Cartoon #189: “Mark Felt”

On May 31, 2005, Vanity Fair published an article which claims to reveal the secret identity of the famous Watergate source, “Deep Throat”. Mark Felt, a former assistant FBI director, confessed to the article’s author that he was Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s deep-background source who directed their Washington Post investigation.

Ironically, Watergate figure John Dean, who anticipated such a revelation in February in a short column he wrote for Salon, seemed to be the sole public voice of skepticism in a sea of mainstream media acceptance.

Most people know one rule about the “Big Lie”, a propaganda technique made famous by Paul Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda for the Nazis: Repeat it frequently enough and it will be accepted as the truth.

But their are two other primary rules:

1. It need be sufficent to be believed by only the least intelligent of the target audience; and

2. The bigger the lie, the more likely it will be accepted as truth.

Today is DT-Day plus three, and all three techniques are still being applied in the U.S. news media regarding the ‘identification’ of Deep Throat. Even media skeptics Al Franken and Mike Malloy, of Air America Radio, are falling for it — initially at least.

But in a continuation of the irony mentioned above, John Dean is remaining the most public voice of skepticism and reason. Dean referenced some of the counterintelligence about the alleged ID on Franken's show yesterday in an eight-minute phone interview (1:20 PM CDT). He ended by saying it is too early to attach motives to Felt because “We don't have all the facts.”

By the way, a more recent aspect of Big Lie technique is to direct a conspiracy inquiry toward the issue of motive. In reality, motive is not part of a conspiracy investigation. The reason is that conspiracy, by definition, involves multiple motives. Searching for motive is a misdirection.

Suppose Team Deep Throat changed its mind about revealing the actual identity. Why? One reason is that such a revelation would automatically reveal sources and methods of obtaining the relevant information. Those sources and methods most likely still have a high level of classification. One of the oldest secret records in the National Archives is a recipe for invisible ink used in WWI. Another most likely has something to say about Mata Hari.

How did DT have access to Woodward’s daily New York Times? How was he able to always know the status of a red flag on Woodward's apartment balcony? Woodward, as reported in his long Washington Post article, published June 2, 2005, does not know. Felt, it is reported, does not remember. Yeah, right. As was famously asked about Nixon, what did Felt know, and when did he know it? What did Felt not know, that DT knew, and when DT knew it? These questions and others are the ones that need to be asked by the news media in the spirit of the legend of Woodard and Bernstein.

Remember, Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, my choice for the actual DT, went on to be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, and director of the super secret National Security Agency. Keep in mind too, that Inman is at the University of Texas, where he can keep a close eye on the Woodward-Bernstein papers.

“See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

—George W. Bush, May 24, 2005