ARIF LALANI

I think it is fitting that we are ending with a focus on something concrete, namely Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. We have spent most of the day talking about issues across the globe: transnational issues, theories, and trends. But at the end of the day, what matters, in fact, is what is happening on the ground. And the topic before us, al Qaeda's influence on Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, could be reworded to ask, “How successful has the campaign against al Qaeda been?”

To answer the question of what al Qaeda's influence is at the moment in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is really to answer that question about everything we've been discussing today.

HAMID MIR

Preliminarily, I want to share something with you. Some days ago, a Pakistani newspaper published a story about this conference. That story was filed by Mr. Khalid Hassan, who is a very senior and well-respected journalist based in Washington. I did not read the story because on that day I was in the tribal area where the Pakistan army is fighting against al Qaeda. In the evening when I came back, I received a call on my cell phone and somebody was saying, “You are going to Washington and there is a big controversy. You are going to speak against us there and if you go, you must be ready to face the consequences.”