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History professor Joan Hoff of Montana State University, an expert on the Watergate scandal, finds it interesting that Bob Woodward is claiming that he had a close relationship with former FBI official Mark Felt, now identified as Deep Throat, when Felt suffers from serious health problems, including dementia, and can't deny it. "It's just like when he said he interviewed [former CIA director Bill] Casey when Casey was comatose," she says.

Len Colodny, co-author of Silent Coup, about the "removal" of President Nixon, finds the identification of Mark Felt as Deep Throat to be rather remarkable: "A Deep Throat who can't talk."

The fact is, as AIM founder Reed Irvine documented, Woodward has been known to make things up. Woodward's Casey "interview" is a case in point. As Reed noted, "In his 1987 book, Veil, Woodward claimed he had interviewed William J. Casey, the CIA director, after Casey had brain surgery and could not speak intelligibly. Woodward didn't know that, and he made up an interview in which Casey is supposed to have spoken 19 intelligible words. It was clear that this was a falsification not only because of Casey's condition, but because his hospital room was guarded and Woodward was never admitted to it."

Hoff believes the identification of Deep Throat is part of "an orchestrated publicity stunt on the part of the Post and Woodward" because Woodward plans to publish his own book on Felt. "Lo and behold," says Hoff, "Felt's family decides he's Deep Throat and Felt can't say whether he is or not, and we get the big story."

In fact, despite his serious health problems, Felt can still utter a few words. He was captured on film outside his home yesterday saying that he enjoyed the publicity and that, "I'll arrange to write a book or something, and collect all the money I can." A New York Times account indicates that members of the Felt family have been envious of the money that will be made from the Deep Throat disclosures and that they were trying to pursue their own book deal independent of Woodward after he rebuffed their pleas for a collaborative effort.

Felt seems to have been a source of some kind for Woodward. But was he the source known as Deep Throat? Hoff isn't the only one who has some doubts.

Colodny says that what is known about Felt "doesn't match what Woodward wrote in his book. He describes Deep Throat as someone he had known for a long time and had many discussions about power in Washington and so on. There's not a shred of evidence that Felt is that person."

In the June 2 Post, Woodward describes for the first time the details of his "friendship" with Felt. They are said to have met accidentally when Woodward, then a young Navy Lieutenant, was delivering Navy documents to the White House in 1970. Hoff points out that Felt, because of his severe memory problems, can't deny any of this and the account "is based only and exclusively on Woodward's word."

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