FBI Deep Throat branded a traitor by Nixon aides By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 02/06/2005)
June 02, 2005 The battle lines drawn across America by the Watergate crisis were revealed anew yesterday as aides to the late Richard Nixon hurled abuse at the FBI chief <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/01/wdeep01.xml > revealed as Deep Throat. Veterans of the White House during the Nixon era attacked Mark Felt, now unmasked as the journalistic source who helped to disgrace their boss in the 1970s, for betraying the president and even impugned his patriotism. Charles Colson, Nixon's chief counsel who served seven months in jail for his role in the Watergate scandal, confessed to understanding the dilemma Mr Felt faced. But he added: "When any president has to worry whether the deputy director of the FBI is sneaking around in dark corridors peddling information in the middle of the night, he's in trouble." Pat Buchanan, a former speechwriter for Nixon and later a presidential candidate, was harsher still, branding Mr Felt a "traitor" for leaking information to the Washington Post journalists who broke the Watergate story. Mr Felt's confession of his role in the biggest political scandal in American history was predictably seized upon by the media and liberal-minded commentators. Many portrayed him as a hero. They also played down the fact that the one-time FBI number two was convicted in 1980 of authorising illegal break-ins at the homes of Left-wing radicals, something which would normally rouse their condemnation. But American's Right seemed to be as confused about the Watergate legacy and Mr Felt as the Left. Most of the conservative media and politicians were silent or, at best, ambivalent. Asked whether he viewed Mr Felt as a hero or a villain, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, another survivor of the Nixon era, dodged the question. When a second journalist zeroed in on the issue, pointing out that Mr Rumsfeld normally gave short shrift to leakers, he shook his head and responded: "I'm not in a judgmental mood." The conservative media's discomfort reflected the Right's mixed feelings about the downfall of Mr Nixon, who resigned as president in 1974 rather than be impeached. Although most conservatives accept that Mr Nixon broke the law by instigating and then covering up the 1972 Watergate burglary, many believe that other presidents were equally cavalier with the law while in office. The culture wars of the 1970s provoked by the scandal also established a hierarchy of loathing on the Right in which "liberal" journalists and "interfering" judges are aided by disloyal officials and spies. The Washington Post and its Watergate reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, had pledged not to reveal Deep Throat's identity in his lifetime but, freed from their promise by his own confession on the pages of Vanity Fair, they praised his "secret patriotism". "It's nice to be able to honour him by his real name while he still lives," the paper said. The New York Times appeared to have some difficulty reliving one of its least illustrious hours, when it was comprehensively scooped by its great rival, a humiliation it has never recovered from. It suggested that Mr Felt was a less pleasing Deep Throat than other, better known candidates for the role of secret source, such as Henry Kissinger or George Bush senior. "You don't read a mystery to find out that the answer to the central riddle is the guy who had a walk-on part on page 143," it sneered. <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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