Afghanistan committee  I was making a reference to the Afghan society, not to the prison officials. The prison officials—

Afghanistan committee  Well, that's the quote, sir, but that wasn't my intent in what I was saying.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  I was not present for that. I was not on that visit. This was something that came to my attention on the visit of November 19. But as allegations that were made throughout.... There was a theme that started to develop. As our monitoring and questioning and the use of our interpreters got better, we started near the end of my tenure there getting a bit of a theme when prisoners or detainees were referring to the use of cables.

Afghanistan committee  That's how it was reported, to my understanding.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  At that point, when we had concrete proof, the transfer of detainees ceased.

Afghanistan committee  I have no knowledge, sir.

Afghanistan committee  When I left that part of my mission, we were in the process of looking at getting the appropriate equipment.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, we typically get numerous complaints from inmates or prisoners. Some of these complaints are self-serving and some need to be validated. Most are unfounded, and in certain situations, which is important, unfortunately some of those claims may be founded.

Afghanistan committee  I think there's a misunderstanding. When we were referring to that document and the need to wear boots, it was in reference to the complete breakdown and decay of the sewer and septic system. We were in a situation where we were walking through bloody fecal matter. There was a lot of lung disease, so there was a lot of bloody sputum and things of that nature.

Afghanistan committee  I did not, in my experience, while I was there.

Afghanistan committee  No, sir.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, sir.

Afghanistan committee  Actually, the UN standards do support the use of restraints. What it does not support is the use of restraints for punishment and it does not support the use of chains or straight metal bars. Because of equipment issues, which we tried to reconcile through my time there, the only resource these two facilities had was the use of chains.