Has Deep Throat Revealed Himself?

Mark Felt, a former FBI deputy director, claims to be “Deep Throat,” the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to the Washington Post and helped bring down President Richard Nixon, Vanity Fair magazine said on Tuesday.

Unmasking the identity of “Deep Throat,” the key Watergate source for Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, would solve one of the greatest political and journalistic mysteries of modern times.

The magazine said Felt, now a 91-year-old retiree living in Santa Rosa, California, admitted his role to his family and the magazine. It is the first time a major potential source has claimed to be “Deep Throat.”

“I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat,” Felt told the author of the Vanity Fair story, lawyer John O’Connor.

…

Felt’s daughter spoke to Woodward, who visited Felt in 1999, by phone more than a half-dozen times to discuss a potential joint announcement, Vanity Fair said.

But Woodward would often begin those conversations with a caveat, the magazine said, saying: “Just because I’m talking to you, I’m not admitting that he is who you think he is.”

The magazine said Felt’s daughter directly asked Woodward to reveal if her dad was Deep Throat.

“He wouldn’t do that,” his daughter Joan is quoted as saying. “I said ‘If he’s not, you can at least tell me that. We could put this to rest.’ And he said ‘I can’t do that.”‘

The magazine said Woodward was concerned that Felt’s family was pushing Felt, whose health and mental sharpness were declining with age, toward exposure against his will.

So what do you think? Is Mr. Felt really Deep Throat? Why would Woodward be concerned that the family is pushing Mr. Felt toward exposure against his will if there is nothing to expose? Hmm. Interesting, indeed.