Felt put career on the line for justice

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 4, 2005 | by Nelson Wadsworth

I'm somewhat intrigued by the recent disclosure that W. Mark Felt was the so-called "Deep Throat" who supplied information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at the Washington Post that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. I've suspected all along that Felt was that crucial source because I recognized his style in the book "All the President's Men."

I was the Deseret News reporter who covered the FBI between 1956 and 1958, when Mark was the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office. I met with him and his assistant, Heber Clegg, on a daily basis, got to know him quite well and found him to be a man of intense honesty and integrity. I agree with your editorial writer that he is a "hero and patriot" for his actions during the Watergate investigations.

Mark was also a crucial source for me in my assignment to cover the federal agencies in Utah. As the investigative arm of the Justice Department, the FBI reached into nearly every government activity in the state. Mark liked the press but was open and cooperative only to those reporters he knew he could trust. Once he knew he could trust you, he told you everything that was happening, sometimes on a confidential, "background only" basis, meaning you could not quote him specifically as the source. This led to a whole raft of stories, not just about the FBI but about many different federal agencies.

One day we were talking about how fast the modern FBI agents were on the draw, as compared to the famous gunfighters of the Old West. Mark said the gunfighters wouldn't stand a chance in a duel with an FBI agent and even agreed to demonstrate it on the police pistol range. That led to a feature story in the News headlined, "Firing from th' hip easy for FBI agents." Mark showed he could draw, fire and empty his 38-caliber revolver into a target in three seconds.

Two weeks after the story ran, I got a personal letter from J. Edgar Hoover himself, saying, "We are indeed grateful for such items since they serve as a strong deterrent to criminals who might otherwise resist arrest by the FBI."

Mark was old-school FBI who believed strongly in truth and justice in the traditional American way, under a divinely inspired Constitution. Those who would demean his actions in the Watergate scandal are merely those crooks in the Nixon administration who threatened to destroy those God-given freedoms and who would like nothing more now than to reopen once again the same old Watergate debate. One wonders if there are any courageous W. Mark Felts in Washington, D.C., today who are willing to put their careers on the line in the interest of truth, freedom and justice.

Nelson B. Wadsworth has served as a model and a mentor for many Utah journalists.