Wednesday, June 1 2005 12:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Vanity Fair magazine reported yesterday (May 31, 2005) that a retired FBI official, Mark Felt, had admitted being "Deep Throat", the source who leaked secrets about the Watergate scandal that brought down former President Richard Nixon.

The true identity of the person who provided Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with crucial information about the Watergate cover-up has been one of journalism's most enduring mysteries.

During a series of interviews with Felt, the author of the Vanity Fair article, John O'Connor, said the former assistant director of the FBI had, on several occasions, confided, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat."

Felt's family had no idea of his secret until 2002, when Felt's close friend and frequent social companion, Yvette La Garde, told his daughter Joan that Felt had confided to being Woodward's source.

The article said Joan confronted her father, now 91, who initially denied it, but after she explained La Garde's disclosure responded, "Since that's the case, well, yes I am."

In a statement, Woodward said he was aware of the Vanity Fair article but insisted that none of the three men party to "Deep Throat's" identity - himself, Bernstein and former Post editor Ben Bradlee - would comment on its accuracy.

"We've gone down this road for 30 years. And for 30 years we have not said anything. That won't change today," Woodward said.

On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first US President to resign from office, ending a dragged out scandal that started with a burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington June 17, 1972.

The burglars had intended to place listening devices in the office.

The scandal made celebrities of Woodward and Bernstein, whose investigative reporting of the break-in and its links with the White House were immortalised in the 1976 movie "All The President's Men."

Following Felt's disclosure, his daughter Joan told Vanity Fair she had pleaded with him to announce his role immediately so that he could have some closure, and accolades, while he was still alive.

Felt reluctantly agreed, then changed his mind, apparently determined to take the secret to his grave, she said.

Joan recounted how she tried to elicit further information from her father as they were watching a Watergate TV special.

When his name came up as one of the possible "Deep Throat" candidates, she said she deliberately questioned her father in the third person.

"Do you think Deep Throat wanted to get rid of Nixon?" she asked. "No, I wasn't trying to bring him down," Felt responded, insisting that he was "only doing his duty".

Concerned that his actions might be considered dishonourable or even illegal, Felt continued to resist family pressure to go public, until his daughter persuaded him that the story could bring some financial benefit that would help pay for his grandchildren's education.