posted 23-06-2002 08:50 PM            

Deep Throat has always been one of the
biggest interest areas.

Deep Throat: Washington's Best-Kept Secret
By Benjamin C. Bradlee

From a "A Good Life," Bradlee's 1995 memoir. Bradlee is vice president at large and former executive editor at The Washington Post.

The identity of "Deep Throat," Bob Woodward's super source in Watergate, has been hands-down the best-kept secret in the history of Washington journalism.

Throughout the years, some of the city's smartest journalists and politicians have put their minds to identifying Deep Throat, without success. Gen. Al Haig was a popular choice for a long time, and, especially when he was running for president in the 1988 race, he would beg me to state publicly that he was not Deep Throat. He would steam and sputter when I told him that would be hard for me to do for him and not for anyone else. Woodward finally said publicly that Haig was not Deep Throat.

Some otherwise smart people decided Deep Throat was a composite, if he (or she) existed at all. I have always thought it should be possible to identify Deep Throat simply by entering all the information about him in "All the President's Men" into a computer, and then entering as much as possible about all the various suspects. For instance, who was not in Washington on the days that Woodward reported putting the red-flagged flowerpot on his windowsill, signaling Deep Throat for a meeting?

The quality of Deep Throat's information was such that I had accepted Woodward's desire to identify him to me only by job, experience, access and expertise. That amazes me now, given the high stakes. I don't see how I settled for that, and I would not settle for that now. But the information and the guidance he was giving Woodward were never wrong, never. And it was only after Nixon's resignation, and after Woodward and Bernstein's second book, "The Final Days," that I felt the need for Deep Throat's name. I got it one spring day during lunch break on a bench in McPherson Square. I have never told a soul, not even Katharine Graham, or Don Graham, who succeeded his mother as publisher in 1979. They have never asked me. I have never commented, in any way, on any name suggested to me. The fact that his identity has remained secret all these years is mystifying, and truly extraordinary. Some doubting Thomases have pointed out that I only knew who Woodward told me Deep Throat was. To be sure. But that was good enough for me then. And now.

From "A Good Life" by Benjamin C. Bradlee, © 1995.

posted 23-06-2002 09:11 PM            

Thirty years after the Watergate break-in, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward still won't identify Deep Throat - the mysterious source who exposed the widespread abuse of power and cover-up that led to the resignation of president Richard Nixon.

During a live Webcast on washingtonpost.com today, Woodward, now an assistant managing editor, and Benjamin C. Bradlee, now The Post's vice president at large, recalled their days covering the story and discussed the themes that continue to make the Watergate scandal an object of fascination.

In a new e-book published on Salon.com, John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel and a key witness, sparked renewed speculation this week about the identity of Deep Throat, the famous source who worked with Woodward and reporter Carl Bernstein.

* * *

Lisa Todorovich, executive producer of washingtonpost.com's Live Online section, passed along questions from people following the Webcast online, and in the audience at George Washington University. "Someone in the audience had a question: 'So who was Deep Throat?' - thank you - Let's talk about it. What can you tell us?"

"Nothing," replied Bradlee in his trademark gruff voice.

Woodward said not identifying Deep Throat is a matter of deeply held principle.

"It is a legitimate question, but we have to protect sources and I think that for thirty years we've kept our word. And it's important that we keep our word. It's important to future sources out there. Current sources know that this [is] first principle with us and we're not going to budge on it."

Woodward said that the protection of sources is a must in order to build confidence. Without the security of anonymity, he said, sources won’t be willing to expose wrongdoing.

"They can count on that," Woodward said. "They can take it to the bank. And if they can't take it to the bank, its much more difficult to build the essential relationship of trust."

posted 23-06-2002 09:16 PM            

The Watergate break-in and the discoveries that led to the destruction of Richard Nixon's presidency are put under new light in a two-hour documentary, "Watergate: Legacy of Secrets," premiering on Discovery Channel Monday at 10 p.m.

Thirty years ago this week, on June 16, 1972, a security guard removed a piece of tape holding a door in the open position. On his next round early in the morning, the guard noticed that the door was taped again. That discovery at the Watergate office and apartment complex led to the Oval Office and eventually to the resignation of President Nixon.

The identity of Deep Throat and the 18.5-minute gap on White House tape No. 342 remain mysteries to the public.

But now the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit is building a profile of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's mysterious information source. In addition, an investigative reporter, a professor and some students have launched an intensive search for Deep Throat.

posted 23-06-2002 09:26 PM            

At the "Watergate Revisited" forum, which was Webcast live by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, Woodward said the event was significant in many ways. Questions to Bradlee and Woodward were posed by the audience and from around the world via the Internet.

"It wasn't just about a burglary," said Woodward, then a young reporter who, with Carl Bernstein, unraveled the story that led to Nixon's resignation from the presidency and the imprisonment of many associated with his administration. Bradlee was executive editor of The Post at the time.

"Watergate was about connecting the dots," Woodward said, describing the newspaper reporting and the subsequent Senate hearings and trials that led to "White House criminality and abuse of power, not just by Nixon" but also the 25 people who served time.

The scandal led to the creation of the office of special prosecutor, now a governmental institution; the importance of using anonymous sources judiciously; and a standard that dominates American politics today, Bradlee said.

"Watergate made lying . . . more costly," he said. "You cannot lie anymore. That's a real plus. . . . If that's an outcome, that's good."

The obligatory "So who is Deep Throat? What can you tell us?" inquiries were posed. The answer, as always, was "Nothing."

Woodward has said he will identify the famous source only with his permission or after his death. Woodward has said in the past only that Deep Throat is a man, that he is alive and that they stay in touch.

"We have to protect sources, and for 30 years, we've kept our word," Woodward said. "It's important we keep our word. It's important that future sources out there, current sources, know this is first principle with us. It is that process of protection that is so important. They can take it to the bank."

Woodward and Bradlee also were asked about a project by university students in Illinois that eliminated all but seven White House aides as Deep Throat possibilities and concluded that Deep Throat was commentator and former Nixon aide Pat Buchanan.

"We will greet that with silence," Woodward said.

"And great awe," Bradlee added with a chuckle.

They were accused, by one on-line questioner, of "destroying" Nixon and his presidency because of The Post's alleged liberal bias.

To which Bradlee said: "Can I point out that we didn't destroy it; that he destroyed it. And people didn't go to jail because we wanted them to. Republican judges put them there."

posted 23-06-2002 09:38 PM            

Or do what the Grade Level 8 - 12 kids in Cincinnati do in their NIE class (Lesson June 18, 2002)...

Click here!


(above link updated on 17 Jul 02)