Deep Throat: Richard Ober

[Nancy Eldreth]

Rule Henry Kissinger off the list.

NO way.

First of all he would have to have security wrapped around him, especially at that time even to this day he has several guards for security. I know I met him and talked to him.

Also, as I said the person who would have met Woodward in the middle of the night was not someone well known and all that powerful in the White House.

Also, there is one more clue that Woodward gave over to John Dean about the secretive man known as DT.

He would have had to travel far to get there. It is not someone that lived in DC area it is someone that commuted and visited and then left.

This is Woodwards last clue and he will not give out any more clues to who he could be.

So anyone that is on the list High in position is not it, anyone that lived in or around DC at that time is not it either.

Why guessing who he is, no one truely got it.

[John Simkin]

I have added a page on Richard Ober. It includes some important extracts from books and articles on Ober.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKober.htm

For example, I think this passage from Deborah Davis is very important:

Three months later he (Nixon) authorized John Mitchell to provide Justice Department cover for an Intelligence Evaluation Committee (IEC, for which Hoover refused to provide FBI staff), which monitored civil disturbances and coordinated and evaluated domestic intelligence. The president also began to rely heavily upon the counsel of Richard Ober, Angleton's deputy, the man in the CIA most concerned with domestic counterintelligence, and one of the few whom Nixon trusted. Ober was given a small office inside the White House, where he was known only to Nixon, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and possibly Kissinger. He had unlimited access to the president, could pass Haldeman at any time without permission and without going on the record (his name was never recorded in White House logs), and was present at many of the meetings that took place after the publication of the Pentagon Papers, when Nixon's obsession with his enemies pushed him to the limits to rational thought. The president, in his confusion, began to equate the Democrats with both the war (the Kennedy Democrats) and the antiwar movement (the McGovern Democrats); decided that a McGovern victory in the approaching presidential election would be a victory for the movement's Communists; and became more firmly convinced than he had always been that his reelection was synonymous with the best interests of the nation. He also knew, and must have complained to his personal intelligence consultant, Ober, that neither the CIA nor the FBI would help ensure that he would win.

Nixon's confidence in Ober did not come automatically; a man like Nixon must have proof of loyalty. He would have had to see, from Ober, the evidence that he did not care for bureaucratic battles, that he put the president's interests above those of the CIA. The most effective way for Ober to have proven himself was to have acted as consultant when Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic affairs adviser, was ordered to establish (without experience in such matters) the president's personal intelligence unit, the Plumbers, in the summer of 1971. Ober would have found Ehrlichman the right men for the job (men like former CIA operative James McCord); he would have provided equipment, given detailed instructions, helped Ehrlichman to analyze their results. He would have shown Nixon that he was willing to risk his career for him by doing what the CIA would not have done-for example, overseeing the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist-which more than anything else would have demonstrated Ober's correct state of mind and persuaded Nixon that he could finally trust him.

The essential rule of counterintelligence is to use an enemy's weaknesses against himself, to one's own advantage. Haldeman and Ehrlichman held the authority in the Nixon White House for political intelligence and sabotage, but Nixon, by his nature, needed to keep secrets even from them; he needed to think that certain plans were too sensitive to share with anybody except Ober. This operative, who was next to Angleton the most skilled counterintelligence man in the nation, understood Nixon's fear of the Democrats and did not tell him that with his thirty-point lead in the polls the fear was illogical. Instead, he played upon it; he either persuaded Nixon or agreed with him that the Plumbers ought to stop working on the fringes of the campaign, that they should be sent directly into Democratic National Committee headquarters to plant telephone bugs and steal documents, which they did for the first time on May 1, 1972, the day, coincidentally, before J. Edgar Hoover died. (pages 271-272)

[Tim Gratz]

John, interesting passage indeed. A comment that I would have is that in early 1972 the Nixon campaign's concern was not McGovern bur rather Muskie. When Segretti approached me in December of 1971 his top priority was for me to place a spy in the Muskie campaign. And, interestingly enough, a Segretti "dirty trick" may have doomed the Muskie campaign. As I recall, Segretti or his stooges sent a letter attacking Muskie's wife, causing Muskie to cry in New Hampshire. That image of his tears doomed his campaign.

[John Simkin]

John, interesting passage indeed.  A comment that I would have is that in early 1972 the Nixon campaign's concern was not McGovern bur rather Muskie.  When Segretti approached me in December of 1971 his top priority was for me to place a spy in the Muskie campaign.  And, interestingly enough, a Segretti "dirty trick" may have doomed the Muskie campaign.  As I recall, Segretti or his stooges sent a letter attacking Muskie's wife, causing Muskie to cry in New Hampshire.  That image of his tears doomed his campaign.

Segretti is indeed an interesting character, according to an interview he gave to Carl Bernstein, the main plot was to get McGovern as the Democratic Party candidate. Nixon was convinced he could beat him but was worried about Muskie. Therefore the dirty tricks campaign against Muskie. This was successful (so much for American democracy) and therefore Segretti was rather confused about the motives for the Watergate break-in.

In intend to write a page about Segretti. (I am growing increasingly interested in the links between the assassination of JFK and Watergate). I would be grateful to receive any information people might have on him.

[Mark Knight]

Heard a comment today on the radio that the Washington POST is preparing the obituary for "Deep Throat," as the person who had that nickname is in failing health and very near death. As it wasn't a news program, no sources were cited for this information.

So which suspected "Deep Throat" is near death?

Find out THAT information, and you have your answer.

[John Simkin]

Heard a comment today on the radio that the Washington POST is preparing the obituary for "Deep Throat," as the person who had that nickname is in failing health and very near death.  As it wasn't a news program, no sources were cited for this information.

So which suspected "Deep Throat" is near death?

Find out THAT information, and you have your answer.

That is assuming that Bob Woodward is actually telling the truth. There is an interesting passage in Katharine Graham’s book, Personal History. She claimed that she was never told who Deep Throat was. However, Ben Bradlee told her that Deep Throat was a secret service source that had been supplying the Washington Post with information for sometime. He added that he had never misled them and so they could trust his information.

Woodward had only been working for the Washington Post for seven months when he began work on the Watergate story. Therefore, I believe that Deep Throat was actually Bradlee’s source. Woodward was known as Bradlee’s boy. Like Bradlee, Woodward had been a communications officer for naval intelligence.

Another factor worth considering is that the Washington Post was initially reluctant to investigate the links between the White House and Watergate. Bradlee only changed his mind when the New York Times began publishing information about this. The same thing happened with the Pentagon Papers – Bradlee blocked this story when Daniel Ellsberg brought the material to the Washington Post. The material was then published following a revolt from senior journalists. Even then, he published stories about Eisenhower and not those about LBJ and Kennedy (this broke a promise he had made to Ellsberg).

It was only at this stage that Woodward was put with Carl Bernstein to work on the story. Bernstein was an investigative journalist who Bradlee had been trying to sack for sometime (he disliked his anti-establishment views).

My view is that Bradlee was still a key figure in Operation Mockingbird in 1972. After the New York Times story it became clear that the CIA could not keep this story out of the press. It was Bradlee’s job to keep the story under control. With the help of Deep Throat and Woodward, a CIA asset, the investigation was contained.

In reality, the identity of Deep Throat is irrelevant. What is important is that he was putting out information on behalf of the CIA. The key question concerns the story that the CIA did not want to come out.

[Nancy Eldreth]

Yes, I had heard that Bradlee had already written his obituary and waiting to hear about his death.

Ready to die now.

Long distance from DC one would have to fly a plane to be him.

Likes cigerettes and smoked heavy.

Drinks scotch.

Likes to tell stories.

Knew enough to say things even if some where not true.

Wanted Nixon down,

Sounds like he is from Texas to me or at least at the time of Watergate was in Texas. Would have to know George Bush Sr. and as well Johnson.

Woodward admitted that he knew him, Bradlee never knew him prior and wanted to know at one time if Woodward would admit to him who he was. At that time Woodward would not even let the cat out of the bag even to Bradlee. So, no it was not someone that Bradlee knew.

Woodward almost got into trouble because he was one that was in College one of the Sculls and Bonesmen. So, this person would more than apt be one as well.

Gee, that could be still anyone.

How many named on even this thread contain to these facts?

I should make an effort and ask again to meet with Bruinstein.

Just that I don't feel that he would know much. I feel he might admit that he at one time felt mislead by the man known as Deep Throat.

That might be about all I will get out of him.

The only problem is to get him to admit that would mean, even more.............

That will come out sooner or later.

The fact that he would feel mislead, means that Nixon in this transit was SET UP.

[John Simkin]

Apparently only three people know the identity of Deep Throat. Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Ben Bradlee. As I have pointed out, there are contradictions in accounts of Deep Throat.

Katharine Graham, the owner of the Washington Post, claimed that she was never told who Deep Throat was. Bradlee told her that Deep Throat was a secret service source that had been supplying the Washington Post with information for sometime. He added that he had never misled them and so they could trust his information.

However, in his book, A Good Life, Bradlee claims that Deep Throat was Woodward’s source and it was only at a late stage of the investigation that he asked for his identity. This seems strange as the newspaper articles were relying heavily on Deep Throat’s evidence.

If Deep Throat was Woodward’s source, how could he have been supplying reliable information for some time? It has to be remembered that Woodward had only joined the Washington Post seven months before the investigation began. This was not much time to develop such an important source in Washington. Woodward had only been in journalism for less than a year when he was recruited by Bradlee. His previous newspaper was the Montgomery County Sentinel. Not the sort of place where he would have met Deep Throat.

Woodward’s career made rapid progress after leaving Naval Intelligence in 1970. I am not sure how things work in the United States but it would be impossible to get a reporting job on a leading newspaper after working for one year on a small local paper in the UK.

Deborah Davis does not explain how she knows that Richard Ober was Deep Throat. However, I suspect she was given the name by Carl Bernstein. Davis provides a very sympathetic account of Bernstein in her book, Katharine the Great. Unlike Woodward, Bernstein had a record of writing investigative articles on political issues. The son of two blacklisted members of the American Communist Party, Bernstein held left-wing views that made him unpopular with Ben Bradlee, who had refused to publish several of his stories on political issues. Bradlee had tried to sack him several times. According to Davis, he was only still in employment because of a union agreement that made it difficult for him to be dismissed.

Bernstein left the Washington Post in 1976. The following year he wrote an article for Rolling Stone about Operation Mockingbird, a CIA covert operation to control the mass media. This was a topic that Davis also covered in her book.

It is difficult to believe the Deep Throat that appears in All the President’s Men. Why does he play these guessing games with Woodward? Why does he not directly tell Woodward what he knows? Deep Throat tells Woodward that he will only confirm information that he has already discovered from other sources. He says he will not provide any help with Woodward’s investigation of H. R. Haldeman. Why? (He later changes his mind about this when Woodward comes to a dead end in his research.)

In his book, Deep Truth, Adrian Havill, argues that Deep Throat did not exist. Here is part of a review of the book that appeared in Probe Magazine.

One of the most astonishingly bald-faced inventions was the process by which Woodward and "Deep Throat" allegedly made contact when they needed to speak to one another. In the book, much is made of the spooky, clandestine meetings between "Deep Throat" and Woodward. When Woodward needed to ask "Deep Throat" something, he was to put a flower pot with a red flag in it on his sixth floor balcony, which, we are supposed to believe, this high level source checked daily. When "Deep Throat" wanted to speak to Woodward, a clock would supposedly be drawn in his copy of the New York Times designating the meeting time. But neither of these scenarios fits the reality of where Woodward lived. Woodward, who could remember the exact room number (710) where he met Martha Mitchell just once, evidently had trouble remembering the address at which he had lived. In an interview he once said it was "606 or 608 or 612, something like that." However, Havill found that Woodward's actual address was 617. This is important, because the balcony attached to 617 faced an interior courtyard. Havill poked around and found that the only way to view a flower pot on the balcony was to walk into the center of the complex, with eighty units viewing you, crane your neck and look up to the sixth floor. Even then, a pot would have been barely visible. There was an alley that ran behind the building that allowed a glimpse of the apartment and balcony, but at an equally difficult angle. And in both cases, we are to believe that this source, who strove hard to protect his identify, would walk up in plain view of the eighty apartments facing the inner courtyard or the alley on a daily basis, on the chance that there might be a sign from Woodward. When Havill tried to poke around, just to look at the place, residents of the building stopped him and inquired who he was and what he was looking for. Unless "Deep Throat" was well known to the residents of the building, his daily visits seem to preclude being able to keep his identity a secret.

As for the clock-in-the-paper, the New York Times papers were delivered not to each door, but left stacked and unmarked in a common reception area. There was no way "Deep Throat" could have known which paper Woodward would end up with each morning.

Havill, in fact, believes that "Deep Throat" is no more real than the movie episode or the rain, but rather, a dramatic device. It certainly worked well. And Woodward's and Bernstein's editor at Simon and Schuster, Alice Mayhew, urged them to "build up the Deep Throat character and make him interesting." While it is now clearly known that at least one of Woodward's informants was, in fact, Robert Bennett, the suggestions from Colodny and Gettlin in Silent Coup about Al Haig and Deborah Davis's suggestions in Katherine the Great about Richard Ober may not be contradictory. Other names that have been suggested have included Walter Sheridan (Jim Hougan in Spooks) and Bobby Ray Inman (also in Spooks). If Havill is correct and there is no "person" who was known as "Deep Throat", it is possible that any or all of the above were passing along information, explicitly not to be sourced or credited to them in any way, on deep background.

[John Simkin]

Deborah Davis, author of Katharine the Great, was interviewed by Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel Press in 1992.

Bob Woodward has consistently lied about his background ever since the first time anybody started asking who this person is. He came from Wheaton, Illinois. His father was a judge. He joined the Navy and became a communications officer, which is not Naval Intelligence per se. Naval intelligence is a separate organization. Communications officers are at the very highest level of receiving coded and top secret information from around the world and they get it before anybody else does. It's up to them to relay this information to the people in power.

In Woodward's case, first he was in the Navy serving somewhere in California for four years. At the end of his term he was in California, before that he was on a ship I believe. He's never said what he was doing in California. He just won't talk about it. But you remember that this was the time of the height of the anti-war movement and there was a domestic counter-intelligence operation going on called Operation Chaos, which was coordinating Army, Navy and FBI and CIA intelligence on the anti-war movement, spying on leaders and so on, trying to find foreign influence. And I believe that this is what Woodward was involved in at that time.

So after his four years were up he was eligible to leave the Navy, having completed his service. Instead he re-enlisted for another year and he came to Washington and he started working in a top secret Naval unit inside the Pentagon. Actually, they went between the Pentagon and the White House. This was during the first years of Nixon's presidency. And I believe that at this time he started working directly with Richard Ober, who was the deputy chief of counter-intelligence under James Angleton. He was the one who was running Operation Chaos and I believe that he was the one who was Deep Throat. I disagree with those people in Silent Coup, although it hardly matters who exactly it was because I know Woodward had many sources.

But the point is that at this time he was getting top secret information. He was briefing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was briefing the National Security Council and he was briefing Alexander Haig, who was Nixon's chief of staff. He was right in the very, very center of the Nixon White House in terms of the information that was being conveyed and the people he knew. After that, he decided for some mysterious reason that he wanted to be a reporter and he went to the Post and the Post has thousands of applications a year of experienced reporters, most of whom never get in. But instead they took this guy who couldn't write, who had never been a reporter in his life and they said, "You have to learn how to write better so go work on the suburban paper for a year and then we'll hire you." Now I don't know how they decided that he was somebody they wanted to cultivate or whether somebody had the word on him ahead of time or what. But after a year he came to the Post and right away Ben Bradlee, the executive editor, started giving him the choice assignments. They felt a common bond between each other because Bradlee had a very similar back ground in the Navy himself.

Carl Bernstein was coming from a whole different place. He was a very messed up person, you know, had a lot of trouble keeping his job at the Post. He would always fall asleep on the job, stay up all night and miss deadlines and he was just a mess. If it weren't for the newspaper guild rules about not firing reporters, he would have been fired a long time ago. But he had a sense about politics. He still does. He had a very good sense about politics and he hated Nixon because during the McCarthy era, when Nixon was a congressman, his family, his father and mother, who were very left-wing, had experienced a lot of persecution during the McCarthy era. So he associated Nixon with this. And he had his won reasons for wanting to do a story that he thought might lead to exposing Nixon and bringing down Nixon.

It's a very strange friendship. There was a lot of tension between Woodward and Bernstein and there's a very strong bond between them because each of them owes the other one the fact that they are now millionaires and can get book contracts for any amount of money they want.

The whole interview is well worth reading.

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1415/pg1/

[Nancy Eldreth]

Richard Ober is CIA.

It was stated from Woodward that Deep Throat is not CIA.

Either this is a throw off, Woodward doesn't know he is CIA and or they were correcting this rumer about Ober.

I don't know.

Dean does say that Woodward deep source was giving out some wrongful information on top it more than once. Also that it is third rate information at best.

Dean had wondered more than once if it isn't more than one person to make this up.

I do feel that it is. Maybe Ober was involved, along with a string of others who wanted Nixon out and branded for the attacks of JFK assassination because they didn't wish it to go on Johnson and some others which does run over onto Bush.

Johnson lead isn't a good one.

He should have been sent to prison.

Towers family gets killed in plane accident one who does take the position after Johnson, also is placed into DC by Bush and somehow doesn't sit right with things that later on came out.

The Tower family to this day feels savatage was done and that the investigation of that plane crash was limited.

Also, odd that it was at the timing of drugs being smuggled into Florida in the area of Operation Mongoose.

When cover ups are done seems so to the story of someone getting killed to this day

Towers family............... was a nine eleven

Twin Towers going done was also a nine eleven.

Why do dates parallel out so often as well?

Sam Giacanna killed on the date anniversary of when Woodward meet Deep Throat.

Sam Giacannia was killed with six shots down his throat.

Sam Giacannia had a key to the basement door and Roselli had that key, why would he if it is true that the door opens from the inside of the basement only?

They key that was somehow missing in the Watergate case. Later on found on the book that had E. Howard Hunts name and phone number in it.

IT is felt that it belonged to a call girl ring. Yet it fits a dest they never used when the broke in.

To much does add up and yet to much still doesn't make any sense.

I still wish that someone could find out if that key not only fits a dest but also it it would have fit Sam's basement door.

Maybe why the key was lost and much later on found and placed onto the book.

Someone went trough a lot to make sure SAM didn't talk.

Roselli aka names link with operations of Sam G. He has two of them.

Martenez won't talk about it.

Sam G. JR. won't talk about it.

Tosh Plumlee stated that he wished to live and not to get him into any of this.

Both Roselli and Sam G. get killed prior to their testimonies.

How much was Martinez ever truely interviewed? Somehow doens't seem like much???

[Pat Speer]

To repeat my attitude towards Deep Throat, it could be one of a number of people. Deep Throat made mistakes. Therefore, he probably heard this stuff second-hand. I was once in a Deep Throat situation myself, where I knew a lot more than I was supposed to, and shared some of it with my co-workers. My assistant went to a bank, and repeated what I'd told him, and the bank called me and asked me if it was true. Like Deep Throat, I would only help them so much, and tried to confirm only what I was sure of. Ultimately, I decided my loyalty was to those who trusted me, the creditors of the company, and not with my employers, who I knew to be criminals and liars. (As if to prove I had my loyaties right, my former boss took off with the last two months of everyone's 401k.) My assistant got a lot wrong, but said enough that I'd confirm that the bank called in the loan it had made to my former employer, thus breaking up the 35 million dollar scam he'd been banking on.. .

I feel completely confident therefore that Deep Throat was one person. Because if I'd worked in the White House I would have been him.

[John Simkin]

It was stated from Woodward that Deep Throat is not CIA.

Do you really think that Woodward would have admitted that he was CIA. This is what Deborah Davis had to say about Woodward in 1992. I share her doubts about Woodward.

Bob Woodward has consistently lied about his background ever since the first time anybody started asking who this person is. He came from Wheaton, Illinois. His father was a judge. He joined the Navy and became a communications officer, which is not Naval Intelligence per se. Naval intelligence is a separate organization. Communications officers are at the very highest level of receiving coded and top secret information from around the world and they get it before anybody else does. It's up to them to relay this information to the people in power.

In Woodward's case, first he was in the Navy serving somewhere in California for four years. At the end of his term he was in California, before that he was on a ship I believe. He's never said what he was doing in California. He just won't talk about it. But you remember that this was the time of the height of the anti-war movement and there was a domestic counter-intelligence operation going on called Operation Chaos, which was coordinating Army, Navy and FBI and CIA intelligence on the anti-war movement, spying on leaders and so on, trying to find foreign influence. And I believe that this is what Woodward was involved in at that time.

So after his four years were up he was eligible to leave the Navy, having completed his service. Instead he re-enlisted for another year and he came to Washington and he started working in a top secret Naval unit inside the Pentagon. Actually, they went between the Pentagon and the White House. This was during the first years of Nixon's presidency. And I believe that at this time he started working directly with Richard Ober, who was the deputy chief of counter-intelligence under James Angleton. He was the one who was running Operation Chaos and I believe that he was the one who was Deep Throat. I disagree with those people in Silent Coup, although it hardly matters who exactly it was because I know Woodward had many sources.

But the point is that at this time he was getting top secret information. He was briefing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was briefing the National Security Council and he was briefing Alexander Haig, who was Nixon's chief of staff. He was right in the very, very center of the Nixon White House in terms of the information that was being conveyed and the people he knew. After that, he decided for some mysterious reason that he wanted to be a reporter and he went to the Post and the Post has thousands of applications a year of experienced reporters, most of whom never get in. But instead they took this guy who couldn't write, who had never been a reporter in his life and they said, "You have to learn how to write better so go work on the suburban paper for a year and then we'll hire you." Now I don't know how they decided that he was somebody they wanted to cultivate or whether somebody had the word on him ahead of time or what. But after a year he came to the Post and right away Ben Bradlee, the executive editor, started giving him the choice assignments. They felt a common bond between each other because Bradlee had a very similar back ground in the Navy himself.

Carl Bernstein was coming from a whole different place. He was a very messed up person, you know, had a lot of trouble keeping his job at the Post. He would always fall asleep on the job, stay up all night and miss deadlines and he was just a mess. If it weren't for the newspaper guild rules about not firing reporters, he would have been fired a long time ago. But he had a sense about politics. He still does. He had a very good sense about politics and he hated Nixon because during the McCarthy era, when Nixon was a congressman, his family, his father and mother, who were very left-wing, had experienced a lot of persecution during the McCarthy era. So he associated Nixon with this. And he had his won reasons for wanting to do a story that he thought might lead to exposing Nixon and bringing down Nixon.

It's a very strange friendship. There was a lot of tension between Woodward and Bernstein and there's a very strong bond between them because each of them owes the other one the fact that they are now millionaires and can get book contracts for any amount of money they want.

[Nancy Eldreth]

The statement when on the news about DT not being CIA and it wasn't that long ago that this was stated only several years back.

I know I heard it as they stated it.

At that time I felt that DT was CIA.

To be honest with all of you and this is my perferances I would much rather call the guy DT than the title of a movie that happened to be out at that time.

Do you have any idea of how many times Bradlee appoligized for that name he choose to call him. MANY TIMES.

Pat I was told by some body down in the belt way and in position to be able to tell me and asked that I not reveal his name. Well, he didn't say position he worked on the Watergate tapes since the day they came into NARA. He was the one to tell me was in his packet and they are called Watergate packetts. I got one and it was the last one sent out. Their was a group of them. In my packett was things that were not out to the public of names and a list of them. You know I need to find that list again.

In the man's Watergate packett he was told to tell me this one line.

They pulled a number out of a hat and put down for the conspiracy hours of Nixon.

I thought he meant figuratively NO not so. It was literally.

THEY makes it a group. More than one.

This is a stupid thing they did. NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND the tapes in full. No one and even hard on some that know the roles it is hard on them as well.

It was hard for many staffers to understand Nixon many times in itself.

Harder when you listen to the tapes.

So how in the world can someone come up with hours of conspiracy found on those tapes. IMPOSSIBLE.

You know the sad part. Go into NARA and go to the fourth floor Nixon's Center.

Look at all of the empty tables.

Go to the second floor and that is JFK papers. Hard to find an emply seat.

SAD BUT TRUE.

Most people are so convinced that Nixon was a bad guy when he was so duped.

Sometime this week I will look for my listing of names. SEE WHAT HITS ME HARDER NOW that I know more than the day I first got it.

The one I got was not on the side for the public.

Two names were not there, even though one was known and that was Billy Graham the other was short but made known to me Mayer Of Philadelphia at that time. Not Spector yeah he was too at one time. Frank Rizzo that was what hit me so much than still does. He wasn't even into the computers at that time. I was told he would be entered now into the computers after I named it from my own listings.

Yeah small part not much to it really even. But none the less a point and one not to take for granted.

The hush money came from two locations and one was Philly and the other one was Maimi. Most of the money was from Maimi.

Bills found from the plane crash with Mrs. Hunt in it. Marked bills from two locations.

I am sorry to be so persistant but when I see things and go through some things and know there is more than let out on this subject, I can't sit still on what I have seen. Have to speak up and out.

Yes it was ONE person to meet Woodward but that one Never acted alone on this mission it was a group.

[John Simkin]

On 16th May, 1973, Bob Woodward had a meeting with Deep Throat. That night Woodward sent a memo to Ben Bradlee about what was said at the meeting. Do you think it contains any clues concerning the identity of Deep Throat?

Dean talked with Senator Baker after Watergate committee formed and Baker is in the bag completely, reporting back directly to White House...

President threatened Dean personally and said if he ever revealed the national security activities that President would insure he went to jail.

Mitchell started doing covert national and international things early and then involved everyone else. The list is longer than anyone could imagine.

Caulfield met McCord and said that the President "knows that we are meeting and he offers you executive clemency and you'll only have to spend about 11 months in jail."

Caulfield threatened McCord and said "your life is no good in this country if you don't cooperate..."

The covert activities involve the whole U.S. intelligence community and are incredible. Deep Throat refused to give specifics because it is against the law.

The cover-up had little to do with the Watergate, but was mainly to protect the covert operations.

The President himself has been blackmailed. When Hunt became involved, he decided that the conspirators could get some money for this. Hunt started an "extortion" racket of the rankest kind.

Cover-up cost to be about $1 million. Everyone is involved - Haldeman, Ehrlichman, the President, Dean, Mardian, Caulfield and Mitchell. They all had a problem getting the money and couldn't trust anyone, so they started raising money on the outside and chipping in their own personal funds. Mitchell couldn't meet his quota and... they cut Mitchell loose. ...

CIA people can testify that Haldeman and Ehrlichman said that the President orders you to carry this out, meaning the Watergate cover-up... Walters and Helms and maybe others.

Apparently though this is not clear, these guys in the White House were out to make money and a few of them went wild trying.

Dean acted as go-between between Haldeman-Ehrlichman and Mitchell-LaRue.

The documents that Dean has are much more than anyone has imagined and they are quite detailed.

Liddy told Dean that they could shoot him and/or that he would shoot himself, but that he would never talk and always be a good soldier.

Hunt was key to much of the crazy stuff and he used the Watergate arrests to get money... first $100,000 and then kept going back for more...

Unreal atmosphere around the White House - realizing it is curtains on one hand and on the other trying to laugh it off and go on with business. President has had fits of "dangerous" depression.

[John Simkin]

It looks like I have to answer my own question. Up until this date Deep Throat had only given limited details on the Watergate cover-up. However, on 16th May, 1973, Deep Throat provides information that Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John Dean, Frederick LaRue and John N. Mitchell are all involved in the Watergate cover-up. He also points out that E. Howard Hunt has been blackmailing Nixon.

I think this is connected to the decision a week earlier when James Schlesinger (acting under orders from Nixon), issues a directive to all CIA employees calling on them to report on "any activities now going on, or that have gone on in the past, which might be construed to be outside the legislative charter of this Agency". This posed a serious threat to those involved in CIA covert operations. It now became vital that both Nixon and Schlesinger should be removed from office.

My view is that Deep Throat is a senior figure in the CIA who is loyal to the former director, Richard Helms, who was sacked by Nixon a few months earlier. The information seems to have come from someone in the CIA who had access to Dean. In his book, Wedge, Mark Riebling claims that the evidence suggests that Deep Throat was either William Colby or Cord Meyer.

Riebling points out that Colby was a political liberal (in his youth he had been a member of left-wing groups) who detested Nixon. He also mentions that Colby praised the actions of Deep Throat in his book Honorable Men. However, Riebling eventually rejects this theory as Woodward described Deep Throat as being a “chain-smoker and heavy drinker”. This was not true of Colby. However, it was true of Cord Meyer. He also had been left-wing in his youth and had little time for Nixon.

Riebling also provides evidence that Meyer first met Woodward in 1969. At this time Woodward worked for naval intelligence and had meetings at the CIA’s Department of Plans. He also points out that Deep Throat knew a great deal about Howard Hunt. Riebling claimed that Meyer also knew a great deal about Hunt’s covert activities.

It is a fairly convincing argument. Deep Throat first started giving information to Woodward on the evening of 19th June. That morning senior figures in the CIA, including Meyer, met to discuss the implications of Watergate on the CIA. Was it at that meeting that Deep Throat decided to steer Woodward away from areas that could have caused problems for the CIA? The first call might well have come from Meyer. However, after the sacking of Richard Helms, Meyer was demoted to the CIA station in London. By June, 1973, Meyer was living in London. Yet according to Woodward (All the President’s Men) Deep Throat was still providing important information in November, 1973 (page 333).

I think Riebling is right to suggest that Woodward met Deep Throat for the first time in 1969 at the CIA’s Department of Plans. That was where Richard Ober was working at the time. However, throughout the Watergate crisis Ober had an office in the White House as Nixon’s link man on Operation Chaos. Ober was in the perfect position to discover information about the cover-up. Ober was also a close friend of Ben Bradlee, the man who controlled what Woodward and Bernstein published about Watergate. Ober had good reason to persuade Woodward to concentrate on the covert activities of the White House rather than those of the CIA.