Deal Reached on Oil-For-Food Documents

AP ^ | 9/16/5 | NICK WADHAMS

[SmithL]

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations will get back thousands of pages of sensitive documents that an investigator took when he quit the U.N. oil-for-food inquiry — but only after Congress completes its own examination of the humanitarian program, officials said.

Robert Parton resigned from the U.N.-backed Independent Inquiry Committee in April, reportedly because he believed it ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The chief of the investigation, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, denies there was a cover-up.

Three congressional committees investigating the Iraq oil-for-food program later filed subpoenas for Parton and the documents, although he turned them over to just one — the House International Relations Committee, led by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.

Volcker's probe filed restraining orders blocking the other subpoenas.

Parton has reached a three-way deal under which he will give interviews to all three congressional committees, Hyde spokesman Sam Stratman said Thursday.

The United Nations will not pursue allegations that he violated a confidentiality agreement, and Hyde's committee will return the material once it completes its own inquiries into the oil-for-food program and Volcker's committee itself.

[ncountylee]

Go Henry!!!

[planekT]

I want it posted on the internet. Give them nothing.

[coconutt2000]

We have to ask ourselves what purpose does the "sensitive" classification of "Oil-For-Food" documents serve?

It was a humanitarian mission, not a military campaign. It shouldn't have any secrets or hidden papers. A humanitarian mission that has ended should have very little need for secrecy.