, the executive vice president of amec, earth and environmental inc, and the president of the was parcher group inc. also appearing is director of the region's office for project services. and linneysaid's partner for a project. united nations has made him available to provide information today without prejudice to the status privileges and immunities enjoyed by the u.n. we appreciate his participation and that of all the witnesses i have named. before we would start, i would remind us all the commissions like ours are typically created to study problems and proposed improvements. this inevitably leads to more bogus on shortcomings and failures on the outset -- more focus on shortcomings and failures on the outset that successes. both sides of the court are important. our mission from congress was to identify lessons learned in iraq and afghanistan to point the way to better outcomes now in the future. we will be calling out good efforts, best practices, and notable successes by both government and contractors in that part of our final report in july. that is only up operates. we don't in