SirSaxa
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 747
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Post by SirSaxa on Jun 1, 2005 11:56:47 GMT -5
I realize this is Off Topic, but it is also off season. And Deep Throat is a Washington story that started in the summer of '72, just as JT2 was preparing for his first season as GU Hoops Coach. Now, just when JT3 has completed his first season, Mark Felt is finally revealed as DT!
So I was just wondering how this story resonates with Hoya fans who lived through that period, and if it means anything at all to younger fans. A fascinating time in our history. Seems the whistleblower was either protecting the FBI from attempted abuse and corruption by the White House, retaliating against the WH for naming an outsider to run the FBI (seems far fetched to me), or both.
In my view, the guy did the right thing and the country a great service at considerable risk to himself and no personal gain.
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the_way
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
The Illest
Posts: 5,420 
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Post by the_way on Jun 1, 2005 12:15:20 GMT -5
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hoyarooter
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,212
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Post by hoyarooter on Jun 1, 2005 12:59:27 GMT -5
I realize this is Off Topic, but it is also off season. And Deep Throat is a Washington story that started in the summer of '72, just as JT2 was preparing for his first season as GU Hoops Coach. Now, just when JT3 has completed his first season, Mark Felt is finally revealed as DT! So I was just wondering how this story resonates with Hoya fans who lived through that period, and if it means anything at all to younger fans. A fascinating time in our history. Seems the whistleblower was either protecting the FBI from attempted abuse and corruption by the White House, retaliating against the WH for naming an outsider to run the FBI (seems far fetched to me), or both. In my view, the guy did the right thing and the country a great service at considerable risk to himself and no personal gain. Being a Californian who graduated from GU in 1972, this story resonates with me strongly (as did its ongoing saga with Archie Cox being appointed special prosecutor, since that occurred during my first year at HLS). This guy is a hero. Period. There is no better proof of that than to see who is now attacking him. Gordon Liddy? Pat Buchanan? Please. |
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prhoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 23,304
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Post by prhoya on Jun 1, 2005 13:51:57 GMT -5
Is that 70's movie, with the same title as Felt's cover name, about the Watergate scandal? I think I'll go rent it...  |
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EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,272
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Post by EasyEd on Jun 1, 2005 14:03:32 GMT -5
Question - if the second in command (or similar) at the FBI had leaked to the press the secret, intimate details of FBI investigations into Clinton's impropreties and the WH's attempts to cover it up, would he or she be considered a hero/heroine?
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SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,744
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jun 1, 2005 14:09:55 GMT -5
Question - if the second in command (or similar) at the FBI had leaked to the press the secret, intimate details of FBI investigations into Clinton's impropreties and the WH's attempts to cover it up, would he or she be considered a hero/heroine? If the WH was influencing the FBI to cover it up? Yes. Why wouldn't they be? |
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Post by HoyaDestroya on Jun 1, 2005 15:13:30 GMT -5
Jack Valenti  + Dirty Harry  + Jackie O  = Deep Throat  |
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SirSaxa
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
Posts: 747
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Post by SirSaxa on Jun 1, 2005 15:40:49 GMT -5
Question - if the second in command (or similar) at the FBI had leaked to the press the secret, intimate details of FBI investigations into Clinton's impropreties and the WH's attempts to cover it up, would he or she be considered a hero/heroine? If President Clinton, his chief of staff, domestic advisor, White House Counsel, President's personal counsel, attorney general, head of the FBI, and various other white house, administration and democratic party officials had all conspired together to direct illegal activities and/or obstruct a criminal investigation, then absolutely yes -- the leaker would be considered a hero. But that isn't what happened. Moreover, while the Clinton/Lewinsky incident was dishonorable by both parties involved (and I will by no means defend it), I don't believe anyone claims their behavior consituted a crime. |
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DanMcQ
Moderator 
Posts: 30,560
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Post by DanMcQ on Jun 1, 2005 16:48:04 GMT -5
Sorry guys - B & G is where this belongs. ;D
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EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,272
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Post by EasyEd on Jun 1, 2005 18:03:59 GMT -5
I always though lying under oath was a crime.
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SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,744
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jun 1, 2005 18:51:47 GMT -5
I always though lying under oath was a crime. It is. Are there degrees of crimes? Are you slamming the Reagan and Bush administrations for lying? On the Deep Throat thing, after reading up a bit on Felt, I don't really blame him for lying, but while I consider this act a positive one, the guy, like most of us, had a lot of gray. I do think that if the same came out today, nothing would come of it. Can you imagine what talk radio would do to an anonymous source? Heck, the BBC reports that Bush had plans for invading Iraq before 9-11 and none utters anything in the US. US Citizens are held without trial for years. Would anyone make a fuss over a political party raiding another? The ends justify the means, right? |
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hoyarooter
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 10,212
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Post by hoyarooter on Jun 3, 2005 13:24:40 GMT -5
Sure lying under oath is a crime. But anyone who compares the subversion of the American political system to a guy who can't keep his thing in his pants has rocks in his head. Sorry, easy ed.
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Post by showcase on Jun 3, 2005 14:46:46 GMT -5
Ahhh, I love to see a good bout of Jump Circle Defending late in the afternoon!
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CTHoya08
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Bring back Izzo!
Posts: 2,861
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Post by CTHoya08 on Jun 3, 2005 14:48:32 GMT -5
If the guy was a White House aide or administration official who decided to go public with the investigation, it would have been commendable. But he was an FBI agent who undermined the criminal justice system by turning evidence over to newspapermen instead of a prosecutor. As the second ranking man in the FBI, Felt was surely aware that he was shirking his responsibility as a law enforcement official by going to the press.
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Post by showcase on Jun 3, 2005 14:56:36 GMT -5
Or maybe Felt believed that the only way he could put the issue before the American public without inviting the matter to be dismissed based on "sour grapes" was to disclose it anonymously, something that I doubt would have been possible were he to have turned the evidence over to a prosecutor.
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SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Posts: 17,744
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Post by SFHoya99 on Jun 3, 2005 15:35:06 GMT -5
Sometimes you have to do thinks outside the chain of command. If Felt thought the FBI was ever going to do anything, he might not have gone to the press first.
I suppose the Founding Fathers should have just gone to old King George, huh?
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TBird41
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
"Roy! I Love All 7'2" of you Roy!"
Posts: 8,740
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Post by TBird41 on Jun 4, 2005 10:07:25 GMT -5
In one of the articles in the Post, they said that Nixon and his crew were beginning to cover it up already, with the FBI's help (or at least the help of the head of the FBI). So the press was probably the only option that Felt thought he had in order to make sure that it got out.
And sadly, I think SF is right about the current state of politics.
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thebin
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,848
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Post by thebin on Jun 4, 2005 10:45:38 GMT -5
SF- which "Americans held without trial for years" are you referring to?
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EasyEd
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,272
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Post by EasyEd on Jun 4, 2005 11:59:20 GMT -5
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Z
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 409
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Post by Z on Jun 4, 2005 19:46:25 GMT -5
hamdi and padilla off the top of my head thebin
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