European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 7, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday. October 7,1988 James Kilpatrick drug test order does t violate Constitution president Reagan issued his executive order on drugs on sept. 15, the very next Day the National Treasury employees Union filed suit to Block in. Said the Union s president. Robert Tobias the president is trampling on the constitutional rights of executive Branch pm Well Bosh. What is unconstitutional about a urinalysis the Union s i Cory is thai a drug lest amounts to the kind of scare it and seizure prohibited by the fourth amendment but that theory is hokum. The Constitution docs not pro Hibit All searches and seizures. It makes the people secure in their persons Only from unreasonable searches and Sei zures and there is nothing unreasonable in Reagan s executive order. For a relatively Small number of Feder Al workers the tests will be mandatory the head of an Agency Musi establish a testing program for employees in Sensi Tive positions based on the Agency s mis Sion the employee s duties and the potential consequence of employee drug use to Public health and safely or to National for most workers in is discretionary the head of an Agency May order the Lestin gof any employee i when Here is a reasonable suspicion that the employee uses illegal drugs 2 As part of an investigation of an Accident or unsafe prac Tice and 3 As part of or As it follow up to counselling or rehabilitation through an employee assistance under Reagan s directive a 60 Day Noi ice would have to be Given in Advance of a testing program. Employees will be Able to Challenge any finding of illegal drug use before disciplinary action is taken. Testing procedures must allow individual Tysl results and medical records must be kept in Confidence. Those who Challenge his sensible pro Gram ought in get straight on this Busi Ness of "rights.1 like any other employer the government has a right within certain Well understood limits to fix the terns and conditions of employ ment. The individual s right if he finds Anthony Lewis ws0 these conditions intolerable is to seek employment elsewhere a parallel situation May be observed at every Airport in the land. Individuals May have a right to Fly but they have no right to Fly without having their persons and baggage inspected for Wea ions. The passenger who refuses to submit to inspection can Lake a bus or ride a horse or walk. By the same Token the Federal worker who refuses to provide a urine specimen under the president s order can clean out his desk and apply to general motors or general electric or Kodak Only to discover that private Industry is equally interested in a drug free working environment. Implicit in the Treasury Union s Posi Tion is the curious notion thai citizens have a right to break the Law with impunity. The notion is preposterous. Posses Sion of marijuana cocaine heroin and other prohibited substances is flatly unlawful. The person who comes to work half stoned on Coke May gel away Wilh it in he same Way that a Motorist who Breaks a Speed limit May evade arrest but Good Luck cannot establish 3 right to engage in unlawful conduct. The rights lie elsewhere. The lax Payag Public has a right to a competent and efficient civil service. To the extent that drug users Are tolerated in Federal employment other employees must Lake up the Slick other workers must produce More because junkies produce less. It is common knowledge that drug addiction is a fearfully expensive Folly. Serious users May spend hundreds of Dol Lars a Day to maintain their habit. Imagine the Case if you will of an addict with Access to top secret documents in she Pentagon or state department. Such documents have a High Market value in the Shadow world of espionage. Surely it is reasonable to test such employee for drug use and that is the main purpose of the president s proposal. The order is not aimed at file clerks in the Federal Trade commission though there would be nothing unconstitutional in requiring tests throughout the civil service. It is objected that drug tests invade privacy and so they do bul the Constitution guarantees no absolute right of privacy. Fingerprints physical examinations and photographs invade privacy. Form 1040 invades privacy. Customs inspections premarital blood tests the Dis closure of financial assets the probate of Wilts the census Ali these intrude upon our private lives. When it comes to his sad and disgusting habit the drug addict in a sensitive Federal Job has no right of privacy the govern Mcnol is bound to respect. C Unive Istl Peai 5ynd�al the difference Between Good leaks bad leaks the news that the Reagan administration planned it Campaign of disinformation against foam mar Qaddafi tells us two things about the institution of the presidency. More than Ever americans need to know what in is doing. More than Ever the president and his people try to keep us from knowing. When Bob Woodward of the Washington Post broke the Story last week one might have expected a certain shame in the White House. Its spokesman Larry Speakes had evidently misled the press on Libya As part of the deception Campaign. He might at least have copied Ron Ziegler and said his previous statements were inoperative. Bui there shame. The reaction instead Wai to have Fri investigators try to find out who disclosed the government s improper activities. The assignment went to a special team of agents set up to track Down leaks to the press. In other words if the president and his advisers Are caught doing something wrong Don t blame them. Blame those who caught hem the reporters who published the Story and the officials who cared enough about american principles to Tell the press. National Security is the talismanic phrase always invoked to justify putting secrecy ahead of Law and morals and common sense. Bul As the libyan disinformation Story unfolded Bernard Weinraub who covers the White mouse for the new York times pointed Oul a wonderful irony in its attitude. The kf2f.nl administration has been extraordinarily ferocious in its condemnation of leaks threatening the press with criminal prosecution. But the same administration has disclosed More sensitive intelligence in formation than any of in predecessors. President Reagan for example told the world last Spring about a highly secret . Intelli gence technique. In justifying the bombing attack on Libya he said that intercepted radio conversations Between the libyan government and its mis lion in Germany showed involvement in the bomb ing attack on a West Berlin discotheque. Some experts say the libyan have stopped using radio for sensitive communications since then depriving us of valuable intelligence. The disinformation Campaign against Qadhafi involved the leaking of intelligence with some of the leaks false or distorted. President Reagan s National Security adviser John m. Poindexter Lold the presi Dent in a memorandum that the plan combines real and illusionary events through a disinformation program with the Basic goal of making Qadhafi believe that some of his own people and the . Wen about to move against him. The record shows thai injury to National Security is not necessarily what the Reagan while House fears when the press publishes material related to Intelli gence. It is worried about its own Security and its Polit ical standing. When the administration leaks something for in own purposes by definition thai is a Good leak. When an unauthorized leak discloses a wrong or foolish government action that is a bad leak. None of this it particularly surprising. Politicians Are in the business of Power and they use what levers i hey have to secure it and hang on to it. Americans have seen Many examples of the misuse of secrecy and National Security in the last 20years. But there is one group of people who would Bene fit from study of this latest episode in Manipula Tion. That is judges. For they still Are overcome by Awe when presidents invoke National Security. Over the last dozen years court hive shown slavish deference to presidential Security claims. They have even made up Law to fit the i erred need an extreme example ii the Case of Samuel Loring Mottson a Navy employee who supplied a classified photograph to a Magazine. The government conceding that the teak did no actual damage prosecuted him under a 1917 espionage Law never applied to the giving of information to vie press. A Federal trial judge upheld the prosecution in effect converting the 1917 Law into what Congress has repeatedly refused to enact a criminal Law against leaks. It is a nuisance for presidents to have to go to Congress and show the need for a new Law. 11 it uncomfortable to be held accountable by Public scrutiny. But the american premise is that such presidential discomfort is the Price of Wise policy and of Freedom. In
