National Defence committee  How much time do we have?

National Defence committee  When we're talking about NATO, are we talking about the commitment to ISAF, the original Canadian commitments to OEF? Which Canadian commitments in Afghanistan are we talking about?

National Defence committee  No problem. Part of the problem with ISAF, as an institution, is that it started off as a non-NATO organization that was neutered deliberately to get buy-in by the UN. Essentially, as far as I understand it, they couldn't get anybody to take control of ISAF, ultimately. So Canad

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  I have two things that I'm going to throw at you on this. There are two things I've noticed. Remember, in a counter-insurgency war we're dealing with how we're going to get people to side with us, essentially, and there are two things in parts of the rural south that interfere

National Defence committee  A quick response is that's an American prerogative, because of their special relationship with Pakistan. And there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that the public doesn't see.

National Defence committee  Exactly.

National Defence committee  How do we know it hasn't been done privately?

National Defence committee  I just want to reiterate the fact that when we're fighting the al-Qaeda movement, we're an enemy of the al-Qaeda movement, we're seen as a soft target already, as the Liberia of immigration--I think that terminology was used by somebody. We have cells operating in Canada. Obvious

National Defence committee  No, there have always been Chechens there. This is not new for the region.

National Defence committee  Yes. Chechens were part of al-Qaeda's conventional formations when the take-down took place in 2001. Some of those remnants were there, but they were augmented with other Chechens later.

National Defence committee  They just leave and then come back. There have been Chechens there since 2001.

National Defence committee  I don't have the specific numbers, but they are part of a general jihadist inflow. There are other nationalities doing this, but they are one of them.

National Defence committee  The first time I heard the term “caveat” used was with ISAF in Kabul. I know that the concept existed before, particularly in Kosovo, and in prototypical form probably in SFOR. But the first time I really started to hear it and the restrictions on the various national contingents

National Defence committee  I'll start off with the origin of the Taliban. I'll keep it short, but fundamentally the Taliban was a creation initially of the merchant class in Quetta, which was concerned about the routes leading through from Quetta to Spin Boldak to Kandahar for trade. At that time, Afghanis