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Extension OK’d over oil-for-food data

Nick Wadhams Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS – A federal judge issued a third restraining order Friday that gives the U.N. oil-for-food probe another 2 1/2 weeks to work out a deal with a former investigator over the fate of thousands of documents he took with him when he quit.

The order from a Washington judge, which expires June 14, again blocks Robert Parton from handing over the documents to two congressional committees that subpoenaed them after he quit the U.N.-backed Independent Inquiry Committee.

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

Volcker says releasing the documents could jeopardize his investigation and put witnesses’ lives at risk. He has instead offered to allow Parton to give a statement answering the committees’ questions without divulging the documents to them. Those discussions continue.

“We are very much committed to working with Congress to meet the needs of all parties,” said Volcker’s spokesman, Mike Holtzman.

The two committees issued subpoenas for the documents in early May. Volcker’s committee got one 10-day restraining order on May 9 and another on May 19 to keep him from handing over the documents.

In response to a third subpoena, Parton has already turned the same documents over to a congressional committee chaired by Illinois Republican Henry Hyde.

Volcker’s committee has studied some of the documents, and the executive director of the probe, Reid Morden, told the Associated Press recently that they had found their fears were realized because some documents Parton handed over contained sensitive information.

Annan appointed the Volcker probe last year to investigate fraud in the $64 billion program, setting up clear safeguards to make it as independent as possible. But the probe has itself been thrust into the spotlight over accusations that it covered up evidence critical of the U.N. leader.