Afghanistan committee  Could I make one short comment on that one?

Afghanistan committee  I think you need to ask Mr. Mulroney that, not me.

Afghanistan committee  No, our part--

Afghanistan committee  That's correct. That was not part of our mandate in the agreement.

Afghanistan committee  I don't make a lot of short comments, that's all.

Afghanistan committee  Sir, what I would say is this. I wasn't in the habit either of negotiating agreements with foreign countries or then signing them of my own volition. I agreed to sign that thing, and I have to say in hindsight that it might have been a wise thing not to have agreed to that, because the ambassador could have easily signed it, as occurred in the supplementary agreement.

Afghanistan committee  And my job after that was to implement the front-end piece of that, unless I was uncomfortable--I think back to Mr. Dosanjh's question--that my command responsibilities could not be met. That's what we did, and when I got uncomfortable, we stopped transferring. We continued that stoppage until we got the capacity to oversee and train and build and investigate and improve.

Afghanistan committee  How could you not be aware of individuals saying that everything was bad and the sky was falling? So yes, Mr. Dewar, absolutely. And then I'd just balance that against a comment I heard from somebody in the ICRC or read somewhere back in February 2007, saying there's no problem whatsoever with respect to detainees.

Afghanistan committee  So yes, absolutely. You could not not be aware.

Afghanistan committee  Hourly.

Afghanistan committee  Almost always. Perhaps always.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, obviously. I balanced everything I got from one source or multiple sources against the other information I was getting, to try to find clear ground truth, as we call it.

Afghanistan committee  I did, but I actually started with the latter almost always and worked through thousands of soldiers and civilians, upwards to and oftentimes with the President himself, although not always.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, I was. That was a routine visit, and I spent significant time with them each time.

Afghanistan committee  I can't give you a yes or no, Laurie.