An Opinion Journal.com editorial today warns that it might not be such great news that former investigator Robert Parton, having resigned his job with the Volcker Oil-For-Food inquiry, has now supplied documents to Dana Rohrabacher's Congressional probe. The Volcker investigation, flawed or not, is not completed, and it would be a victory for the U.N. status quo if its findings are discredited:
...for Republicans to now focus their attention on the bona fides of the Volcker probe because of the claims of a disgruntled investigator is to shoot the wrong target. Sure it will get some good headlines for the Members, and it may even further damage Mr. Annan's credibility. But it will also damage the Volcker probe, perhaps irreparably, and just when his Committee is getting into the meat of the scandal, which is why and how Oil for Food got started and why it was allowed to prop up Saddam Hussein for so many years.Posted by dan at May 6, 2005 09:01 PMPut simply, the Volcker Committee will be crippled if it cannot guarantee its witnesses--many of them not beyond reproach--that their confidential testimony won't end up being aired on C-SPAN as part of a Congressional hearing. This is especially so since many of the Committee's witnesses are not U.S. citizens and could not be compelled to cooperate with a Congressional or Justice Department investigation.