Posted on 04/22/2005 7:59:39 PM PDT by quidnunc
The resignation of two senior investigators probing the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal is the latest blow to the credibility of the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-Food Program, chaired by Paul Volcker. The resignations of Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan—the former was senior investigative counsel and “the lead investigator on issues pertaining to allegations of impropriety relating to the secretary-general and his son Kojo Annan,” and the latter a member of Parton’s investigative team—have thrown the Volcker Committee into turmoil. According to an Associated Press report, the two resigned because they believed the Committee’s Second Interim Report was “too soft on the secretary-general,” Kofi Annan. [1]
These resignations are just the latest developments calling into question the Volcker Committee’s impartiality. Mr. Volcker should step aside and make way for a new chairman who has no prior ties to U.N.-affiliated groups and whose objectivity could restore the Committee’s tarnished credibility.
The resignations reflect growing tensions within the Volcker Commission over the interpretation of evidence relating to Kofi Annan’s role in the Oil-for-Food scandal. Mark Pieth, one of the three leaders of the IIC investigation, has made it clear that Parton and Duncan resigned as a matter of principle over disagreements with the conclusions drawn by the Volcker Committee. Referring to the two investigators, Pieth said, “What we did was we told the story that they found, but we made different conclusions than they would have.” [2] At least one key witness, a former business partner of Kojo Annan, alleges that the Volcker Committee ignored evidence he gave that was damaging to Kofi Annan. [3]
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(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
As one who associates Volker with Reagan & supply side economics & the golden years of conservatism, I'd hate to see him associated with the current group of UN goons. Resign, Paul...
Volcker would object to being associated with "supply-side economics". Although Volker worked for the Treasury during JFK's administration, and was instrumental in designing the tax cuts passed then, he doesn't agree with the often-made equation of the JFK and Reagan programs. I believe he writes about it in his book Changing Fortunes. And it's an interesting sidelight that no Reagan economist used the term "supply-side", that was mostly a journalistic phrase promoted by some of the WSJ writers.
Everyone KNEW he was Dirty when Kofi CHOSE him to run the investigation on himself.....HELLO!
Regarding the UNA-USA, the Washington Office has covered a variety of issues such as U.S. financing of U.N. activities, U.S. ratification of human rights treaties, the International Criminal Court, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
I'll take your word for it, but it was a heckuva coincidence then, Reagan's tax & the Treasury's interets rate cuts at the same time. I always assumed there was a connection.
Another post links Volker to Canada and Martin's involvement with Saddam, so Volker is not clean either. Mucho conflict of interest.
Resign or charged with obstruction?
You're right that there was some connection. Volcker's policy of attacking inflation by choking off credit with high rates was supported by Reagan. Killing inflation was one of the legs of Reagan's program. The Fed rate cuts in summer 1982 were to kick start the economy out of the double dip recession.
Volcker's objection has to do with the marginal rate cuts of the Reagan administration versus those of the Kennedy administration. I don't recall the details right now, but it had something to do with the fundamentals of the economy being much different in the two cases. And while he helped design the JFK cuts he apparently disagreed with the Reagan cuts.
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