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Four charged in oil-for-food scandal; investigation continues RICHARD DREW/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley addresses a New York news conference Thursday. A Texas businessman, along with a Bulgarian and a British citizen, were indicted in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime as part of the United Nations’ scandal-ridden oil-for-food program, federal prosecutors said. By LARRY NEUMEISTER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Four more people were charged Thursday in the scandal in the U.N. oil-for food program, including a Texas oil executive and a South Korean businessman who was at the center of a 1970s corruption case involving Congress. The indictment also suggested that money skimmed from the oil program might have ended up in the hands of two U.N. officials. Their names were not released. The oil-for-food program was created in 1996 to help Iraqis cope with a U.N. embargo imposed on Saddam Hussein’s regime. The program let Saddam’s government sell oil, provided the proceeds were used to buy food and medicine for Iraqis. _ ___^i__ ^1_ uui auiuuuuvd auv^v. uiai uiv program was rife with corruption. U.S. Attorney David Kelley called the new charges “two more pieces in the oil-for-food puzzle” and said the investigation is not over. “We’re going to wring the towel dry,” he said. One of the indictments announced Thursday charges a Texas oil company owner and two oil traders with paying millions in secret kickbacks to Saddam’s regime to secure oil deals, thus cheating the program out of money for humanitarian aid. The fourth person charged was Tongsun Park, a South Korean citizen and fugitive who allegedly accepted millions of dollars from the Iraqi government while he operated in the United States as an unregistered agent for Baghdad. In the 1970s, Park was at the center of what became known as the Koreagate scandal, in which he was accused of trying to buy influence in Congress. In the oil-for-food scandal, Park was accused of telling a cooperating government witness in 1995 that he needed $10 million from Iraq to “take care” of his expenses and his people. The witness believed that that meant a person identified in court papers only as “U.N. Official No. 1.” FBI agent Nicholas Panagakos alleged that the government witness in 1996 met at a New York City restaurant with Park, an Iraqi official and a high-ranking U.N. official, identified in court papers as “U.N. Official No. 2.” Park afterward claimed that he had used a $5 million guarantee rrom tne government or iraq to fund business dealings with the U.N. official, authorities said. Park allegedly told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million he had gotten from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of U.N. Official No. 2. He said the company failed and the money was lost. Kelley, pressed by reporters to say whether U.N. officials had actually received money tied to Park, said only that the issue was not part of the indictment. Asked about the allegations, U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We’ve always maintained that anyone who’s found to have committed any criminal wrongdoing in relation to the program should be prosecuted. So in that sense, what you’re seeing today is progress.” The charges were announced at a news conference where an FBI official said the oil-for-food program was doomed when it let Saddam control who got to buy Iraqi oil. “This was the embodiment of the fox guarding the henhouse,”] said John Klochan, acting assistant director in charge of the New York FBI office. The indicted oil executive and traders are David B. Chalmers, sole shareholder of Bayoil (USA) Inc.;‘ Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian citizen and permanent U.S. resident; and John Irving, a British citizen. cmaimers ana L/iomssiev were arrested Thursday at their homes in Houston. Kelley said he will seek to have Irving brought to the United States from England to face charges. “We will vigorously dispute the allegations of criminal conduct,” said Catherine M. Recker, a lawyer for Chalmers and for Bayoil. The indictment accused the three of paying the kickbacks so that Chalmers’ oil companies could continue to sell Iraqi oil under the U.N. program. If convicted, the three could get' up to 62 years in prison, while Park could face up to five years. Kelley said he would also seek $100 million from the three. Two teenagers kill grandparents to continue lesbian relationship By ERRIN HAINES THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — A 15 year-old girl and her ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Thursday to stabbing her grandparents to death last summer so the young couple could be together. Holly Harvey told the judge that while she was knifing her 73 year-old grandmother, “my eyes were closed the whole time.” Harvey pleaded guilty to two counts of malice murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. She will not be eligible for parole for 20 years. Sandy Ketchum, 16, was sentenced to three life terms, to be served concurrently. Shortly after the teens’ court hearings, authorities arrested a man and charged him with murder for allegedly giving the girls crack and marijuana that they smoked the day of the killings. Sarah Collier and her husband, Carl Collier, 74, were each stabbed numerous times Aug. 2 inside the couple’s house outside Atlanta. As part of her plea, Harvey detailed how she killed the couple. She said she and Ketchum had stayed out all night, then spent the morning of the killings listening to music in her basement bedroom. That was when Ketchum suggested stealing the grandparents’ truck “to get something to calm us down,” Harvey said. ‘“We’ll have to kill them to do that,’” Harvey said she responded. “But I didn’t mean nothing by that,” she told Judge Pascal English. Ketchum first suggested hitting them in the head with a lamp, then suggested getting a knife, Harvey said. “I got the biggest knife 1 could find out of the kitchen,” she said, adding that they practiced stabbing a mattress to see if the knife was sharp enough. When the grandparents came downstairs to get a suitcase, Harvey said she stabbed her grandmother. Harvey said her grandfather pinned her down, and she stabbed him in the chest. She chased him as he ran upstairs and tried to call for help, pulling the phone out of the wall, Harvey said. “He grabbed the knife and I thought he was going to stab me,” Harvey said. She said she took the knife from him and started attacking him. When the judge asked Harvey why she did it, the teen said, “For Sandy,” and added, “So that we could be together.” Ketchum’s hearing was much shorter. She was not forced to detail the crime because she had immediately cooperated with authorities and showed signs of remorse, officials said. She was prepared to testify against her former friend, had the case gone to trial. The teens had faced two counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder and one count of armed robbery. The maximum sentence the girls could have received was life in prison without parole. After the hearings, Calvin Lawson, 37, was arrested in Atlanta on murder charges for allegedly giving the girls the crack and marijuana. Sheriffs Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan said that Johnson, a construction worker, was charged because committing a felony that leads to a murder is grounds for a murder count in Georgia. The girls were arrested the day after the killings at a beach house on Tybee Island, about four flours away. Police say they found a to-do list of sorts scrawled in ink on Harvey’s arm: “kill, keys, money, jewelry.” L Democrats decry Williams hiring : By BEN FELLER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is impeding an investigation into the Education Department’s hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams by refusing to allow key White House officials to be interviewed, a Democratic lawmaker briefed on the review said Thursday. In addition, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is considering invoking a privilege that he said would require information to be deleted when the final version is publicly released, which is expected within days. Miller called for Jack Higgins, the inspector general at the Education Department, to delay the report until Spellings agrees not to invoke “deliberative process privilege” and the White House grants interviews with current or former officials familiar with the deal. “The public’s right to know is absolutely more important than any claim of privilege that the White House or the Department of Education might make,” Miller said. “The public has a right to all the facts about possible misconduct.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that under federal law, an inspector general’s jurisdiction is limited to his or her own agency - in this case, the Education Department. “The IG is authorized to request information from . other federal agencies but not from the White House office,” Perino said, adding that courts have upheld such protections. The Education Department initially declined comment on Miller’s charges. But early Thursday evening, press secretary Susan Aspey said Spellings has spent the past few days reviewing the report, and that “the inspector general will be releasing it as originally drafted with the secretary’s full and complete support and cooperation.” A spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office said the agency does not comment on its ongoing work. The hiring of Williams, a prominent media personality, has opened the Bush administration to criticism about whether its public relations efforts have crossed ethical or legal lines. Bush himself has said the department erred in not disclosing that Williams was a paid consultant. While speaking to newspaper editors Thursday, the president said in response to a question about media consultants, “It was wrong, what happened there in the Education Department.” Miller, the top Democrat on the House education committee,' received a briefing on the draft findings of the investigation on Tuesday because he had requested the report. The report also had* been requested by then-Education Secretary Rod Paige. TH #%AME COCK Online five days a week. Enough said. wwvv. da ily gamecock, co m On most campuses, Jj| University of South Carolina Division of Student Affairs: National Trend Watch Results from a survey distributed to USC students and faculty on academic integrity will be shared at this seminar. Did USC students admit to cheating? Come to this program and find out. Located on Pickens Street - walking distance to tJSC ■ Limited Aeailabilitv <1 Call Today! ' ;| ||rn 803-779-5888 _ ^ I EXPANDED INVENTORY » 26 GREAT COLORS | ITiTTbi ^M|Mg|U|A|ya||j3Mj|j&|||&||#fl _I For business. For pleasure. For life. 1601 Main Street • Columbia, SC 29201 (803) 765-9200