"Felt was the bureau's Benedict Arnold," he said. "Having been entrusted with the highest levels of military command ... Arnold betrayed his oath, his country and his fellow citizen-soldiers to pursue his own ambitions. Felt did no less to the bureau and his fellow agents. Let's not fool ourselves. The bureau's reputation for faithfulness and unselfish devotion to duty has been seriously diminished by this foul episode."

After Mr. Felt recently came out of hiding, he signed book and film deals for around one million dollars, said his publisher, who added Mr. Hanks would produce the movie.

Mr. McDermott was concerned that Mr. Hanks was "sold" on a belief that Deep Throat was "a champion of truth that otherwise would have been suppressed, rather than a cowardly bushwhacker, disloyal to his fellow agents and his oath of office."

NO TIME FOR ADIEU

Rebecca Hagelin, the Heritage Foundation's senior communications official, is senior producer of the film "33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age," which made its premiere this week.

"33 Minutes is one of the most important projects of my career," she told Inside the Beltway before Wednesday night's Capitol Hill screening.

"When Americans realize how vulnerable we are to a missile attack - and how close we are to reducing that threat to near zero through the full deployment of missile defense - I believe they will demand that our leaders finish the mission that was started some 25 years ago."

She said most Americans "don't realize that 33 minutes is the longest it would take for a ballistic missile launched from anywhere in the world to reach and obliterate the city or region is was programmed to destroy. That's not even enough time to call all your family members and say goodbye."

More than two dozen screenings of the film are scheduled throughout the nation.