Grant to drug task force sought
by Campbell draws call for probe
WASHINGTON
- A former White House drug
official is calling for a Justice Department investigation of a grant
to a
Denver-based anti-drug task force sought by Sen. Ben Nighthorse
Campbell.
"It pains
me to see the office I
joined in creating abused for petty personal and possibly illegal
reasons," Robert Weiner, director of public affairs from 1995 to 2001
for
the White House "drug czar," formally called the Office of National
Drug Control Policy, wrote to Attorney General John Ashcroft. "The
Department of Justice must investigate to the top."
Weiner
charged that a top career
official responsible for developing new technologies in the drug czar's
office
was forced out for objecting to the no-bid contract. Al Brandenstein,
the
original director of the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center,
resigned
last month rather than accept a demotion.
A Justice
Department spokesman said the
letter was received but declined to comment on it. Drug czar
spokeswoman
Jennifer de Vallance said Weiner's demand for a probe would likely be
ignored.
"Federal agencies routinely receive all sorts of correspondence and
have
in place processes to sort legitimate queries from frivolous ones," de
Vallance said.
Brandenstein had complained about a $1.15 million grant to a Denver drug task force that Campbell, R-Colo., and his aides apparently sought to direct to an Oregon company called Thinkstream Inc.