Monday, February 07, 2005

Deep Throat Dying?!?

In an op-ed this weekend, the infamous John Dean let slip an amazing revelation:
We'll all know one day very soon, however. Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source's identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat's obituary.
There has been much speculation as to the Identity of this source (or some believe sources, one character in a book that combined the information of many anonymous sources)

Probably the most thorough investigation into the identity of this mystery man was done by Professor Bill Gaines' journalism class at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They concluded that White House lawyer, and first assistant to Dean, Fred Fielding was the aforementioned stooly.

A quick googling of Fielding shows this article on vetting candidates for White House Jobs dated February 6, 2005.
Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel for Ronald Reagan, who vetted the current President Bush's cabinet nominees during the 2000 transition, heartily agrees. Nominees have to be prepared, he said, honestly to answer the awful questions posed by White House lawyers: Have you ever had an affair? Or used drugs? A yes to either of those questions, Mr. Fielding added, was not necessarily a problem.
There is no way to know when the interview took place, but it would seem that, if this is the same Fielding pointed to in the article, he is probably still in relative good health. (More on Fielding)

Personally, I tended to support the Alexander "I'm in charge here" Haig theory, but his recent appearance on FoxNews would squalsh attempts at convincing me he was near the end of his mortal existence.

Whomever it is, I will be curious until the day the obituary is released.

UPDATE: The Likely Suspects over the years

Some taken from here.

Henry Kissinger - I just watched him on the Sunday talk shows this weekend and he was looking pretty healthy

Alexander Haig - Mentioned above

Cord Meyer - Died March 2001

William E. Colby - Died May 1996

L. Patrick Gray - Hmmmm Born 1916 and nothing about his demise in a google queary

W. Mark Felt - This interview leads me to believe it is not Felt, but he is up there in age, and I can't find anything recent on him. However, he has been of ill health and is over 90. I have read some ancedotal evidence in other blog threads stating that Woodward even visted him recently. UPDATE 5/31/2005 Vanity Fair has released a press statement saying they have an exclusive Interview with Felt where he reveals himself as Deep Throat. My post is here with added links and snippets from the soon to be released VF article:

Charles W. Bates Died in 1999 at 79

Robert Kunkel. - Mann wrote (see article linked below) that Kunkel was not as likely a suspect, as Gray moved him to the St. Louis field office during Watergate.

Here's an article by Lisa Todorovich discussing the FBI Theory. Seems like L. Patrick Gray is the leading candidate at this point and I can't find anything right now on his health.

Flash

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