JUSTICE AND U.S. SECURITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404520025-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: April 5, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0404520025-1
ART' E
1i .A Z
wfdesprnad abuses ;y-
justice and U.S. Security agencies, the memorandum of under-
svr,t I standing was terminated and Intellir
?'",. 1 gence agencies were ordered by Presi-
Unsuccessfill Bid to Prosecute C.I.A. Source 1 dent Ford to report all cossible viola
Reflects Basic Conflict Between 2 Agencies X
!-q':BpP1HLWTAUBMAN ' %~`? %
NEd YOirK TIMES
5 APRIL 1982
meat. President Carter, and more re-
cently President Reagan, reaffirmed
the policy in executive orders.
It took some time for the C.I.A:-to ad-
just. Although the agency eventually.
sretlju to7betfewYort1la" .~ J cooperated with.Federal prosecutors
WASa?NGTON, April 2-- Despite ef- '.. The two offices most directly in- investigating the activities of Edwin P:1
forts is recent years to reduce the natu- volved in these cases are the' Internal Wilsoaand Frank E.'Terpii, two former
ral terisicn between law-enforcement Security section of the Justice Depart- t agency employees who went to work'
officials and intelligence officials, the ment's criminal division. and the office training terrorists in Libya, the C.T.A.
two still come into conflict. - . of the general counsel at the C.I.A. Ac-' was slow to refer the-case to the Justice
The latest example.involves the ef- 'cording to former officials from both of- Department in 1976, when Intelligence
`-4_- "- -fortsof?the United-States _fices,mutual animosity canbe severe. otficlalsfirstreceived allegations about!
-- AttorneyinSanDiego, Wil- 'The mindsets. are entirely differ- the two men. -. -
Niws - 1fam H. Kennedy, to obtain ent " said one former Justice official.;. Agency Now More Cooperative
Analysis' an indictment of the for- "The agency views the department as a -
mer chief of Mwdco's na- threat to security. They want to disclose The Celta} Intelligence Agency has
tional police in-cxnection as little as possible. We tended to see recently been more responsive. In 1980,
De-
with an $8 million automobile theft ring. the agency as an obstruction to jus- for instance, it helped the Justice De-
When Mr. Kennedy disclosed that the tree ". partment investigate the case of Dpvid
Central IntelLigence Agency had played Y H. Barnett, a former covert agent who
a role in blocking .the Indictment be., Panel Criticized Practice confessed that he had sold sensitive
,cause theforznerMexirsnofficial srasa For 20 years, from 1954 to 1974, the: American intelligence information to
key American intelligence source, sen- tension between Justice and the C.I.A.? the Soviet Union. =
for Justice. Department officials de- was resolved by simply letting the Intel- ? To facilitate prosecution of cases in-
tided to oust Mr. Kennedy.He has been ligence agency decide which, cases in-. volving national security information,
told that if he does not resign he maybe volvin'e"its emolovees and :informers Congress passed the Classified Infor-
dismissed by President Reagan.'
For some people critical'of the Intelli-
gence agency, the case was confirma-
ticn, said a former Justice Department
official who declined to be identified,
that "crime pays if you are shielded by
the C.I.A." Others, more tolerant of the
-competing interests at stake, said they
were encouraged that intelligence and
law enforcement officials were talking,
rather than fighting, about the problem.
Relations .between -.the Justice De-
partment and the Central Intelligence
,.Agency have long been among the
touchiest in Washington. Former offf.
cials-at both agencies still?bristle aver
-understanding between; Lawrence
Houston,.then the intelligence agency's
general counsel,':: and William P.
Rogers, who was 66 Deputy, Attorney
General. The Rockefeller Commission,
which investigated the conduct of intel-
ligence :agencies'in 1975,'criticized the
practice as an' abdication,: of, prosecu-
torial .power . by the,:Justice Depart-
Coot
- ngressloriai committees . which
~_looked into the practice found a history
of criminal cases involving Intelligence
agents that were either handled inter-
nally by the C.I.A. or dropped by the
justice Department at the request of
theintelligenceagency:" r...
mation Procedures Act of 1980. The bill
established special procedures to deal
with defendants who threaten to dis-
close classified information unless the.
Justice Department drops its case
against them. - ` -, .,
Reagan Administration officials say
that the San Diego- case reflects the
changes in policy and attitude. They
argue, for example,. that despite the'
sensitive role-played by the Mexican
,suspect, Miguel'Nassar Haro, who re-
portedly -provided the United States
with', information about Soviet and
Cuban assistance to guerrillas in El Sal-
vador, the C.I.A. stopped short of press
ing.' the Justice Department not to
past cases and disputes.
A Clash of Basic Alms
'?Ia-.many of These"cases.;: there 'is
heated controversy," recalled Philip B.
Heymann, bead of the Justice Department's criminal division in the Carter
Administration. "It's an area of comps.
?tition and conflict in which two funda-
mental concerns clash. One is keeping
national security secrets. The other Is
--winning a fair trial " ...
'Congressional records's2iow'-that `iri's allay, the concerns of a former White
one case in the early 1960's, an agent as House official who wondered this week
cused of. embezzling $20,OCO from the; how many questionable sources the
agency was not prosecuted because of ? agency relies on for information, and
"security considerations," including it how far the C.I.A. would go to protect
the danger of identif
them
in
As one Administration offi
the a
ent's
i
l
y
.
g
g
+
c
a
cover and the location of the purported l, knowledged,-"You don't always have a
embezzlement. The record? show that choice of the people you deal with when
another agent who was accused of steal- -you need information-'.:
Ing 547,000 was not prosecuted,.J.q part
out of fear that the case might expose a
clandestine financing network thatbe -
prosecute.
Stich assertions "howeve. slid littlero
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP9O-00552ROO0404520025-1