New York, November 17
An independent Iraqi newspaper named India’s Congress party nearly two years ago in a report that contained details of the oil-for-food corruption scandal that has hit international headlines now.

The information contained in Al-Mada, highly regarded in Iraq for its objectivity, did not, however, create the kind of stir that the recently released Paul Volcker committee report has done.

The Congress Party maintains it was not informed that it was being named in the Volcker report and has demanded to see the original documents to authenticate allegations that it received vouchers of oil from the Saddam Hussein regime.

On January 29, 2004, months before UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Commission (IIC) headed by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) wrote a report that brought attention to the January 25 article written in Al-Mada, an independent newspaper in Iraq that listed 270 entities said to have received the vouchers. Among those named was the Congress Party, but not K. Natwar Singh, who has had to resign as the External Affairs Minister after being named in the annexures of the Volcker report.

The one sentence in Al-Mada about India reads as follows: ‘‘India: The Indian Congress Party received 1 million barrels.’’ The Volcker report has described both the Congress and Natwar Singh as ‘‘non-contractual beneficiaries’’ of the UN-sponsored oil-for-food deal.

Several other Indian companies also figure in the Volcker report. In an interview to IANS, Nimrod Raphaeli, senior analyst at MEMRI in Washington, spoke about the 2004 media report.

Pointed out that the original Al-Mada report did not have Natwar Singh’s name, he said: ‘‘Yes, I believe the original list had only the Congress Party.’’

On the authenticity of Al-Mada as a paper he said : ‘‘You know, the Volcker report is more about the list and before the Volcker report there was another report from the CIA which confirmed the list. So at this stage for someone to argue - I am not a recipient can’t be authentic. I’ll tell you why - Why would anybody in the Iraqi Ministry of Petroleum under Saddam Hussein put the name of the Congress Party? What reason do they have? ’’

Asked if the Al-Mada list was well known, he said : ‘‘It wasn’t known until it came out in Al-Mada. We have some, there was some knowledge of the vouchers, but there was no really any documentation of who was the recipient of the vouchers.’’ When asked how old was the MEMRI and when it was set up , he said: ‘‘Seven years ago. I really think that if this list was published in a Western paper, it is a clear case for an award.’’ — IANS