May 16, 2005
US Court Rules For UN On Papers In Oil, Food Probe
By REUTERS 
Filed at 1:56 p.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A federal court ordered Tuesday that a U.N.-commissioned independent inquiry into corruption in the oil-for-food program be allowed to inspect papers one of its investigators gave to a congressional panel.
The investigator, Robert Parton, a former FBI agent, resigned his post from the Independent Inquiry Committee headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Parton said the panel's last report was not tough enough on Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and he took materials from the independent inquiry with him.
The United Nations went to court last week after Parton turned over documents from the Volcker committee to the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee, led by Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde. The U.N. suit seeks to force Parton to return the documents and not comply with subpoenas from two other congressional committees.
Judge Ricardo Urbina in U.S. District Court in Washington ruled that Parton had to provide to the Volcker committee ``the opportunity to inspect and copy all materials that the defendant allegedly copied, removed or otherwise ... obtained from the IIC,'' the Independent Inquiry Committee.
Urbana on May 9 issued a 10-day restraining order against Parton from responding to subpoenas from two committees as the Volcker panel had requested.
The U.N. complaint puts the inquiry committee on a collision course with the U.S. Congress where Republican legislators accuse the panel of undue secrecy. Volcker says he has to protect the credibility of his investigation.
Susan Ringler, counsel for the inquiry, said in a brief that the documents could ``pose a grave risk to the safety of Iraqi witnesses, who if their names are disclosed, fear for their lives and the lives of their families.''
But Parton, in a reply filed this weekend, said no lives were in danger and the names of sensitive witnesses had been ``redacted'' or crossed out.
He said that the committee had given Annan information that violated the confidentiality of a witness. The committee has denied this.