Mr. Chair, there may be reports from the CIA but we have 15 officers inside the Karzai government in Kabul, so we pretty well know what is going on in the government.
With respect to Afghanistan, most of the source of the Taliban comes from the Pashtun tribe. The Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan is in the south and east and numbers about 12.5 million. There are 22 million Pashtun across the border in Pakistan. It is a porous border. There is no documentation because the people in the Pashtun tribes have had rights for centuries to move back and forth to see their family members. It is quite a challenge to control who is coming and going between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We have discussed with the Pakistan government the challenges that we face and the challenges that it faces because it also has to deal with the insurgency. What we have proposed in a modest start to gain confidence is that we have a liaison officer located with the Pakistan 12th corps which is opposite us in the Pakistan area south of Kandahar, and that Pakistan put a liaison officer with us. This would start to build up some kind of liaison with us and pass information to help our situation.