Volcker Says Congress Jeopardizing U.N. Inquiry

The chief of the U.N. oil-for-food inquiry Friday urged Congress to withdraw subpoenas of an investigator who had quit his panel in protest, and denied the man’s assertion that the committee had gone too easy on Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker said two congressional committees had jeopardized his inquiry in their pursuit of the investigator, Robert Parton. Volcker asked the House International Relations Committee to return secret documents Parton had given it, warning that witnesses could be threatened if anything leaked out.

“We’re not playing games here, we are dealing -- and let me just emphasize this -- in some cases with lives,” Volcker said.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), the committee chairman, rejected the demand and refused to give up the documents.

“I am aware of and appreciate the gravity of the concerns expressed today by Mr. Volcker,” Hyde said in a statement. He said the committee had “an obligation to continue its inquiry.”

Volcker made the demand at a news conference that was meant to damp rising controversy over recent claims made by Parton. The former FBI agent said he had quit Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee because he believed that it intentionally had played down evidence incriminating Annan.

Volcker reiterated that there never had been enough evidence to prove that Annan had influenced the awarding of an oil-for-food contract to the Swiss company that employed his son, Kojo Annan. But he again insisted that his committee’s finding was not an exoneration.