Afghanistan committee  You must like my evidence all of a sudden.

Afghanistan committee  I think I would do what the chairman, I believe, is doing--trying to get the best evidence you can. You're going to have to be the judges of what you believe, with your knowledge of the political system and how it works, and what you think would be the best in the interests of th

Afghanistan committee  Probably not the next day, but certainly I would have been informed, yes.

Afghanistan committee  I had no problem with it.

Afghanistan committee  Look it seems to me there are two issues here. There's the underlying issue as to whether or not the fact that General Hillier signed the agreement somehow delegitimizes the agreement. If that's the point, that's a discussion. If it's just an attack on General Hillier for going a

Afghanistan committee  If I'd had to choose between them--if I had been there and somebody had said, “What do you think?”--I would have said “Get the ambassador to sign it.” But that's.... That would have been my opinion.

Afghanistan committee  But I wasn't there, and I didn't have General Wardak leaning over the table saying, “I'll sign it now if Hillier signs it, but I won't sign it if....” You know, you have to be in the negotiating room to know what's going on. I wasn't there.

Afghanistan committee  Yes.

Afghanistan committee  No, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and some of our own NGOs that we spoke to, and I mentioned Amnesty International earlier, were certainly concerned about the conditions in the Afghan jails. It's not the same as torture, but they were concerned about the lev

Afghanistan committee  I can't speak for today, because I speak to you--very happily--as a private citizen.

Afghanistan committee  I'm freed from the allegations of this House of partisanship and other things. I can behave like a citizen like anybody else.

Afghanistan committee  I can say that, certainly, when I was minister.... If you could go back, I'd go back. I could do a lot of things differently than I did. But perfection is the enemy of the good, as it's said.

Afghanistan committee  We did our best in the circumstances in light of the knowledge we had of the day. That's the best you can do. It's very difficult to foresee everything, that's for sure.

Afghanistan committee  Yes, that's the way the system works. You basically get what you're given. But we're also politicians, and we use our judgment as well. As I said in my opening, I kind of pushed this issue of prisoners because I felt it was going to the legitimacy of the mission and it was impor

Afghanistan committee  Well, in 2002 I wouldn't want to live under the Taliban, that's for sure.