Mr. Chair, in terms of the word legal, legal is an opinion that is arrived at by one or more lawyers on either side of an equation.
In terms of the apprehension of prisoners in Afghanistan, it is far more appropriate that our troops hand them over to the Afghan authorities. We would not presume to take them under our own authority. They are doing the right thing in doing that. They have received commitments and we have received commitments from Afghan authorities that the treatment would be appropriate.
I feel our troops have no choice but to hand those prisoners over to the people in the country who have asked us to be there, whom we are defending, a country that hopefully we will be able to leave because it will be in a strong position to care for itself against these attacks. It is the right thing that we are doing in terms of not assuming control of those prisoners who are not “our prisoners”, but handing them over under the authorities of the Afghan government.