THE CIA'S MEXICAN CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404520019-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: April 6, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
2'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404520019-8
SACRAMENTO BEE (CA)
6 April 1982
t
y e. that in-the circumstances the Mexican official
White House to resign or-be fired. should have been, should be, prosecuted. It
Quite clearly, circumstances can arise ing strains credulity and all common sense to
the shadowy world of foreign intelligence assert that any single intelligence source. can
when the national interest may require grant-( provide such valuable, otherwise unattainable
ing ?criminal immunity in order to protect an. information that he should be given, literally,
informant- Just as cleariv hnwd vssr? ;" *l.;~ ~ ., ._ --
-_ _. .
he United States attorney in San Diego, instance the CIA's worry wasn't the Mexican
T
William H. Kennedy, got into trouble; with informant himself, but what one
senior Justice
the Justice- Department for'trying. to do'his Department official described as "potential'
job, in the course of which he ran afoul of the damage to the -institutional relationship".-,
Intelligence Agency, cy, which didn't that is, U.S. relations with Mexico - as a, r6;
want him to do it
suit. of revealing a high Mexican official's
,At issue -was the question., Should a ones 'e'. cooperation with American intelligence.
time high security official in. the Mexican
government be prosecuted for his alleged role hat being the case, we can see no reason
in a $30 million to $40 million car-theft ring Tin the world why Kennedy shouldn't have
operating in Southern California,. or should his been permitted to seek the indictment and do
involvement be hushed up because -he Was his job. The Mexican official's prosecution for
also an-alleged source of information for the car theft would have had nothing to do with
CIA? his CIA role, assuming,. as we tentatively do,
The CIA, predictably, pressured the-Justice' that the- agency wasn't also involved in 'the
Department for the-hush-up. Kennedy, more theft ring. The'-way the whole episode 'was
concerned about the losses to the owners of handled only fed Kennedy's understandable
the 4,000 stolen cars the ring sold to 'various indignation; the cover was blown anyway.
Mexican officials, insisted on prosecution. One needn't endorse Kennedy's decision tQ
When the Justice Department blgoked his . air the matter publicly thereby efforts, he went public with the facts of the ing the judgment of -higher officials onnthe
case.'A Reagan administration appointee last national security interest - in order to agree
November, Kennedy now has been told b
1,
e CIA's-Me'
.Th xican Connect.ion
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404520019-8