HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

By New York Correspondent Fabrice Rousselot

May 31, 2005

Original Article (French)    

Has one of the greatest mysteries of the American politics just been lifted? Tuesday, to general surprise, the American magazine VanityFair announced that W. Mark Felt, the former deputy director of the FBI under Richard Nixon, had admitted to being "Gorge Profonde" ("Deep Throat "in English), the mythical  source that fed information about Watergate to the Washington Post. In an official statement, the monthly magazine affirmed that Felt, who at 91-years lives peacefully these days in the town of Santa Rosa, California, revealed his role to his family and John O' Connor, a close friend and lawyers, in 2002. Recently, O' Connor apparently obtained the co-operation of Felt to write an article in the next edition of the magazine.

The revelation blew a mad wind through American television, where at once were convened manifold experts to discuss a question that has impassioned America for more than thirty years. Indeed, Felt is Deep Throat, the man who had revealed to Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward that Nixon had approved the wire-tapping of the headquarters of the Democratic Party during the 1972 election campaign. The scandal resulted in the resignation of the Republican president in 1974.

Since that time, hundreds of journalists and academics have tried to discover the identity of the mysterious informant. The name of Felt Mark was one of the most mentioned "suspects," along with Fred Fielding or David Gergen, two former Nixon advisers, but up until now, none of the major figures in the scandal had revealed the truth. In a recent book, Ronald Kessler, a former journalist at the Post, also suggested Felt, because he had had access to all the FBI documents that were part of the case. On a number of occasions, several journalists had wondered about the regular lunch appointments between Felt and Bob Woodward.

According to Vanity Fair, Felt decided to reveal the truth, "because he is approaching the end of its life." He had confided to his son that "He wasn’t particularly proud "of his role and that he was afraid, "to be so badly understood." Tuesday, several experts estimated that the revelation "had the ring of truth, even if it were difficult to check it by any definitive means." Up until now, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward had always said that they would only reveal the identity of Deep Throat after his death. "For us, nothing has changed, and we will not make comment on this matter," the two said Tuesday in an official statement.