Posted on 06/14/2005 9:49:33 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court judge Tuesday extended for the fourth time an order barring a former investigator for the U.N. oil-for-food probe from turning over documents to two U.S. congressional committees.
The delay, until July 6, was granted by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington. All parties have asked for repeated delays while they try to work out an agreement.
The restraining order, first issued on May 9, blocks Robert Parton, a former FBI agent, from handing over boxes of documents to two congressional committees that subpoenaed them after he resigned from the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee.
Parton left the probe, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, believing the inquiry ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose son worked for a company that received a lucrative contract in Iraq under the $67 billion program.
Parton took thousands of files with him, which the Volcker inquiry says violated a confidentiality agreement, could put witnesses at risk and jeopardize its investigation.
The documents were given to the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, headed by Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde (news, bio, voting record), in response to a subpoena. Then another House committee and one in the Senate filed their own subpoenas.
In its suit against Parton, the United Nations does not ask for the documents Hyde has in his possession, but tries to prevent them from being distributed to other committees.
Annan appointed the Volcker probe last year to investigate fraud in the oil-for-food program, which began in 1996. Under the deal, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government could sell oil to buy goods that would ease the impact of U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis. The sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Parton said he kept the documents to back up his allegations that the investigation was flawed. The Volcker panel says the documents belong to its inquiry and it needs to have jurisdiction over their distribution and to protect witnesses.
Sumptin' fishy goin' on up in hea'.
How can a court block a Congressional subpoena???
They need time to purge the files
Easy, just look to Florida.
They can if congress does nothing about it.
Where have you been? Congress is irrelevant in a judicial oligarchy ruled by judicial tyranny.
What we NEED is a 21st Century DEEP THROAT
The court cannot stop their distribution from one committee to another, other than by intimidation...
ANY congress wimp that is {scared} of our mullahs in black robes, NEED TO GO!!
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