‘Deep Throat’ was University of Idaho alumnus

Barb and I both got our bachelor’s degrees from the University of Idaho.  My dad and her mom went to the UI.  Barb’s sister and my brother got degrees there and our son is attending now.  We currently live walking distance from the campus.  I got this in my weekly news letter from the University of Idaho:

“I’m the Guy They Called Deep Throat” is the title of an article in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine. UI alumnus W. Mark Felt ’35 reveals he was the informant to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate Scandal in the early 1970’s. Felt served as a top-ranking F.B.I. official at the time. Felt earned a bachelor’s degree in letters and science from UI, where he served as president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was a member of the debate team, and the Bench and Bar Association. He was inducted into the UI Alumni Hall of Fame in 1972. Felt joined the F.B.I. in 1942 after earning a law degree from George Washington University. The 91-year-old now lives in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Should I be proud or ashamed Felt once attended school here?  I’m not sure I know what to think about Felt’s role in Watergate.  Schneier, of course, thinks the security aspects are interesting.  Some think Felt was a ‘rat’.  Others think he was a hero.  Sometimes breaking the law (my guess is that Felt broke the law by revealing details of a FBI investigation in progress) is the right thing to do.  It’s something I have spent some time thinking about but I’m not sure Felt reached my threshold.

[shrug]

I think it’s interesting to know after all these years but overall I’m more inclined to go with Kim du Toit’s view.  I have that movie in my collection someplace.  Maybe Barb and I should watch it this weekend to celebrate the revealing of Deep Throat.

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