Remembering Deep Throat and the man in the shadows

Posted Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 2:35 a.m. by Chris Amico in News and Self-Indulgence about journalism and Santa Rosa

Friends, family and admirers of W. Mark Felt, better known to the public as Deep Throat, remembered the late FBI agent today as a man who lived his fundamental beliefs of "truth, justice and service."

"Action is character," former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (now an editor there) said of his late friend and mentor.

This was a memorial for the man known as Deep Throat, the G-man who arranged secret meetings at an underground parking garage with Woodward as the Watergate cover up unfolded, much more than it was for Mark Felt, who died at 95 in his daughter's home in Santa Rosa in December. The family held a private service last month; this was for the public.

Grandsons remembered Felt as Grandpa and Joan Felt recounted long talks with her father about life and death, but they, too, talked a great deal about the heroism of a man who spoke out against the corruption and excesses of Richard Nixon's White House, and about how Felt did so without recognition, keeping his secret for 30 years.

"Like Gandhi, his life was his message," Joan Felt said of her father.

Nixon knew Felt was leaking information to the Washington Post. In tapes released in 2005, Nixon and Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman discuss what to do about Felt and ultimately decide to do nothing.

"If we move on him, then he’ll go out and unload everything," Haldeman said at the time. "He knows everything that’s to be known in the FBI."

"What Mark Felt knew was about wiretaps on reporters and White House aides--in the guise of national security at times--the cover up of the Watergate burglary in the middle of that year, a truly ugly campaign of political sabatage and espionage aimed at all the democrats who might run against Richard Nixon...," Woodward said in his eulogy today. "On and on, the list goes of Mark's knowledge."

Woodward continued:

"Here was a president, Nixon, intent on grabbing, holding and manipulating all the levers of power in the government."

"What Mark Felt was confronted with at that time was nothing less than a war organized, well-practiced and well-funded, by none other than Richard Nixon."

"[It was] a war aimed at the system of justice."

"Nixon's early triumph in the Watergate cover up was he was able to enforce a conspiracy of silence. He was able to keep those who knew quiet. If everyone who knew the dimensions of Watergate, the extent of the corruption, and the violation of law and the abuse of power; if everyone shut up, Nixon would win and silence would be the victory."

"People were frightened intentionally. People were paid a lot of money for their silence, including the Watergate burglars."

"Mark's great decision in all of this was his refusal to be silenced."

"Action is character."

Felt told Woodward again and again, "Look at the overall. Connect the dots."

"He saw the character of Nixon and his men. He saw the obstruction of justice, the dirty tricks, the bundles of cash flying around," Woodward said. He regarded Felt as a great teacher. He and Bernstein say he reminds them of a tough assignment editor.

"He always put the ball in our court. He said, 'Well, you're going to have to find that out, aren't you?' He steered and helped us, but the real help was insisting that we do our jobs."

There are other Mark Felts in government, Woodward said, and we need more.

"Democracies die in darkness, and they do die," Woodward said. "And we will die if we do not know what is going on."

Carl Bernstein's Eulogy:

Bob Woodward's Eulogy:

Bonus links:

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