
 |
|
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 7, 2005
/ 29 Iyar, 5765
Deep Throat: Dirty tricks, dirty hands
By
Clarence Page
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan and liberal Rev. Jesse Jackson don't often agree on much politically, but each finds a lot to dislike about Deep Throat. So do I.
Like many folks over the last three decades, I was hoping that the mysterious Deep Throat of Watergate-era fame would turn out to be a pristine-clean Dudley Do-Right, motivated by patriotism, constitutional concerns and maybe a guilty conscience as he fed Watergate revelations to The Washington Post's Bob Woodward.
Instead, he is Mark Felt, a top FBI official at the time, whose constitutional concerns did not prevent him from being convicted in 1980 for authorizing government agents to break into homes secretly, without search warrants, in a search for anti-Vietnam War bombing suspects from the radical Weather Underground in 1972 and 1973.
President Ronald Reagan pardoned Felt five months later on the grounds that he had "acted on high principle to bring an end to the terrorism that was threatening our nation." Former President Richard Nixon sent Felt his congratulations.
Today some right-wingers are castigating Felt as a turncoat and worse.
Was Felt a hero or, in Buchanan's view, a "snake"? Where you stand depends largely on where you sitor sat.
Buchanan, a veteran of the Nixon White House, describes Felt in interviews as wielding the FBI with its massive files and investigative powers like a "secret police" force to find and feed material to "the Nixon-haters at The Washington Post."
In a telephone interview, Jackson, a veteran of the Rev. Martin Luther King's civil rights organization, described his reaction as "mixed." He was delighted that Nixon's reign ended but troubled that Deep Throat turned out to be a top lieutenant in the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's Constitution-trampling war against civil rights leaders, anti-war protesters, Black Panther leaders and other left leaners.
Indeed, Felt was a top enforcer of burglaries, wiretaps, extortions and other "black-bag" jobs for Hoover during the time when then-Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy authorized the FBI to wiretap and otherwise spy on King, based on Hoover's unfounded suspicions that King was a communist.
The FBI's operation later expanded to the planting of agent provocateurs in King's movement and secretly wiretapping King and his family. Hoover's counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, resulted in the police-raid deaths of two Chicago Black Panther leaders in 1969. Their families later won a major financial settlement for the violation of the Panthers' civil rights.
"If the FBI can come to the press and use its own influence to decide who the press will or won't expose, that's a disturbing situation," Jackson said.
No, Felt was not a pristine clean "goo-goo," which is what the Democratic machine used to call "good-government" types when I was covering Chicago politics in the '70s. But few anonymous whistleblowers fit the image of Boy Scouts motivated only by their duty to do the right thing. In fact, many whistleblowers have mixed motives and that puts an extra burden on journalists to use anonymous sources cautiously and sparingly.
"Don't bite the hand that feeds you information," a prize-winning investigative reporter explained to me during the Watergate era. "But, it's OK to check their fingernails."
Felt appears to have had some dirt under his fingernails and his detractors are making the most of it. He resented being passed over by Nixon to succeed Hoover as FBI director. Judging by Woodward's account, and others, Felt also was engaged in an old-fashioned Washington turf battle to preserve the independence of Hoover's FBI against power grabs by Nixon's White House.
But, taking all that into account, Felt provided good information about criminal enterprises and cover-ups at the top of America's government and within Nixon's presidential re-election campaign. It's not hard to see why Woodward, his partner Carl Bernstein and Post editor Ben Bradley saw Felt's professional turf battles as small potatoes in light of the larger story he was helping them to report.
With that in mind, I am amused that many of the same people who called Felt a turncoat for betraying the Nixon White House praised Linda Tripp's similar betrayal of a confidence to expose President Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern.
For some people, the ethics of whistleblowing depend upon whom the whistle is being blown.
Unlike Clinton's affair, the Watergate scandal involved far-reaching burglaries, secret slush funds, cover-ups and other criminal activity and violations of the Constitution. As more than one comedian has put it, Clinton did to an intern what Nixon was trying to do to the whole country. With that in mind, I expect history will vindicate Felt's role in the Watergate story, based on what he was trying to expose and why it was worth exposing.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Clarence Page's column by clicking here.
Archives
© 2005, TMS
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Tony Blankley
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Alan Douglas
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
Marybeth Hicks
David Horowitz
Jeff Jacoby
Renee James
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Ben Wattenberg
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

Mr. Know-It-All
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
Tech Maven
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|