June 14, 2005
Odd sidenote to the Mark Felt story
According to originally confidential FBI documents--some written by Felt--that were obtained by The Nation from the FBI's archives, Felt played another heretofore unknown part in the Watergate tale: He was, at heated moments during the scandal, in charge of finding the source of Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate scoops. In a twist worthy of le Carré, Deep Throat was assigned the mission of unearthing--and stopping--Deep Throat.This placed Felt, who as the FBI's associate director oversaw the bureau's Watergate probe, in an unusual position. He was essentially in charge of investigating himself. From this vantage point Felt, who had developed espionage skills running FBI counterintelligence operations against German spies in World War II, was able to watch his own back and protect his ability to guide the two reporters whose exposés would help topple the President he served.
Via Media Bistro.
Posted by Karol at June 14, 2005 11:03 AM | TrackBackTechnorati Tags: Mark+Felt Mark+Felt+Deepthroat
That just seems really really really unethical. On the other hand, it did bring down a Republican...
Posted by: Gib at June 14, 2005 02:09 PMIt seems sort of like Kofi Annan looking into the Oil for Food allegations featuring his son.
Posted by: Karol at June 14, 2005 02:11 PMHmm. Seems like there's a movie in there somewhere...
Posted by: Anachronda at June 14, 2005 05:27 PMExcept Kofi didn't blow the whistle on his own son. What would stepping aside have accomplished? (My history is fuzzy, did he break any laws - rather than some stated loyalty - to be a whistleblower? If he didn't and he knew it didn't, the FBI investigation would only have caught an innocent man anyway.)
Posted by: Alceste at June 14, 2005 09:35 PM
