The World According to Oatney

Deep Throat revealed

Anyone who has been following the news over the last day now knows that the man known to the world only as "Deep Throat," taking the code name of a popular pornographic film of the 1970's, has chosen to make himself known to the world via an upcoming article in Vanity Fair. Deep Throat was Mark Felt, who was the Number Two man at the FBI during Nixon's second term. As an FBI man, Felt had access to all kinds of confidential information, and he revealed much of it to Bob Woodward and Leonard Bernstein of The Washington Post. Felt's family says the 91-year-old chose to talk now so that he might be remembered with some lasting legacy. Family members say they see Felt as a hero, and understandably so.

Was Mark Felt really a hero, or was he a rat who jeopardized the confidentiality of a sensitive federal investigation and the credibility of the FBI? Many people feel that he was the latter, after all, this is the same man who was once convicted of planting evidence, called "black-bag jobs," in order to insure that members of the infamous Weather Underground were brought to justice. Felt was later pardoned for his crimes by President Reagan.

The FBI has access to all kinds of sensitive information, much of which the G-Men are pledged to keep secret in order to preserve the sanctity of investigations and the dignity of the FBI. The FBI may have information on you, dear reader, and you would never even know it. Thus, the question can be raised that if Mr. Felt can reveal such sensitive information, put a federal investigation in jeopardy, as well as jeopardize the FBI, and be seen as a hero, is any secret safe at the FBI?

G. Gordon Liddy rightly pointed out that the right thing for Felt to do would have been to take the sensitive information to the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, and ask for a Grand Jury to be convened in secret in order to decide whether indictments were warranted. Likely, indictments would have happened, and the rest of the course of history would have remained the same. Felt, however, seems to have had an agenda of his own. He was passed over to be the new Director of the FBI after the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and he was angry about it. Felt's anger over not being made FBI Director likely contributed to his decision to play the rat. What this really goes to show is that the loyalty of some people is only maintained by giving them what they want, and if they are not successfully bought, they'll sell out even the very principles they have sworn to uphold.

Is Mark Felt a hero or just a sell-out rat? My jury is still out on that question...



Deep Throat

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 8:50 AM