deep background

Woodward had a source -------[book excerpt]----------- in the Executive Branch who had access to information at CRP as well as at the White House....He had agreed never to quote the man, even as an anonymous source.  Their discussions would be only to confirm information that had been obtained elsewhere and to add some perspective.

In newspaper terminology, this meant the discussions were on "deep background."

(...Several years earlier, Woodward had found a red cloth flag lying in the street.  Barely one foot square, it was attached to a stick, the type of warning device used on the back of a truck carrying a projecting load.  Woodward had taken the flag back to his apartment and one of his friends had stuck it into an old flower pot on the balcony.  It had stayed there.)

When Woodward had an urgent inquiry to make, he would move the flower pot with the red flag to the rear of the balcony.  During the day, Deep Throat would check to see if the pot had been moved.  If it had, he and Woodward would meet at about 2:00 A.M. in a pre-designated underground parking garage.  Woodward would leave his sixth-floor apartment and walk down the back stairs into an alley.

Walking and taking two or more taxis to the garage, he could be reasonably sure that no one had followed him.  In the garage, the two could talk for an hour or more without being seen.  If taxis were hard to find, as they often were late at night, it might take Woodward almost two hours to get there on foot.

...The man's position in the Executive Branch was extremely sensitive.  He had never told Woodward anything that was incorrect.  It was he who had advised Woodward on June 19 that Howard Hunt was definitely involved in Watergate.  During the summer, he had told Woodward that the FBI badly wanted to know where the Post was getting its information.  He thought Bernstein and Woodward might be followed, and cautioned them to take care when using their telephones.  The White House, he had said at the last meeting, regarded the stakes in Watergate as much higher than anyone outside perceived. 

Even the FBI did not understand what was happening. 

The source had been deliberately vague about this, however, making veiled references to the CIA and national security which Woodward did not understand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I know it's kind of late
I hope I didn't wake you
but what I got to say can't wait
I know you'd understand
Every time I tried to tell you
The words just came out wrong

So I'll have to say I love you
--in a song.

Yeah, I know it's kind of strange
But ev'ry time I'm near you
I just run out of things to say
I know you'd understand
Every time I tried to tell you,
The words just came out wrong...
So I'll have to say I love you --
in a song.

(Instrumental)

Every time the time was right
All the words just came out wrong
So I'll have to say I love you --
in a song.

Yeah, I know it's kind of late
I hope I didn't wake you
But there's something that I just
got to say --

I know you'd understand
Every time I tried to tell you
The words just came out wrong
So I'll have to say I love you
in a song.

===============
{book excerpt -- All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward -- copyright 1974 - Simon-Schuster - nyc}
{song:  "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" written and recorded by Jim Croce.  The single, from the I Got a Name album, was released posthumously -- Jim Croce died in a small-plane crash in Sept. 1973; "...Love you in a Song" hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, April 1974.}

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