The Michigan Daily-Thursday, July 20, 1978-Page 5
REQUESTS LEAVE IN WAKE OF DISCLOSURE
Carter aide lied on prescription

WASHINGTON (AP)-Dr. Peter
Bourne, who heads the president's fight
against drug abuse, was granted a
leave of absence last night after it was
learned he wrote a prescription for a
controlled drug made out to a fictitious
person.
The leave was announced by
President Carter's spokesman, Jody
Powell, after a day of White House
delay in reacting to the disclosure that
police were investigating the case.
POWELL SAID Bourne requested the
leave "to have an opportunity to clear
his name."
"This decision was Dr. Bourne's own
decision," Powell said. "The president
was informed after he had made that
decision and, of course, agreed to his
request to leave."
Powell said Bourne was not asked to

resign.
"It seems to us at least that in the in-
terest of not prejudging the matter ...
it would be somewhat excessive to fire
him," Powell said.
BOURNE CONCEDED in a
statement that he wrote a prescription
made out to a fictitious person in order
to supply a staff aide with 15 tablets of
the much-abused sedative Quaalude.
He said he consulted an attorney and
believes "that what I have done is
neither legally nor morally wrong."
Powell said he did not know of any
Bourne discussions with Carter yester-
day. He said he knew of no White House
investigation of the case.
POWELL SAID he assumes that
Bourne will remain on the White House
payroll while on leave.
An informed source said a staff aide

to Bourne tried to fill the prescription in
Washington, but gave up because the
lines were too long. She then gave the
prescription to a roommate to fill and
the roommate was arrested two days
later on July 11 in suburban Wood-
bridge, Va., after a druggist became
suspicious of the prescription.
Prince William County, Va., police
arrested Toby Long, 26, of the
fashionable Georgetown section of
Washington on a felony charge of "at-
tempting to obtain a controlled drug
known as Quaalude by fraud, deceit or
misrepresentation."
THE SOURCE SAID Bourne had
made out the prescription in the name
of "Sarah Brown" for his ad-
ministrative assistant in the White
House west wing, Ellen Metsky.
A lawyer for the American Medical

China wants U.S. satellite data

Association in Chicago, Bruce Nortell,
said "generally, it is not lawful for a
prescription to be written that contains
any falsified information."
Metsky has worked for Bourne since
the days of the Carter transition before
the new administration took office in
January 1977.
The source said this was the only
prescription for Quaaludes that Bourne
had given Metsky, and that the only
other prescription he had given her was
for antibiotics some months before.
AN ATTORNEY for Metsky had no
comment.
An attorney for Long, who is free on
$3,000 bail, said, "The matter is too sen-
sitive to comment upon at this time."
Trial is set for Sept. 19.
Quaalude is classified as a sedative
and hypnotic substance, similar in ef-
fect but not in chemistry to barbituates.
It hass been tightly controlled by the
government since October 1972 due to
widespread abuse.
Police were treating the arrest as a
routine investigation of prescription
forgery, a crime that covers almost any
prescription misrepresentation and
carries a penalty of one to five years'
imprisonment under Virginia law.
The Washington Post quoted sources
as saying that Bourne had told law en-
forcement officials he wrote the
prescription to a fictitious person to
avoid embarrassing the persons for
whom the drue was intended.

WASHINGTON (AP)-Communist
China is behind a mysterious $105,000
purchase order for "non-military" in-
formation gathered by U.S. satellites
over much of the Soviet Union, gover-
nment sources said yesterday.
Officials of the U.S. Geological Sur-
vey acknowledge the purchase request
but refuse to identify the "foreign ap-
plicant" and will not say where the data
was collected by U.S. satellite sensors.
They do say the area covered was out-
side the United States.
THESE OFFICIALS, who declined to
be identified, said the information
picked up by Landsat satellites deals
essentially with various earth sciences,
is intended for peaceful purposes and is
available to anybody who requests it.
They said they do not provide details of
the purchases, foreign 6r domestic, as a
matter of policy.
But other U.S. government officials,
who also asked to remain anonymous,
said the purchase request originated
with Chinese interests in Hong Kong
and that the 2,800 "frames" of satellite-
collected data covered a wide expanse
of Russia.

The officials said it appears that the
Chinese, who lack a reconnaissance
satellite system of their own, are trying
to gain information of potential
military value about their bitter com-
munist rival, Russia.
THE NATIONAL Aeronatuics and
Space Administration has two Landsats
in circular orbit about 570 miles in space.
With two satellites aloft in different
positions, experts said, each spot of the
globe except for certain polar regions is
examined every nine days.
The experts said the satellites are
equipped with a variety of infrared and
other senors that detect temperatures,
geological formations, areas of varying
population densities, crop conditions
and other phenomena on the Earth's
surface.
The data on the "frames" sent back
from the Landsats can be formed into
pictures, they said.
Officials at the Geological Survey's
data center in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota. say the satellites can scan

areas as small as a football field and
the newest Landsat has a resolution of
only 40 meters-about half that size.
ASKED IF THE Landsat satellite
data is militarily significant, one of-
ficial at the data center said "I don't
know." But other officials in
Wasshington say it has such value if it
is studied by sophisticated military in-
telligence analysts.
The Geological Survey official said no
request was made to the National
Security Council or to the Defense or
State Departments, to clear the $105,000
foreign request for satellite data.
He said the center currently has six
million frames of data stored at the
center and that it is available to in-
dividuals, companies and all foreign
countries without restriction.
This official said the reason his agen-
cy refuses to provide the names of ap-
plicants, the areas of satellite coverage
involved in their requests or other in-
formation is to protect the privacy of
individual applicants and commercial
rights of companies seeking the infor-
mation.

PRES. RECORDS BILL PASSES COMMITTEE:
Govt. may get White House files
WASHINGTON (AP) - A bill to records of the two terms. on a President to retain records if it felt
make White House papers the property On a voice vote, the panel rejected an i e should save the papers he was plan-
of the government was approved amendment by Rep. Ted Weiss (D-New ning to destroy.
yesterday by a House committee. It York), to give either house of Congress The committee voted 17.2 to strike
refused to give Congress veto power power to override the President's from the bill a requirement that any
over a President's ability to dispose of ability to destroy certain records. The records that a President targets for
certain records while in office. bill permits disposal of records which disposal be put on microfilm. Preyer
The measure, containing some the President deems to have no ad- said the cost would be excessive and "it
provisions opposed by the Carter ad- ministrative, historical or infor- would be more economical to keep
ministration, was approved by the mational value. everything than to dispose of excess
Government Operations Committee by "A President might not have the best records."
a 33-2 vote. judgement what papers would or would Weiss and Rep. Elliott Levitas (D-
not have the best historical value," California), said they would renew the
THE BILL would require that an Weiss said. fight to limit the President's ability, on-
outgoing President, beginning with the Representative Richardson Preyer ce the bill reaches the House floor.
one elected in 1980, turn over all official (D-North Carolina) and others argued The bill would permit an outgoing
White House records to the National that such a provision might be uncon- President to limit access - for up to 10
Archives. Under current practice, a stitutional. Carter has complained years - to classified documents or
President's official records are regar- about congressional veto power over material regarding national defense,
ded as his own property. executive branch actions, and has foreign policy or appointments. He also
Even though President Carter has declared he will not feel bound by such would be allowed to restrict access to
pledged to turn over his papers to the vetoes. documents dealing with trade secrets,
government when he leaves office, the Before a President could destroy advice from aides and personnel and
White House had sought to have him records, he would have to seek the medical files.
exempted from the measure. The ad- views of the archivist and give After the 10-year period, the papers
mini n m-ai~aA at r ,-a..c M. ave . -n n- . would be subiecttn the Frendomnof In-

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