Former U.N. Counsel Defends Disclosure
Injunction Puts Cooperation With Congressional Oil-for-Food Probe on Hold
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; A13
UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- A former U.N.-appointed investigator probing corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program on Monday defended his decision to retain confidential official documents after he quit the inquiry and give them to a congressional committee.
Robert Parton, the former senior counsel of the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), said he resigned last month in frustration with the panel, which is headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, for not providing a tougher account of how U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan handled the $64 billion program.
In response to a subpoena from the House International Relations Committee, Parton turned over several boxes of papers and audio tapes to the committee, one of several that are conducting their own inquiries into the U.N.-administered program.
Parton, a former FBI official, said he had kept the documents to prove that he had disputed the IIC's findings. Although Parton was subject to U.N. confidentiality and diplomatic immunity agreements, he said he felt legally obligated to comply with a congressional subpoena from the committee chaired by Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).
I kept my copies of certain materials relating to the areas of the investigation for which I was responsible because of my concern that the investigative process and conclusions were flawed, Parton said. Although I sought to avoid any public discussion of these issues, I had repeatedly voiced my concerns internally to the IIC and wanted to retain a record of my efforts so that, if it became necessary, I could establish that I was not associated with the path the IIC . . . chose to take.
I had hoped never to release the materials and have made every effort to maintain their confidentiality, Parton added.
Parton's attorney, Lanny J. Davis, released the statement after the Volcker committee sought a federal court order blocking Parton from providing two other congressional committees with additional documents or testimony. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), and the House Government Reform Committee's subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations, chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), had set a Thursday deadline for Parton to provide additional documents and testify.
Late Monday, lawyers representing Volcker, Parton, Shays and Coleman agreed to a 10-day delay while they try to reach an agreement that would enable Parton to cooperate with the congressional committees without jeopardizing Volcker's ongoing investigation.
The injunction freezes the status quo for 10 days, which gives congressional committees, the U.N. and Mr. Parton time to reach a reasonable agreement on how to proceed, Shays said in a statement. I continue to believe that Congress can get the information we need while maintaining the integrity of Volcker investigation.
The U.N. oil-for-food program was established in 1996 to exempt Iraq's government from sanctions to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. Saddam Hussein's government abused the program, siphoning more than $2 billion in illegal kickbacks from companies that traded with it.
Annan established the Volcker committee in April 2004 to investigate allegations that U.N. official had engaged in corrupt activities. In February, the committee accused the program's administrator, Benon Sevan, of improperly steering lucrative oil contracts to an Egyptian businessman.
A March 29 Volcker report cleared Annan of allegations that he had used his influence to direct oil-for-food business to a company that employed his son, Kojo. But the report faulted Annan for not conducting an adequate investigation into reports of possible conflicts of interest in awarding the contract.
Volcker agreed Friday to release Parton, who oversaw the investigation into Kofi Annan, from his confidentiality agreement for the limited purpose of making a public statement on his views of Annan's role. But the Volcker committee is seeking to block Parton from testifying before Congress and has demanded that he return all his documents to the committee, saying they were obtained unlawfully.
The Volcker committee's lawyer, Susan M. Ringler, warned in a letter to Davis that Parton has violated U.S. law by providing documents to Hyde's committee. She also argued that the release of documents threatens the IIC's ability to obtain cooperation from witnesses in its ongoing investigation of the oil for food program and may put at risk the lives of witnesses who have already cooperated with the IIC.
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