Watergate Affair

And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him ... That was the way 1 Samuel described those Israelites who went into the hills to skulk with David and await the fall of Saul. It's also a pretty apt description of the people investigative reporters call "sources."

If W. Mark Felt, who outed himself this week as the almost mythic "Deep Throat" of Watergate, writes a book as has been speculated, few believe it would ultimately be of great historic value. Other than the mystery that has long surrounded the identity of the Washington Post's informant, there is little else that isn't already known about the scandal that toppled the Nixon presidency, some academics said.

One day after the disclosure that former FBI Deputy Director W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat," Washington was awash with claims from political celebrities that they'd known the identity of the secret source all along. Nora Ephron, a screenwriter and author who was once married to Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein -- who with colleague Bob Woodward played leading roles in exposing Watergate -- put out word on a blog that "I knew that Deep Throat was Mark Felt because I figured it out."

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, a onetime speechwriter for President Nixon, provided the expected thunder on the right Wednesday, characterizing W. Mark Felt as "dishonorable" for leaking information about Watergate to the Washington Post. Saying "Deep Throat" is "not a hero ... he's a snake," Buchanan compared Felt to Linda Tripp, who helped precipitate President Clinton's impeachment by leaking tapes of her conversations with Monica S. Lewinsky.

On Saturday, June 17, 1972, the FBI night supervisor called then-Deputy FBI Director W. Mark Felt at home. Five men in business suits, pockets stuffed with $100 bills and carrying eavesdropping and photographic equipment, had been arrested inside the Democrats' national headquarters at the Watergate office building earlier at about 2:30 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., Felt was in his office at the FBI, seeking more details.

Some past and present FBI agents said Wednesday that they felt uncomfortable with the revelation that one of their own was the legendary "Deep Throat," who had helped the Washington Post uncover details of the Watergate break-in. One called it appalling. But others said that W. Mark Felt, then the FBI's No. 2 man, did what he had to do to get the story out. That's a sentiment that has permeated the bureau throughout its history and continues to this day -- sometimes for ignoble purposes.

When investigative reporter Bob Woodward wanted to meet "Deep Throat," he'd move a flowerpot with a red flag to the rear of his apartment balcony. Even more mysteriously, when his top-secret source wanted to meet him, Woodward would open his New York Times, check Page 20 and look for a hand-drawn clock to tell him when to rendezvous at an underground parking garage. Even now, it seems like detail from a corny potboiler.

The long-awaited revelation of the identity of "Deep Throat" should remind journalists and a sometimes-skeptical public of the crucial role anonymous sources can play in revealing wrongdoing in high places, an array of reporters and writers said Tuesday. The Washington Post confirmed Tuesday that W. Mark Felt, a former No. 2 official at the FBI, provided much of the crucial information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon.

W. Mark Felt, a former No. 2 man at the FBI, has revealed that he was the legendary source known as "Deep Throat" who helped two Washington Post reporters expose details in the Watergate scandal that forced President Nixon to give up the White House. Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein led the Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, confirmed Felt's identity as the source, ending one of Washington's most tantalizing mysteries.

Three decades after Watergate, a former top aide to President Nixon now contends that Nixon ordered the break-in that led to his resignation. Jeb Stuart Magruder previously had gone no further than saying that John N. Mitchell, the former attorney general who was running the Nixon reelection campaign in 1972, approved the plan to break into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office building.