The FBI Provocateurs

By Mustang

As recently reported by Bunkerville, “The truth is going to come out; they can’t stop it.”  I think this is true, but there’s another reality: no one will care.  With the FBI renting dozens (maybe even scores) of U-Haul trucks to ferry around their undercover provocateurs, one might think that the U.S. has taken a sudden and frightful turn toward the good old days of Kristallnacht.  Anyone making such an observation would only be partially correct.  It wasn’t sudden.

Earlier this week:

Follow the khaki pants… Provocateurs in training.

One may recall that Bob Woodward (famed Washington Post reporter) and his sidekick Carl Bernstein broke the story about the Watergate break-in.  The story resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon.  Not as well known is that Woodward was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence during his service in the Navy.  In 1939, under the authority of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, ONI took on additional responsibilities of spying on U.S. citizens.  Bernstein was raised in a self-loathing Jewish communist household — which tells us as much as we need to know about him.  There is no evidence Woodward ever broke into anyone’s home, of course, but then, the ONI isn’t that stupid.  But it does lay before us an interesting predicate.

William Mark Felt, known simply as Mark Felt (1913-2008), was raised as a Democrat.  His first job out of college was an office position in the office of U.S. Democratic Senator James P. Pope.  Felt married Audrey Robinson in 1938 (Audrey committed suicide in 1984).  While working as a staffer in the Senate, Felt attended evening law school classes at George Washington University.  He earned his law degree in 1940, entering the Bar of Washington, D.C. in 1941.  In that year, Mr. Felt joined the FBI.  During World War II, FBI Agent Mark Felt “tracked down suspected spies”  In 1956, Felt became a Special Agent in Charge of one of the FBI’s “organized crime” units.  He tackled this assignment even though FBI Director Herbert Hoover made continual assurances that there was no “organized mob.”

In 1962, Felt became an assistant director of the FBI, and in 1971, Deputy Associate Director assisting Clyde Tolson, who many now claim was Herbert Hoover’s male wife.  In any case, in this capacity, Felt was involved in the domestic spying operations of William C. Sullivan, whose work involved White House-directed surveillance of U.S. citizens.

After Hoover died, Helen Gandy (Hoover’s secretary) began destroying Hoover’s files, but retained twelve boxes of materials and turned them over to Mark Felt, who after Tolson’s resignation, became Associate Director (the number two position) under L. Patrick Gray, the new Director of the FBI.  Within the twelve boxes of files were over 17,000 pages of derogatory information Hoover collected on U.S. citizens.  Felt retained these files for his own purposes.  Meanwhile, Felt didn’t like his new boss — he was an outsider.

As Gray’s associate, Felt saw everything the FBI compiled on the Watergate investigation.  He was among the first to learn of the investigation, information from which Felt began sending to Bob Woodward.  FBI investigators were later “amazed” that their reports appeared “verbatim” in Woodward’s reporting (which, if true, would make Woodward a plagiarist).  Mark Felt — career FBI agent, surveillant of American citizens, servant of the people, keeper of Hoover’s dirty secrets, trained lawyer — was Bob Woodward’s “Deep Throat.”

We know that story, of course.  What most may not know is that Mark Felt did nothing relating to Watergate out of a sense of patriotism or propriety; he did it because he hated Nixon.  Nor was Felt “all that smooth.”  H. R. Haldeman knew “Deep Throat” was Felt almost from the beginning, and he so informed Nixon on 19 October 1972.  Director Gray confronted Felt about this a few days later, but of course, Felt denied any part of leaking information to Woodward/Bernstein, which makes him a liar. 

Consequently, Nixon refused to nominate Felt as FBI Director when Gray resigned.  Felt himself resigned from the FBI when he decided (a) he could not get along with Bill Ruckelshaus, and (b) he would never become FBI director.

Meanwhile, in 1972, Felt headed the investigation into the so-called Weather Underground.  Felt ordered the warrantless searches of the homes of U.S. citizens whom the FBI suspected were involved with the Weather Underground.  Note: this was part of the FBI’s secret Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which operated between 1956-1973 — and may continue under another name.  These “black bag” operations occurred on nine separate occasions.

In 1980, Felt (and others) were found to violate federal law for warrantless searches.  Felt was assessed a $5,000 fine but served no time in jail.  With legal expenses exceeding $600,000, former-President Richard Nixon contributed money to Felt’s legal defense fund.  In 1981, President Ronald Reagan “pardoned” Felt for violating federal law.  At no time did the White House consult with the prosecuting attorney in the Felt case.  John Nields, the government prosecutor, stated that whoever was responsible for issuing the pardons never read the trial record.  Felt, in his opinion, did not deserve a pardon.

Of course, the government knew who “Deep Throat” was, but the American people did not know until 2005 when Mark Felt decided that he would let everyone know how proud he was of what he’d done.  He brought down a president.  It must have been inspirational to senior FBI agents who attacked Donald Trump.  It must have been motivational to other FBI agents, who today dress up as right-wing demonstrators, entrap U.S. citizens, and then later brag about their accomplishments during weekend beer-bashes with the boys.

Ordinarily, I would argue that America deserves “better” than the FBI (from its very beginning), but I’m not sure that it does.  A people deserve the officials they elect, and if the people they elect turn a blind eye to these kinds of shenanigans, well … what more can anyone say?

Bonus:

Same group in Philadelphia in July. “White Supremacists Ran Away” goes the headline. Where was it held? In Center City and down to Penn’s Landing, the safest place in Philadelphia.

The best of the swamp today.