Deep Throat and Eerie Similarities

[jon_chaisson]

Okay, so maybe I'm reading into things, but I've been following a lot of the news lately in regards to the revelation that former FBI 2nd-in-command Mark Felt was in fact Deep Throat. Fascinating story, really. Pretty much as exciting and creepy as the movie All the President's Men made it out to be.

I'm seeing a few, well, maybe not outright "forget-history-you're-doomed-to-repeat-it" similarities, but perhaps "this-pattern-seems-awfully-familiar" similarities. To wit:

From Bob Woodward's article from today's Washington Post:
At the time, pre-Watergate, there was little or no public knowledge of the vast pushing, shoving and outright acrimony between the Nixon White House and Hoover's FBI. The Watergate investigations later revealed that in 1970 a young White House aide named Tom Charles Huston had come up with a plan to authorize the CIA, the FBI and military intelligence units to intensify electronic surveillance of "domestic security threats," authorize illegal opening of mail, and lift the restrictions on surreptitious entries or break-ins to gather intelligence.

(For the record, Huston's plan was favored by Nixon, but shunned by Hoover, who thought that such actions were the FBI's bread and butter, and didn't want any competition. Interesting, huh? ;) Nixon nixed the plan four days later.)


Another gem, also from Woodward's article:
There is little doubt Felt thought the Nixon team were Nazis. During this period, he had to stop efforts by others in the bureau to "identify every member of every hippie commune" in the Los Angeles area, for example, or to open a file on every member of Students for a Democratic Society.

Sure, we all know now that that was going on then. Every cynic and conspiracy buff knows that this is part and parcel of any administration. I'm just wondering if our current administration is doing such things with people who are of the Muslim faith right now.


Patriot Act, anyone? ;)


More soon when I have the time...


(all quotes from Bob Woodward (c)2005 Bob Woodward/Washington Post. :) )

Comments

[head58.livejournal.com]

I'm just waiting for the administration to press various charges of mishandling classified information etc against Felt. They need to send the message that this kind of crap won't be tolerated.

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Apparently some people, including G. Gordon Liddy (of all people) are already whining about it. :p

This just in...

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Apparently our buddy Pat Buchanan is also on the "whiners" list! :p

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

I was really annoyed that NPR decided to ask three people that went to prison because of Watergate, what they thought of Felt and they didn't bother to ask anyone else.

[chaoticmoth.livejournal.com]

Agreed, they should have definitely contacted you, me, or Head58 for our opinions.

[chaoticmoth.livejournal.com]

Sorry, meant to include Joncwriter in that list!

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

What can I say that would actually hold up? I was a year old when the burglary took place! ;)

[chaoticmoth.livejournal.com]

So? Things like that don't stop the rest of us from getting up on our soapboxes. :)

Okay then...

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Okay then...politically? I rarely use "hero" when describing people (I tend to think of that word in literary terms), so I'd say that Felt certainly had brass for doing what he did. And if I was in his position? Hell yeah, I'd probably do the same.

Storywise? Made one hell of a movie, and it's a fascinating bit of history.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Damn straight!
Or maybe an historian or someone that wasn't sent to jail because of him.
I'm wondering if next we ask Saddam how he felt about the invasion, was it a good thing? How did Hiter feel about D-Day? Did he agree that it helped Europe in the long run? Did Noriega approve of Bush Sr. kidnapping him from leading Panama? Are the Cardinals happy for the Red Sox? How do the executives at Enron feel about the whistleblowers at their company?
Now there's news.

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Okay, when did my LJ become a soapbox for rampant liberalism concerning how media runs??? [/Graham Chapman as General]

Damn, it sounds like I'm back in a Mass Comm class in college again... :p

Seriously, we already know how historians/those not involved feel about it. Sure, they could have thrown a few more people in there to balance it out (I'm not getting into that argument...), but just the fact that they got those voices at all is interesting enough.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see NPR as leaning towards the right. I just listen to it. Period. :p

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

This isn't a question of leaning right or left, this is a question of leaning stupid. Right up there with questions like "How do you feel about the man that just shot you"? Or ruined your career etc...

Here, let me ask you an equally revealing question. When you drop something, which way does it fall?

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Point taken. But still, it is interesting to hear it. Let's be honest--the news in this day and age definitely has the quality of a spectator sport rather than a compendium of knowledge given to us. ;)

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

Quite. And it shouldn't be.

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

That's why I read/watch BBC News. :p And if they translated Der Spiegel into English, I'd read that too. :)

[dasmarzipan.livejournal.com]

OJ Simpson trial, anyone? CNN capturing the arrival of American troops on foreign soil? In my knowledge of the recent media, that was the dipping of the toe into the water.

As my Dad always says, the newspaper business (applies to all media) is about selling papers, not distributing news, especially.

Try www.indymedia.org, too!

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

And I also have to say, that they gave these people a chance, which they took, to call him a traitor and to claim that if he'd gone to the director of the FBI and then the President, that everything would have been ok, isn't right. It is a load of shit.

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

Okay, when did my LJ become a soapbox for rampant liberalism concerning how media runs

How long have you been sleeping with *me*??
Do you see the correlation? :-P

[head58.livejournal.com]

I'm watching last night's Daily Show right now, and he's making the same point. You should try to catch it when it is on tonight at 7 or whenever it is.

[lynxreign.livejournal.com]

good idea. I haven't watched it in too long.

[dasmarzipan.livejournal.com]

I used to think that NPR was my "last hope for semi-middle-of-the-road-ish news". Then they "embedded" a reporter with a unit during the um, "Enduring Freedom" claptrap. They were doing what everyone else was doing...joining the circus.

I may listen to them from time to time, but just because they are Public Radio doesn't mean that they are any better...ANY MORE.