On Oct. 7, 2009, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Afghanistan titled "Confronting al Qaeda: Understanding the Threat in Afghanistan and Beyond." Includes excerpts from the question-and-answer portion of the hearing as well opening statements from Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar (R-IN); as well as prepared testimony from the New America Foundation's Peter Bergen, former CIA station chief Robert Grenier, and Foreign Policy Research Institute Senior Fellow Marc Sageman.