The hunt for Deep Throat continues

The spotlight has once more fallen on the question of the identity of Deep Throat, the secret informant who helped Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward uncover the Watergate scandal.

In an online article slated to run in the middle of June, a source close to President Richard Nixon, former White House counsel John Dean, will name his guess as to who was the famed informant.

At the same time, the quest for Deep Throat has become an academic pursuit in the Midwest.

For the past two decades, the persona of Deep Throat was concealed from public knowledge; Woodward promised he would only identify the source after he, or she, had died.

The knowledge may become public sooner than Woodward expects when, on the 30th anniversary of the burglary, former White House counsel John Dean will publish a possibility of the informant's identity.

Dean, who was directed by the president to cover up Nixon and his Cabinet's involvement, and later testified to the Senate of Nixon's scandalous actions, will publish "The Deep Throat Brief" June 17 for the online magazine Salon.

"He's pretty certain he knows who it is," said Scott Rosenburg, managing editor of Salon.

This will be the third time Dean has published a possible name of the covert correspondent. In 1975, Dean named Earl J. Silbert, a prosecutor that worked on the Watergate trial, as the hiding informer. Seven years later, Dean claimed Alexander Haig, Nixon's chief of staff and President Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, was the snitch.

Both denied Dean's accusations.

Many have made identity allegations: CBS anchor Mike Wallace accused Woodward's neighbor and FBI Acting Director L. Patrick Gray of being the informant, and Rabbi Baruch Korff said he believed Deep Throat to be broadcast journalist and formal Nixon aide Diane Sawyer.

But everyone accused to date has denied being Deep Throat, with Sawyer even laughing at the idea.

Deep Throat identity theories are still being investigated. As of May 27, a journalism class at the University of Illinois has narrowed down the possibility to seven White House officials. Professor William Gaines and eight UI students have researched the informer's persona, narrowing down a list of 72 officials with the help of Woodward and Bernstein's document of their work, "All the President's Men." They hope to publish a name by June 17 as well.

Woodward wrote in "All the President's Men" that he would usually meet with Deep Throat at 2 a.m. in an underground parking garage. The journalist would signal that he would want to meet with the informant by putting a red flag in a potted plant near the rear of his apartment balcony.

When Deep Throat wanted to confer with Woodward, Woodward would find the number on page 20 of his morning paper circled with clock hands drawn in the circle.

Many journalism critics, including UW School of Communications faculty member Mike Henderson, believe Deep Throat is a composite of many contributors in Woodward's quest for truth and was used to learn of more sources. Still, no matter which theory is true, Henderson reiterated an allegation is only an allegation.

"If Woodward and Bernstein feel it would be helpful to reveal the identity of the source (assuming the Deep Throat character is just one person), then it would be their decision, possibly based on having cleared it with the source or in the event that the source is deceased," said Henderson. "If another party, say John Dean, were to 'identify' Deep Throat, then it could be taken as conjecture unless Woodward, Bernstein and/or the source were to confirm what Dean said. If they did not confirm it, then the identity of the source would remain a mystery."