mr. rademaker. i also want to note the presence of our colleague from minnesota, keith ellison, an individual with great interest in issues involving the middle east and obviously clearly what is transpiring i in iraq. i want to thank you, mr. matheson, for really enumerating what are the outstanding issues or the outstanding items, if you will, that are still -- fall under the chapter 7 mandate. from your vantage point, and this is to everybody on the panel, let me begin with you. what kind of progress is being made in terms of the discussions and the negotiations that are going on? would you give it a satisfactory? obviously we're going to have an opportunity to hear from two distinguished parliamentarians from iraq, but in terms of the process itself, what is the current status, what are the most difficult issues, the most thorny issues, and is there a time frame which is reasonable to assume that most or particularly the more difficult issues can be resolved? >> well, i think it varies, dependin