Senate to Subpoena U.N. Investigator

[maddezmom]

By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 30,12:11 AM ET



NEW YORK - The Senate may force the testimony of a senior investigator who resigned from the independent committee probing the U.N. oil-for-food scandal because he considered an interim report too soft on Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a senator said Friday.


The committee's chairman, former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, has been calling senators and congressmen, urging them not subpoena the investigator, Robert Parton. Volcker has emphasized the confidentiality agreement in Parton's contract and the U.N.-appointed committee's diplomatic immunity, said Mike Holtzman, a spokesman for the Volcker committee.

But Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and has repeatedly called for Annan to resign, released a statement saying that he has ordered his staff to issue subpoenas as soon as possible to Parton and Miranda Duncan, a second investigator who also quit.

"I spoke with Mr. Volcker yesterday and expressed my grave and growing concerns about the credibility and independence of the investigation into the criminal misconduct that occurred in the U.N. oil-for-food program," Coleman said.

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050430/ap_on_go_co/un_oil_for_food_investigation;_ylt=AkoFmD0SwIgscquvMY6TEQSyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[confludemocrat]

1. This won't keep him from being smoked next year

The slimy, slimy bastard Coleman. He will do anything, say anything to suck up to these extremists and do their bidding. Al Franken will beat him.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. But, but, but...

Isn't Annan the guy we put in there becasue we couldn't stand Boutros-Boutros?

It's not Annan they're after, it's the very idsea of a UN.

[maddezmom]

4. Coleman needs to work on the fraud of Halliburton

and all the 3 other oilmen indicted for fraud.

[pie]

5. Awesome anti-Frist poster!

[msongs]

3. George w Bush murdered 100,000 civilians - where's his subpoena?

isnt murder worse than soft reports on oil scandals?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Moderator]

6. kick to combine

[emad]

7. Senators aim to break code of silence on UN scandal: Times

May 02, 2005

Senators aim to break code of silence on UN scandal
From James Bone in New York


The United States Congress is demanding the right to hear from two investigators who quit the United Nations inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal because they felt that it was too soft on Kofi Annan.

Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota who chairs the Senate Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations, has ordered his staff to subpoena Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan to testify.

The two Americans resigned from the UN inquiry last month after the panel, led by Paul Volcker, was said to have rejected two drafts that they had written that were highly critical of Mr Annan, the UN Secretary-General.

Mr Volcker, a former head of the US Federal Reserve, has telephoned the chairmen of three congressional committees investigating the scandal in an effort to prevent them issuing subpoenas. The UN insists that the investigators are protected by diplomatic immunity.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1594422,00.html

The word "Omerta" springs to mind in this context....