FBI Was Clueless on "Deep Throat"
http://nycitynewsservice.com/2009/12/07/fbi-was-clueless-on-deep-throat/
By Michael Reicher
December 7th, 2009
The FBI apparently had no clue the agency's second in command during
Watergate Mark Felt was the newspaper source nicknamed "Deep
Throat" who helped bring down a president, newly released documents show.
Felt's FBI file, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, is
more than 2,000 pages long, and shows the agency maintained documents
on him from 1960s to 1980s. However, the FBI withheld 900 pages,
citing national security and privacy statutes.
The released files are perhaps most notable for what is not inside:
There is no mention of Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter who
relied on Felt as a key source in the newspaper's Watergate investigations.
Woodward said in an interview Monday the FBI withheld so many pages
it is impossible to know for certain whether the agency ever
suspected Felt. "That's the trouble with these files. With so much
redacted, you don't know what you've got," said Woodward.
Felt was monitoring internal investigations into Watergate leaks
while feeding information to The Washington Post, Woodward added.
Briefed on Watergate
The files do contain Watergate-related documents, and underscore
Felt's role as the FBI's No. 2 agent. Among the papers are
handwritten notes by L. Patrick Gray III, the acting director of the
FBI at the time. He wrote about how Felt, two days after the June 17,
1972 break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at
the Watergate complex in Washington, briefed him on the crime that
ultimately would lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
Most of the material obtained by the FBI's Watergate investigators
passed through Felt, the bureau's associate director, before reaching
Gray. This gave Felt unprecedented access to information about the
Nixon White House's illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering.
Felt kept his tipster role secret for more than 30 years until he
revealed he was Deep Throat in a 2005 Vanity Fair article. Many,
including Nixon's right-hand man Bob Haldeman, suspected Felt was
behind the leaks because, as Felt later wrote, he was infuriated with
the president. When J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972, Nixon skipped over
Felt for the top job, and instead appointed Gray.
With Felt's help, Woodward and Post colleague Carl Bernstein combined
on a series of stories that shook the nation. The reporters' efforts
were chronicled in their book, "All the President's Men," later
turned into an acclaimed movie that featured actor Hal Holbrook as
the mysterious American icon "Deep Throat."
Pursuit of Radicals
The bulk of the FBI's dossier on Felt deals with radical groups of
the 1960s and 1970s including his role in the FBI's own break-ins
to gather intelligence about the Weather Underground, which advocated
the overthrow of the government. Felt authorized those break-ins,
later ruled illegal, the files show.
In the early 1970s, Felt approved surreptitious entry into its
Weather Underground members' homes, so-called "black bag jobs." Felt
later was prosecuted along with Gray and Edward S. Miller, the deputy
director. In 1980, Felt and Miller were convicted for conspiring to
violate the constitutional rights of Americans. Gray was found not guilty.
The FBI's file on Felt shows that, during the trial, the U.S.
Attorney General's office wrote to FBI leaders requesting a "damage
assessment" of evidence to be released. The FBI was concerned
courtroom disclosures would reveal the identities of confidential
informants, both domestic and overseas.
Some of these sources had infiltrated meetings of the Weather
Underground and the Students for a Democratic Society. Felt's file
contains detailed intelligence reports on the groups' leaders. In
some cases, the FBI followed the groups' young members around the
world including to a youth convention in Bulgaria and on college
campuses around the United States. One memo alleged a student at the
State University of New York traveled to Moscow as a guest of the KGB.
The Felt file also includes notations about the Black Panthers,
Symbionese Liberation Army, and Veterans Against The War In Vietnam,
whose ranks included John Kerry, who would later become a senator and
the Democratic nominee for president.
One memo outlined how domestic terrorism was a top priority for the
bureau. The memo, prepared for Senate hearings, revealed the FBI once
maintained a list of 13,000 individuals who were under surveillance
for being perceived to be possible threats to national security. In
1972, the director reduced the number to several thousand who posed
an "immediate threat." That included specifically expanding a program
monitoring black extremist groups to encompass surveillance of the
Klu Klux Klan.
Along with domestic groups, the file outlines the agency's efforts to
monitor threats overseas. Among them were "Arab terrorists,"
including Al Fatah, the group responsible for the 1972 Munich
massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches.
Wide-Ranging Concerns
The FBI file also reveals internal concerns, from the mundane to the
deadly serious. The top brass wrote memos discussing matters such as
grooming standards and body weight limits. The documents show they
critiqued the agents' response to terrorist threats, such as in
Chicago, when field operatives lacked enough bulletproof vests to
respond to a planned plane hijacking.
The documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act
request, which calls on the agency to release certain documents to
the public once the person has died. Felt died Dec. 18, 2008, in
California, at age 95. The file includes a wide range of materials,
from notes prepared for Congressional hearings to internal memos.
Felt advanced to the No. 2 position in the agency and presided over
much of the FBI's operations while Gray traveled around the country
visiting FBI offices. Gray was forced to resign in April 1973 when
it was revealed he had destroyed a document relating to Watergate.
Felt again was passed over for advancement by Nixon. He retired from
the FBI in June 1973, ending a 31-year career.
Felt's FBI file picks up again in 1978, at the onset of his criminal
prosecution. President Reagan pardoned Felt and Miller just seven
months after their 1980 conviction.
.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
