Afghanistan committee  Right, but we did follow the principle about no death penalty. We did take that from that agreement.

Afghanistan committee  No, that's correct; Mr. Blaikie gave me the agreement.

Afghanistan committee  I explained to the committee that I got the advice from Major General Pitzul, who was the--

Afghanistan committee  You're asking me if General Pitzul could have given me the advice based on what we know now. He couldn't give me advice based on what we know now. He gave me advice based on what he knew then, which was the way in which we operated at that time as well. Nobody can foresee into th

Afghanistan committee  No, no, I appreciate that.

Afghanistan committee  Well, they pushed back on the monitoring issue because they didn't believe it was appropriate in the circumstances. And that was the agreement--

Afghanistan committee  --and that's what we didn't do. As you know, the subsequent government went into a monitoring agreement.

Afghanistan committee  Well, if you've done negotiating in contracts--

Afghanistan committee  Then as you know, if you can't get the other guy to agree to it, that's a reason why it might not be in the contract.

Afghanistan committee  Well, that's a fair point. That's a fair point.

Afghanistan committee  I'm totally in the hands of the committee.

Afghanistan committee  There's a more interesting hearing going on across the hall, you know. I don't think anybody in this room would rather be here than over there.

Afghanistan committee  My experience as a minister was that in two ministries that had very large, very competent people, there was always a diversity of views. Within that group of officials, one works out what is the appropriate approach. That's worked out at the level of those officials. As a minist

Afghanistan committee  That's for others to decide.

Afghanistan committee  I'm glad the honourable member brought that up, actually. There were certain moments when nobody was saying that at all.