Posted on 05/14/2005 5:57:08 AM PDT by nextthunder
U.S. JUDGE SETS PRECEDENT FOR UNITED NATIONS SOVEREIGNTY OVER AMERICA
MNA—A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of the United Nations over the U.S. Congress this week, setting precedent that, at least in federal courts, the U.N. is sovereign.
At issue are documents and audiotapes submitted under Congressional subpoena by former U.N. Oil for Food investigator Robert Parton. The information reportedly demonstrates proof positive that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s stories are conflicting regarding the world’s largest bribery scandal.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) after the United Nations filed a petition to block the Parton congressional supeonas. The ten-day TRO gives both sides, according to the judge, some time to resolve the matter. The ex-FBI agent quit the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee in April, reportedly because he believed it ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The U.N. said that Parton, a former FBI agent, signed a letter of agreement with the Independent Investigative Committee on July 6 to become a "senior investigative counsel" and he began work on Aug. 9. On Aug. 18, Parton signed an agreement with the United Nations that included a clause prohibiting him from communicating with the media or with any government about material that the committee had not made public.
But Parton kept records to protect himself because the investigation’s report, in Parton’s estimate, was short of the truth. Parton told Fox News, “"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 ever became necessary, I could establish that I was not associated with the path the IIC committee chose to take and I could be in a position to defend myself against risks that I knew existed as a result of the IIC committee's actions."
The court order comes in the wake of so-called Independent Investigator Paul Volcker’s (who was appointed by and is compensated by the U.N.) demands for Congress to return the Parton records and to not subpoena any more information or testimony. Volcker said the integrity of the probe into the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program was at stake and lives may be in jeopardy if details of the investigation are leaked.
Volcker’s unverified statement that lives may be at stake, if anything, has double meaning. American lives already have been lost. The U.S. military was committed to a war in Iraq based on false information. Sources often point to the weapons of mass destruction that were never found, although satellite pictures show Russian truck convoys hauling off tons of items across the Syrian border hours before the American attack in March 2003. Given the revelation that the U.N. Security Council was deeply involved with Saddam Hussein, and subsequent exposure that Russia in particular was doing under the table business with Hussein, the U.S. Congress has every Constitutional right to investigate the Oil for Food program.
The U.S. State Department supports the Congressional inquiry, but is deferring to the court on this latest judicial development. Acting Spokesman Tom Casey said State supports the Volcker work, “but we also believe it's important for the U.S. Congress to be able to have a look at this issue and make sure that it is comfortable with the facts and that it understands what happened…There is some ongoing litigation involved in that and I think I'll just leave it to the courts then to deal with it at this point, rather than trying to describe it for you further.”
Bottom line: Court authority seems to be trumping both the Executive Branch and Congressional authority in the Constitutional balance between the three branches of government. Article III of the Constitution gives the power to Congress over the courts. Question is: will the Congress of the United States allow the federal court system to hand U.S. sovereignty over to the United Nations. In this particular instance, it appears the precedent has been set. Taking this concept a few steps further, the United Nations seems positioned well to stand between the U.S. and its foreign policy objectives, including but not limited to, its longstanding relationship with Israel and the balance of power in the Middle East.
Actually, on mine, it doesn't change the font size. I must have some setting set the wrong way.
LOL.
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