Deep Throat's Crimes: Mark Felt, Constitution-shredder: After Mark Felt outed himself as the legendary ?Deep Throat? in the Watergate case last week, there was a media rush to canonize the FBI?s former Number Two man, and politicians proposed he be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But in all this gush to make Felt a hero, there has been little or no mention of Felt?s prime role in COINTELPRO -- the most gigantic domestic political spying and disruption operation ever in American history, illegally conducted by the FBI.
Felt, in fact, was indicted and convicted in federal court in 1980 of directing nine illegal break-ins, aimed at domestic political targets, when he was boss of the COINTELPRO operation. Felt thus became the highest ranking FBI official to be convicted of criminal charges Hoover_nixon_1 since J. Edgar Hoover became head of the Bureau in 1924.
