Inouye says Felt
guarded Constitution

The senator says that "Deep
Throat" had a solemn duty

Mark Felt did the right thing, says U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

Felt, the former FBI second in command in the 1970s, acknowledged last week that he was the confidential "Deep Throat" source who guided the Washington Post in its coverage of the Watergate scandal that eventually toppled President Richard Nixon.

The end to the decades-old "Deep Throat" mystery was also the start of a fiery political debate: Was Felt a hero for helping to uncover a monumental abuse of power or a traitor for betraying his office and his president?

To Inouye, who served on the Senate panel that investigated the scandal, there is no doubt that Felt's actions were justified.

"Maybe the word hero is not the appropriate word for this type of activity, but I think he did the proper thing. He took the proper step and I am happy he did," Inouye said in a Friday telephone interview with the Star-Bulletin.

"I know there are some people who are criticizing him, saying that as a government agent he took an oath not to divulge secrets, but if the secrets endanger the viability of the Constitution, I think he has a solemn duty to do so.

"So what he did was to uphold the Constitution."

The scandal began when burglars were caught breaking into the Democratic National Committee's office in Washington's Watergate complex in 1972.

Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein connected the burglars to Nixon's re-election committee and, eventually, the Oval Office. The break-in was just one part of a White-House-directed political sabotage campaign that Nixon crafted to aid his re-election.

The reporters were guided by Woodward's high-ranking confidential source, dubbed "Deep Throat," who would confirm information or fill in the gaps from other sources.

Felt was identified as "Deep Throat" in an article written by his attorney and published last week in Vanity Fair magazine.

Hawaii's senior senator said Felt helped changed the course of history -- for the better.

The Post's coverage led to the Senate Watergate Committee, which discovered that Nixon had taped Oval Office conversations. Those tapes revealed that Nixon was behind the effort to cover up the burglary.

The investigation resulted in the indictment of 40 Nixon administration officials, and the conviction of several key Nixon aides for obstruction of justice and other federal crimes.

The Senate investigation also led to the U.S. House introducing articles of impeachment against Nixon, who then resigned.

Inouye said without Felt's tips to the Post, the investigation might not have moved along.

"If it weren't for Mr. Felt, I think the outcome would have been different and as a result, history would have been different," Inouye said.

"President Nixon would have, I think, continued in office and he would have gotten away and become emboldened to further types of extra curricular work," Inouye said.

While the "Deep Throat" secret was kept for more than 30 years, Inouye said he had suspected that the Post's source was a high-ranking official.

"Based on the type of information we were getting, we felt he must be someone either in the FBI or in the White House," Inouye said.

"I think most people who knew and were involved in the investigation, it made sense he was in that circuit," Inouye said.