downtown kabul. again, daily life is something we need to cover. n 2001, when the city gained its freedom, the afghans tried to emulate architecture in dubai. this is a wedding hall. very interesting to see kabul at night now. western kabul. gives you an idea of the density and how this, as an urban area, will eventually disappear as real estate increases in value. this is the kabul river that runs through and this used to be the frontline. this is the main road. this was the russian embassy cultural center, which became a destination for a lot of journalists to see what was left of the former soviet occupation and that is kabul university. here, this nice, green square in western kabul. on my last day in kabul to suburban suvs carrying six military trainers were ambushed by an explosive device. a suicide bomber waited for them along the route. they had made this route before on the way to an afghan base where they were going to train afghan army soldiers. six americans were killed and 10 afghans. this is the best example that -- with what i had at

downtown kabul in 1994.is has been named business district, the frontline is right here, no man's land. basically the center of the picture is al qaeda fighters pakistanis and members of his crew. these are government water boys during a role in the activity. during one of the wolves in the activity, it went on with a british reporter to talk to these people in a similar situation at a roundabout. all of a sudden another group of five came up to challenge them and accused the group of selling their television. essentially you will find little money, but a lot of blue. why anyone would want to fight over electricity when there was no food, they filled the sky stomach full lips. so they came flying over here wanting to take our taxi. this is the fellow jelling for the driver. it is rare they have bayonets. that meant he was serious. we had to listen to them. this is how you learn to work with the best afghans come either translators fixers, drivers and in particular this driver was renowned for fearlessness, b

downtown kabul. again, daily life is something we need to cover. n 2001, when the city gained its freedom, the afghans tried to emulate architecture in dubai. this is a wedding hall. very interesting to see kabul at night now. western kabul. gives you an idea of the density and how this, as an urban area, will eventually disappear as real estate increases in value. this is the kabul river that runs through and this used to be the frontline. this is the main road. this was the russian embassy cultural center, which became a destination for a lot of journalists to see what was left of the former soviet occupation and that is kabul university. here, this nice, green square in western kabul. on my last day in kabul to suburban suvs carrying six military trainers were ambushed by an explosive device. a suicide bomber waited for them along the route. they had made this route before on the way to an afghan base where they were going to train afghan army soldiers. six americans were killed and 10 afghans. this is the best example that -- with what i had at

a typical scene in downtown kabul in 1993. this is the ministry of defense. rockets were devastating. that was daily life for everybody. this is a typical, stand beside the bottle as -- puddle as the tank goes through scene. different ethnic groups or fighting over western kabul. shia, sunni, government, nongovernment. deals were being made all of the time. artillery battles. this is one particular family leaving quickly. if you have five seconds, 30 seconds, what do you take? it became evident this was a serious move to get out of town or move aside quickly. a bicycle, a teacup, a chicken and a bag of food. the daughter in law and the mother combined household. no men of fighting age. they got to go back three days later but they are caught on a crossfire on a hillside in downtown kabul. not a generous fellow. he cut gasoline, food, and u.n. supplies into the capital. when gas became unavailable, you had to buy it on the black market including taxis. this is what it looks like if you have to take a taxi in the morning to go to work. about 25 people and this

was educated in the french lesay in downtown kabul and son of a military officer. very interesting fellow. great chess player. could quote persian poetry all night long and he had a lot of respect in this area. but he was not favored by the united states, and particularly nor the saudis. for two days they had 100% control of pan began. -- afghanistan. if the world trade center, and this is a theory enjoy speaking about, if the world trade center and pentagon attacks been foiled which i think they could have been, this is not behind height now. what would the americans have done about afghanistan? think about it. we move ahead to the end of november of 2001. and i was lucky enough to get a visa by the taliban who had withdrawn from kabul to their home base in kandahar. you can see the look of amazement of the kandaharry population who had been bombed for the last two weeks by american and french jets. seeing 10 foreigners and 10 pakistani journalists. we had our own security. we got out of there pretty quickly. they were not a happy bunch. you can see the interestin

kabul and airport is over here. to get from here to hear you had to drive through the downtown area of kabul which is very dangerous.any times security concerns were that i couldn't leave or it would take three hours for him to navigate. he only had a 12 hour layover so it really literally was he was just over there but i couldn't see him. so that was very difficult. i call it my deployment year. i'm not saying i was deployed but for me it felt like a fraction of what it must feel like to be away from home to be away from anybody you know to be in a place with no central heat, very little hot water and it was a rough year. they were bad things that happened, really bad things. >> host: you obviously were inspired to help children over there and teach children but earlier you said you also love to have information. in the book part of your afghanistan stand was getting some information knowing what was going on. how do u.s. a parent if you can't run off to afghanistan, how do you get that information? >> guest: well, and i wouldn't recommend running off to afghanistan at this time either. it's a different place even