Washington Post Confirms Identity of Watergate 'Deep Throat'

Washington Post newspaper has confirmed a U.S. magazine report that former FBI official W. Mark Felt was the source for leaked secrets about the Watergate scandal that has led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The magazine article solves one of the last remaining mysteries behind the Watergate affair.
The magazine Vanity Fair says it has identified the anonymous source known as Deep Throat who helped the Washington Post newspaper uncover the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s.
The magazine says W. Mark Felt, a former high-ranking official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during the Nixon administration, was, in fact, Deep Throat.
Vanity Fair says Mr. Felt has acknowledged that he was the official who secretly leaked information about the budding scandal to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Mr. Felt is 91 and lives in California with his daughter. He did not comment Tuesday but a family spokesman, his grandson Nick Jones, read a statement to reporters indicating that the family believes Mr. Felt is telling the truth.
"The family believes that my grandfather, Mark Felt Senior, is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well," said Mr. Jones.
Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein issued a written statement that neither confirmed nor denied Mr. Felt as Deep Throat. The Bernstein statement went on to say that he and Mr. Woodward stand by their agreement not to reveal the identity of Deep Throat until the person dies.
In their book All the President's Men, the two reporters say Deep Throat played a crucial role in feeding them information about the Nixon administration's efforts to hide its involvement in the 1972 break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington and the resulting illegal cover-up.
The book was eventually made into a popular Hollywood movie in which actors portraying then-Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and reporter Bob Woodward discussed the veracity of Deep Throat.