Nicholson nomination

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing this morning on the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. John Nicholson to become the next head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Prior to the hearing, Nicholson submitted answers to a detailed list of advance policy questions.

One of those queries involved preventing U.S. monetary support to the Afghan insurgency, from which the general wrote that other combatant commands could take two "key lessons":

"The first lesson is that combatant commands should place strong emphasis on thorough vendor vetting processes which, if implemented properly, preempt fraud and prevent contracting with the enemy. The second lesson has to do with the importance of coordination between the combatant command, the intelligence task force, and the Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA). Each of these links provides vital information on the second and third order effects of the program at both the operational and strategic levels."