‘Deep Throat’ Mark Felt dies at 95 / “ディープ・スロート”…
写真のYomiリンク集
銭湯のYomiリンク集
ロバート・レッドフォード主演の映画『大統領の陰謀』をご存知の方には、よく分かるニュースだと思います。ウォーターゲート事件の「勇敢な内密者」であり「正しい行為を行った人物」が亡くなりました。日本ではこういう正義はなかなか行われません。この事件を通じて田舎新聞社だった「ワシントン・ポスト」はメジャーになり、若き新聞記者がアメリカという大国の大統領を辞任に追い込んだのです。
W. Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who revealed himself as "Deep Throat" 30 years after he helped The Washington Post unravel the Watergate scandal, has died. He was 95. Felt died Thursday at a hospice near his home in Santa Rosa after suffering from congestive heart failure for several months, said family friend John D. O'Connor, who wrote a Vanity Fair article disclosing Felt's secret in 2005.
The shadowy central figure in one of the most gripping political dramas of the 20th century, Felt insisted his alter ego be kept secret when he leaked damaging information to Post reporter Bob Woodward. The scandal led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, two years after the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building in Washington. While some -- including Nixon and his aides -- speculated that Felt was Deep Throat, he steadfastly denied the accusations until finally coming forward in May 2005.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told O'Connor for the Vanity Fair article, creating a whirlwind of attention. Weakened by a stroke, he wasn't doing much talking -- he merely waved to the media from the front door of his daughter's Santa Rosa home. Critics, including those who went to prison for the Watergate scandal, called him a traitor for betraying the commander in chief. Supporters hailed him as a hero for blowing the whistle on a corrupt administration trying to cover up attempts to sabotage opponents.
In a phone interview Friday, Woodward said despite the criticism and Felt's own ambivalence, it is clear that Felt should be remembered as a man who did the right thing. "This is a man who did his duty to the Constitution," Woodward told The Associated Press.
Just last month, Woodward and onetime partner Carl Bernstein visited Felt in his home. It was the first time Bernstein had met him. Woodward said Felt had flashes of lucidity and still cut the appearance of an FBI agent, sitting straight and stiff and dressed in a red blazer.
Felt had argued with his children over whether to reveal his identity or to take his secret to the grave, O'Connor said. He agonized about what revealing his identity would do to his reputation. Would he be seen as a turncoat or a man of honor? "People will debate for a long time whether I did the right thing by helping Woodward," Felt wrote in his 2006 memoir, "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, 'Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington." ''The bottom line is that we did get the whole truth out, and isn't that what the FBI is supposed to do?"
Ultimately, his daughter, Joan, persuaded him to go public; after all, Woodward was sure to profit by revealing the secret after Felt died. "We could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education," she told her father, according to the Vanity Fair article. "Let's do it for the family." The revelation capped a Washington whodunit that spanned more than three decades and seven presidents. It was the biggest mystery of Watergate, the subject of the best-selling book and hit movie "All the President's Men," which inspired a generation of college students to pursue journalism.
In the movie, the enduring image of Deep Throat is of a testy, chain-smoking Hal Holbrook telling Woodward, played by Robert Redford, to "follow the money." It was by chance that Felt came to play a pivotal role in the drama. Back in 1970, Woodward struck up a conversation with Felt while both were waiting in a White House hallway. Felt apparently took a liking to the young Woodward, then a Navy courier, and Woodward kept the relationship going, treating Felt as a mentor as he tried to figure out the ways of Washington.
Later, while Woodward and Bernstein relied on various sources in reporting on Watergate, the man their editor dubbed "Deep Throat" helped to keep them on track and confirm vital information. The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its Watergate coverage.
The nickname "Deep Throat" was a double entendre: Felt was providing information on the condition of complete anonymity, known as "deep background," and his actions coincided with a popular 1972 porn movie.
元連邦捜査局（FBI）副長官のマーク・フェルト氏
ウォーターゲート事件に絡むナゾとして30年間も正体不明だった“ディープ・スロート”こと元連邦捜査局（FBI）副長官のマーク・フェルト氏が18日（木）、カリフォルニア州サンタ・ローサにある自宅近くの医療施設で死去した。95歳だった。
“ディープ・スロート”とは、ウォーターゲート事件の際、ワシントン・ポスト紙のボブ・ウッドワード記者に重要な情報を提供したナゾの人物であり、このスキャンダルがきっかけとなって、1974年にリチャード・ニクソン大統領が辞任に追い込まれた。長い間、その正体はベールに包まれており、当時FBIの副長官だったフェルト氏にも嫌疑がかけられたが、本人はかたくなに否定していた。
だが05年５月、フェルト氏はヴァニティ・フェア誌の取材で、ついに自らがディープ・スロートであると告白。真実を公表すべきか、それとも墓場まで秘密を持っていくべきか心を悩ませたが、娘の説得で発表を決意したという。
「わたしがディープ・スロートと呼ばれていた男だ」というフェルト氏の告白は一大センセーションを巻き起こし、FBI副長官だったフェルト氏の行為への評価は真っぷたつに分かれた。ウォーターゲート事件で刑務所入りした人間は、大統領を裏切った反逆者であると断罪する一方、支持者は勇敢な内部告発者としてフェルト氏を称えた。
ウッドワード記者と、かつてのパートナーであるカール・バーンスタイン氏は11月にフェルト氏を訪ねている。バーンスタイン氏にとっては、フェルト氏と面会するのはこれが初めてだった。このときのフェルト氏は頭脳明晰で、元FBI捜査官としての堂々とした態度で応対してくれた、とウッドワード氏は振り返っている。
19日（金）、AP通信の電話取材に応じたウッドワード記者は「マーク・フェルト氏は正しい行為を行った人間として記憶されるべきだ」とコメントしている。
ちなみに、ウォーターゲート事件を描いた76年の『大統領の陰謀』では、ウッドワード役をロバート・レッドフォード、バーンスタイン役をダスティン・ホフマン、そして、ディープ・スロート役をハル・ホルブルックが演じている。
ウォーターゲート事件とニクソン大統領とのかかわりについて糾弾を試みたジャーナリスト、デイヴィッド・フロストとニクソン大統領との歴史的インタビューを描いた『フロスト×ニクソン』は現在米公開中で、ゴールデングローブ賞に５部門でノミネートされるなど高い評価をうけている。日本公開は東宝東和配給で09年３月の予定。