Released from prison and started working on a Housing Development project. And we understand that he is back in jail and the deal has been invalidated and we will continue to watch that. But the government of afghanistan under pres. President donnie with the full support of the ceo of bella has adopted improve anti moneylaundering regulations, prosecutor judges complicit in the release of the drug trafficker and established a National Procurement commission which altered a series of illegal procurements in the ministry of defense and the interior. Going forward, we really need to continue to condition our assistance to the updated mutual accountability framework that was decided at tokyo which will be an important part of our discussions with the government of afghanistan as we prepare for the big conference is coming up this summer, 1st in warsaw dealing with Security Assistance and then in brussels in october. Dealing with development assistance. When it to update the mutual accountability framework and come up with very specific conditions for future assistance. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank both of you for your service. I wanti want to focus on a couple reports of just coming out. I was honored to meet with them. I have to tell you, seven or eight months later it is shocking to see the difference in taking to polaroid shots of the situation. They were getting ready to go in and of course now just last month there was no winter at all. The violence is beyond traditional insurgent strongholds. Candies we know about and they just released a report to congress. I want to get from the state department your perspective on not only the report that the situation as it stands right now. Taliban attacks have been given higher casualties afghan forces. The afghan Pakistani Border a severe description of the picture. But given the situation right now and the fact that we are aiding the military in afghanistan with some hundred 80,000 troops we still have 9800, general campbell one that argument but we are moving to have troops. What does next year look like . How deep is this . There has been a dramatic growth. It is a primary part of any dialogue. Thank you for that question. Looking back the past few months and i am not really in a position to describe the military response which is the responsibility of my colleague and friend, but, but i will say that it strikes me that a political level the part of the reason we saw such a strong offensive over the course of the past few months is in part a revelation to the death of a belowmarket. There was intense competition amongst taliban commanders which played itself out in part to increased violence. Itit has been very clear and i was just theyre last week , absolutely determined that 2016 cannot be repetition of 2015. And in particular the question of reduction of violence is usually important. In that regard i think this raises the question of a reconciliation process, the heart of asia, we held the trilateral meeting between the United States, pakistan, and afghanistan in which we recommitted ourselves to an afghan led an afghan own Peace Process during our meeting will end the fighting season which included for the 1st time a commitment language that all parties who refused to come to the table will be dealt with by all means available. So i think that we have to use the remaining time to work on getting an afghan led afghan on reconciliation process going. There was much more of a meeting of the minds between the president and pakistani leadership on this issue than there has been in some time. We are moving toward a negotiation. There really isnt a strategy being talked about about how to defeat the taliban. Is that what i hear . To be clear, i would not say that there is no strategy for fighting, but that is not my particular piece of this puzzle. I think that a political settlement is an important element and working toward a political settlement is an important element of our multidimensional approach to afghanistan. It has been for some time since the speech of may 2012 and even before that reconciliation led by the afghans is an important element. I aski ask you briefly, the iranian influence with the taliban has grown this year. Can youcan you speak to that . And what is the Afghan Government doing . As a corollary we know there have been out reaches. Can you speak to both of those . We have seen the reports with regard to the iranian action. Of course we do not understand why the iranians would be involved with the taliban. We do not think it is productive. And we think that all of afghanistans neighbors should commit to noninterference and respecting pakistans territorial integrity. With regard to russia this is also a topic that we have discussed with the afghans. I met last week with my russian counterpart in islamabad. It was a preliminary meeting, but he pledged that he would that russia would engage constructively and continue to cooperate with us. We have to test the proposition as we do all such propositions but we will work with the russians were we can. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. You believe in the limits of American Power as a catalyst for change abroad absent a local commitment to do so in the last 15 years, afghanistan is proof of concept. And im glad you are here briefing us. But ambassador, he talked about this idea that we are prepared to hold the afghans accountable for their lack of progress on anticorruption efforts. With all due respect i do not think there is any evidence to suggest that that is absolutely true. I dont think over the last 15 years theres any evidence to suggest that the United States is willing to do things and send messages to the afghans the telegraph that we are serious in any way, shape, or form. Wewe seem to have made an independent decision that we have National Security interests at stake in afghanistan that we are going to commit the amount of resources necessary to stop afghanistan from becoming a safe haven again for terrorist and that we are going to prioritize that which involves a significant amount of American Resources with or without a commitment from the Afghan Government to sort their own mess out. And it seems to me having gone to afghanistan four times five times, having heard the same story over and over again about how were pressuring them to take on corruption and how little progress we have seen that we should admit our priority is not to encourage local political change but to commit just enough resources to stop afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists and admit that that is ultimately our number one priority and means that it forces the secondary goal of local political change to become subverted to that 1st priority. Im sure you think im wrong , but tell me why for those of us who have heard people tell us we will Start Holding afghans accountable for a lack oflack of progress on corruption comeau why any of us should believe we are ever prepared to send thea tough message to the necessary to get them to change. Thank you. Let me thank you for your kind words at the outset. We have our jobs. We are committed to following through. One thing that is worth noting is the tokyo conference in the summer of 2012 that establish this framework for mutual accountability between the donors and the government of afghanistan. And from that moment forward there has been greater conditionality on the part of not just american assistance that the international communitys assistance. This is recognition that in order for the government to have a legitimacy that it needs to carry out Counterterrorism Operations and established security throughout the country, it needs to address the perception of corruption. I dont see the goal quite as much in contrast as you do. The other point is there is a great willingness under this government to actually address the issue of corruption, and he recognizes the challenge that it represents for his administration. In the overall interest of Good Governance which is a hugely important part of counterinsurgency that it is essential we continue to apply conditionality. I would like to ask if you agree with my colleague let me ask another question and you can maybe answer this one. I would be interested for you to articulate what you think has given the taliban this political space in which to operate because if you read through the litany of progress that we absolutely have made on the number of afghans who have access to schooling, the number of homes that now have access to electricity, that should suggest a level of economic stability and Economic Opportunity that would give local populations faith in aligning themselves with local, regional, or federal governance, and they are not doing that which suggests the political space is being created perhaps by a lack of faith. It is hard from your perspective to here all the progress we have made the thing to have no evidence that it is actually resulting in less support when you look at the breadth of the operations. I would be interested in terms of what you think is giving the taliban the political space if you accept the notion that there has been a lot of progress made in terms of the programming we have delivered. Well, you know, i have to say one of the challenges here is attempting to come outside of figure out what the topline motivations actually are and what the taliban grievances are. Our knowledge on this is frankly imperfect. It is one of the reasons why it is important to have an afghan led and afghan hound reconciliation process so that these issues can be identified and we can attempt to attend to identify what some of the grievances maybe. But i would defer to larry. Thank you for the question. With respect to corruption to observations. The 1st is how personally pres. Got a text the corruption issue. I have sat in the Procurement Commission meetings which he personally chairs every saturday night, and they are incredibly painful because he understands how pernicious corruption is, how hard it is to eradicate and how it has to be a priority for his government. He has personally and aggressively involved. At the micro level he has been looking for Technical Solutions that will help them get a jumpstart on fighting corruption and generating revenue. Usaid has been helping with the customs collections. Facetoface corruption where Truck Drivers are perched and extorted from money. Individual saying they represent the government. By allowing them to do their customs payments electronically the facetoface engagements are no longer necessary and he expects both to reduce corruption and increase revenue and we have early indications where they have instituted electronic transfers that they have increased the custom collections of those border crossings. The problem has not gone away but with the election of president donnie there is a newa new commitment and they have demonstrated that thomas and to me. To your point about political space i describe it differently. The Asia Foundation has done a survey which does not show any increase in the popularity of the taliban. But by use of force the Taliban Forces themselves physically forced himself in the spaces where they are not welcome. They have learned how to survive and it may be it is in their best interest or they perceive it to be to acquiesce to the taliban control of their area, but i am confident and will yield latest did you have an afghan here to talk about how afghans see these problems. I do not think they taken advantage of political space. They had taken advantage of projecting force. They had taken advantage of projecting force. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ambassador, i want to talk about what is happening with isys. I was there for thanksgiving, been in thanksgiving, been in northern afghanistan and hearing more and more about the spread across the middle east. Serious concerns regarding National Security. The department of defense warned about the growth. Report stated that isys has progressed from its initial exploratory phase to a point where there openly fighting the taliban for establishment of a safe haven and are becoming more operationally active and went on to say they have claimed responsibility for attacks against the United Nations vehicle, ten checkpoints in september. As you know vehicles back and forth to the embassy. Can you talk about the best estimate . Thank you, senator. I will have to get back to you. I do not have that with me today. We are aware of the emergence of and our province and this is something that we have had as part of our ongoing dialogue we take very seriously the potential emergence of this group in afghanistan pakistan. That said, our understanding of the dynamic is that in fact these are disaffected taliban factions and commanders who have switched allegiance. That is not to underestimate the danger that this represents but it is also to suggest that there is not necessarily a direct linkage and flow of material or fighters from the middle east to the afghanistan pakistan region. So far they have been confined to the Southern District of monger are and will continue to work with afghanistan and pakistan to the extent that we can jointly to ensure that they are responding to this emerging threat. I wonder if you could help us because i heard the same thing when i was there and asked these questions. The issue of pay came up. Can you talk about how different people are paid differently . The pecking order seems to be that they were getting the most money in the next level down with the taliban the level below that was the afghan army and below that with the police. For people focused on the monetary aspects there was a pecking order of what side you are on and how much you got paid. I have heard the stories as well. These are questions that i think need some, to be seriously addressed. One of the questions of course that we will be addressing at the International Level in warsaw in july is continuing sustainment of the ashcan National Security and Defense Forces, and i also think that it highlights the continued importance of dealing with the financing of these organizations. Do you see any evidence . Just create more problems . Taliban. Yeah. Their rhetoric certainly suggests that they intend to try to once again will afghanistan as they did during the 90s. Their official title, they call themselves the islamic emirate. So we have seen including in such preliminary talks that the taliban does indeed assert national aspirations, but that is perhaps not surprising that they would do so. In terms of troop level, you asked about specifically the troop levels, 9800 troops currently until the end of 16 only about a thousand troops by the end of 16, given the current security situation is the state department believe the United States should go down to 5500 troops . What are your thoughts . Well, aswell, as the president has announced we will have 9800 troops through most of 2016, the bulk of the fighting season. And we believe that the commitment of the 5500 per the period beyond is important for the continued train and assist mission, continuing ct mission in afghanistan and also sends an important regional signal that the United States remains engaged and committed in the region and i think it also sends an important signal to the taliban which will be helpful as part of reconciliation. Just give me your assessment of the afghan National Security forces. The afghan National Security forces National Security and Defense Forces have faced great challenges over the course of the last year. They have however shown a marked willingness to fight. Theyre continues to be a continued support for logistics, sustainment come all of the enablers that make an army able to fight. They need some of the ministry of defense functions. In that regard it willwould be helpful to have a minister of defense. Senator. Thank you. It is a very, very challenging service, and i appreciate that you are going into some of the metrics of improved quality of life that have been achieved with a tremendous amount of work by americans and Coalition Partners and i especiallyi especially appreciate that your knowledge the service of our troops and it has been a comprehensive effort, things like life expectancy, expansion. Wewe all want that progress to not be a temporary phenomenon. One of the things that troubles me, the chairman talked about the divergence between what we often here and classified and unclassified settings and i had an opportunity yesterday to be in a classified setting. I was struck by the divergence between different classified settings i go to and in particular the divergence between classified information conveyed by folks in the entire Community Versus classified information conveyed by folks in the Armed Services community. And i think a little bit of tension between the Intel Committee approach and the Armed Services approach, and i will say in three years here i have never heard as broad a divergence and do not think i can say the issues without jeopardizing what may be classified but i i dont think i have heard as broad a divergence between the intel and Armed Services community than any other instance except current status of a number of issues that are important and fundamental and critical issues. It is very troubling. Let me ask you a couple of questions. I am interested in your thoughts about the current afghanistan pakistan relationship. We know from Public Accounting of activity that taliban have used