Mark Felt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Felt

William Mark Felt Sr. (born August 17, 1913 in Twin Falls , Idaho , † December 18, 2008 in Santa Rosa , California ) was an investigator for the US Federal Police FBI . Due to the confidentiality u. a. the reporter Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post became known only after 33 years on 31 May 2005 that it under the pseudonym Deep Throat the most important informant in the Watergate scandal was. Felt's information led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974 .

Early career

Felt received a bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho and a Bachelor of Laws from George Washington University . He began working for the FBI in 1942. He served at FBI headquarters for a number of years and then served in other posts including New Orleans , Salt Lake City, and Kansas City . In 1962 he returned to FBI headquarters, and in 1964 he was named head of the FBI's Inspection Division . In 1971, Felt was promoted to Deputy Associate Director in support of J. Edgar Hoover's Assistant Clyde A. Tolson . When Hoover died in 1972, L. Patrick Gray became FBI director; Felt became number two. He stayed until June 1973. In his early years at the FBI, he worked as a so-called Nazi hunter.

Watergate

During the FBI's investigation into the Watergate affair , the agent in charge, Charles Nuzum , sent the results of his investigation to the FBI's head of investigative division, who in turn sent his investigation to Associate Director Mark Felt. Felt saw everything in front of other departments and also before it was directed to Gray. From the break-in on June 17, 1972 to June 1973, when the FBI investigation ended, Felt was the key point for FBI intelligence. Felt was one of the few people who had this information just two days after the break-in.

Years earlier, the young naval officer Bob Woodward had met the FBI man by chance in the White House. Woodward kept in touch when he began his journalistic career and kept receiving information from him. When Woodward began researching the Watergate affair, Felt initially refused to give him any information because of the explosive nature of the process. Only after Woodward had assured him that he would never be known as the source and that he would not use any direct quotations from him, did Felt agree to confirm theses at conspiratorial meetings that Woodward had already worked out from other research. Conversations below this level of confidentiality are referred to in US journalism as "on deep background". From this the code name "Deep Throat" developed in the editorial office of the Washington Post, alluding to a popular porno film . Bob Woodward and his co-author, Carl Bernstein, first spoke of Deep Throat in “ All the President's Men, ” a chronology of the Watergate scandal, on page 72 : “That man's position in the executive was very sensitive. He never said anything to Woodward that was wrong. It was he who informed Woodward on June 19th that Howard Hunt was definitely involved in the Watergate affair. "

The time after the Watergate affair

In the early 1970s, Felt experienced one of the most turbulent times at the FBI. The FBI pursued radical people in the so-called Weather Underground who planted bombs on the Capitol , the Pentagon and the State Department . Felt, along with Edward S. Miller, authorized FBI agents to secretly break into homes without a search warrant. Both were charged with conspiracy and convicted by a jury on November 6, 1980. Ironically, Richard Nixon appeared as a defense witness during the trial. Felt was fined $ 5,000 (Miller was fined $ 3,500); the prosecution requested ten years in prison. President Ronald Reagan pardoned both of them on April 15, 1981. After the death of his wife Audrey in 1984, Felt retired to Santa Rosa, California, where his daughter lives. He died on December 18, 2008, at the age of 95 at his Santa Rosa home.

Exposure of Deep Throat

As early as February 2005, reports in the media indicated that Deep Throat was sick and near death, and that Woodward had written an obituary for him and notified colleagues at the Washington Post .

On May 31, 2005, the US magazine Vanity Fair published an article in which Deep Throat was identified as Mark Felt. The publication was made with the knowledge and consent of Felt's daughter and his lawyer, who relied on Felt's consent. Bob Woodward then confirmed Felt's identity.

In the public statements that exposed him, Felt's family referred to him as an American hero because, as a deep throat , he passed on information for moral and patriotic reasons. However, media commentators said that the fact that Felt was not appointed FBI director after Hoover's death led Felt to seek revenge on Nixon . Others felt that Felt's institutional loyalty to the FBI was his motivation; many FBI officials believed the Watergate affair had demonstrated their agency's independence.

literature

  • Mark Felt and John D. O'Connor: A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being Deep Throat, and the Struggle for Honor in Washington , Public Affairs Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-586-48443-9
  • Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein: The Secret Man. The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat , Pocket Books 2006, ISBN 978-1-416-52189-1
  • Bob Woodward: The Informant - Deep Throat, the secret source of the Watergate revelers , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-421-05928-4 . Paperback edition: Ullstein, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-548-36865-8
  • Max Holland: Leak: why Mark Felt became Deep Throat . University Press of Kansas, Lawrence 2012, ISBN 978-0-7006-1829-3

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NYT : “W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95, ” December 19, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Felt, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deep throat
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American FBI agent, informant in the Watergate affair
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Twin Falls , Idaho
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 2008
Place of death Santa Rosa (California) , California