National Defence committee  I must beg to differ, because I know many of the new NATO nations that I have met.... I meet with them regularly. I was recently in Latvia, for example. They have no caveats on their troops in Afghanistan. It's a small nation, but it has no caveats. Albania, which is not a NATO nation but nonetheless a partnership for peace nation, has deployed forces with no caveats on it.

National Defence committee  You're quite correct that the majority of losses of life in Afghanistan have occurred through suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices, although there have been many deaths from combat action. In fact, the most recent, regrettably—Canada's loss, with many others—was with the Chinook being downed yesterday.

National Defence committee  Well, contingency planning is part of our lifeblood. We have operational planners. We have defence planners. We have planners at all levels, whether it's at NATO headquarters, Brussels, or within the Supreme Allied Commander's staff in Mons, or down at the Joint Force Command in Brunssum, indeed, down to the Commander ISAF level in Afghanistan.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chairman, I'm at your disposal.

National Defence committee  We had very clear knowledge of the rules that were established, or at least the guidance provided by NATO. There was, I remember, very clear direction or guidance to our staff to hand over in very much the same manner that we do now, which is 96 hours maximum, and under the types of conditions we see now, but not the type of very well-coordinated detainee agreement that the government has now established and that is much more comprehensive.

National Defence committee  Because this mission is a very broad-reaching one, with 37 nations involved, I think no single nation would be the cause of failure of this mission, understanding that some nations have a larger commitment than others because they're capable of providing more. Canada is among those that have provided a much larger commitment than others, but again with a force that has been expeditionary for decades and is quite capable of doing the operations that we now see in Afghanistan, something many forces have patterned their deployments on.

National Defence committee  Canada has been in the post-9/11 equation right from the beginning. I remember, in the first post-9/11 period, dispatching a ship that was in the standing naval maritime group north, if you like, the Standing Naval Force Atlantic, to the North Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf to support those operations as quickly as possible.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Ms. Black. I'll do my best here. From a civilian death point of view, NATO is very focused on that. It's an object of continuous discussion at the military committee, and more specifically at the council level. Every effort is made to try to reduce the impact of that, to reduce civilian deaths.

National Defence committee  OEF, yes. Operation Enduring Freedom, or the U.S.-led coalition activities, coordinate very closely with the International Security Assistance Force. When we established the operations plan currently in force—operations plan 10302—there was a very distinct command and control relationship established between OEF and ISAF.

National Defence committee  Okay. We are certainly conscious of illegal arms. I would remind you that the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is 2,500 kilometres long. It's a very tough and treacherous border, almost impossible to delineate. The flow of contraband, which has been going on for centuries, is in some cases going to continue.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Bachand. You did indeed notice that there are four regions in Afghanistan, aside from Kabul, the south, the north, the west and the east, which have experienced security situations that have varied from time to time. As you know, we undertook the mission in Afghanistan in Kabul.

National Defence committee  If we don't get to the last two questions, we'll make sure you get answers in writing.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Coderre. Naturally, it is up to each country to decide how much it wants to continue contributing to the mission, whether they are making a smaller contribution or a large contribution as is the case for Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and so forth.

National Defence committee  With regard to the civilians—

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Coderre. I do not know the precise number by heart, but I know that last November, about 100 restrictions were applied to troop movement. The current number is about 50. The substantial reduction of restrictions allowed us to do many useful things for the forces, especially for their operations.