how people became so fucking loyal to Nixon, who had absolutely no sense of loyalty to anyone else, not even his wife and daughters. Even today, Buchanan gets "fighting mad" about what he views as insults to "the Old Man."

[BurtWorm]

33. You couldn't go much higher up than Felt at the FBI.

It's not plausible that he's taking the heat for anyone.

I wonder why people can't take certain things at face value, why immediately they have to spin elaborate nonsensical conspiracy theories out of every news story. Just let the Felt development sink in before going off the deep end over it, for heaven's sake. For your own sanity's sake, for that matter.

Are people disappointed that this guy is Deep Throat? Why be disappointed? Were you all expecting someone else?

[H2O Man]

34. "Why be disappointed?"

I am not sure how people could be disappointed. This is in and of itself huge. Consider that the most powerful people in the country are frequently unknown to the general public. I find it refreshing that a large number of people on DU knew of Felt, and were aware of why he was on the short list of suspects, as well as for how long he was suspected by Haldeman etc.

History isn't always exciting in a hollywood sense. But in an intellectual sense, this is outrageous.It provides food for thought as far as how to view some of the people who had been in the Bush administration, then wrote books that the democrats loved. It doesn't make them democrats, it merely means that certain leadership styles make dangerous enemies.