we just spent over a week in kandahar with troops down there.ing, but commanders there have still got some very, very serious concerns. >> hey, watch those paths. >> just a little paranoid every once in a while about the path. >> reporter: once the stronghold or the taliban minutes from kandahar. now u.s. and afghan forces are in control and getting local help. >> there's always danger, but i would tell you over the course of the last month, month and a half, we on our patrols have probably found 25% of the ieds, the other 75% have been turned in by local nationals. >> reporter: trouble is, the rapid success of the surge across kandahar brings its own problem. >> security's going very well. in many ways, it's outpaced the ability of governance to keep up. >> reporter: and keeping up is vital. the taliban mostly fled the surge. now colonel martindale wants to take some u.s. troops out of kandahar, move them to other areas where the taliban is still strong. but there's a problem. >> governance needs to step up, and they need to take responsibility

>> in kandahar city itself. >> the governor of kandahar? the canadian? >> excuse me. you are starting to see, for instance, in hand car a municipal government making connections with local tribal, you know, with the local tribal structures. that's positive. i would encourage ambassador galbraith to actually go back to afghanistan. i just got back on tuesday. go back to kandahar. go to kandahar and go to helmand. there is progress that's being made. you are seeing government established. you are seeing effective local security forces and you are seeing a change in the security dynamics. go back to afghanistan. the key is that has to survive the cyclical nature of the conflict in afghanistan. it's too soon to say if that's successful or unsuccessful. you have to wait until after the summer, after the fighting season. we'll know whether or not we have been successful in the long term in helmand and kandahar. i caution ambassador galbraith about the generalizations about everyone in the afghan government or all afghans being corrupt. that's bigots. >> a rebuttal and then

the city of kandahar, a place that i was afraid to go to last year. when i landed there it was probably one of the scariest cities in afghanistan. today the city of kandahar has some sort of security bubble around it by the nato and afghan forces, but when you talk to the people on the ground in kandahar province, they'll tell you security has come bit by bit. but what they're afraid of is when nato forces actually leave. and another interesting aspect is the fact that they were just talking about al qaeda. al qaeda when you talk to the commanders on the ground, when you talk to the afghans here, they're not the big problem. the big problem is really the insurgency. the insurgency that is flowing back and forth from the border with pakistan. >> atia, as you intimate, the taliban as well. the president was bringing up pakistan. these are all big issues in this very complex calculus as they try to pull out the troops from afghanistan. atia abawi live in afghanistan with the latest. still ahead on "news nation." >>> i'm not a hero, folks. i just done my

mike boettcher is in kandahar. >> reporter: ten decembers in afghanistan. ten christmases at war. and still the mail pours in. little notes -- >> letter from my daughter. >> reporter: big gifts. >> it's the best of court tv. >> reporter: tasty munchies. >> bunch of junk food from my fiance. >> reporter: and silly things, too. 4 million pounds of it in kandahar alone. the infantry has surged. now it's the mail room's turn. >> the days are really kind of blending together, the more and more boxes there are. >> reporter: for a couple of days, the army is focused on its own hearts and minds. just e-mail won't do. there's still something special about mail you can touch and hold. but moving millions of pounds of mail in the middle of a war has its challenges. and there's only one piece of equipment that can do the job. the venerable chinook. since 1966 in vietnam, it has been the army's christmas sleigh. this chinook carries all those letters, flying well above ieds, the ambushes and gun fire. theirs is a risky job, but so important this week. they skillfully slip their lumbering craft

they went into kandahar expecting it to be d-day. the unit brought only one chance of clothing because they thought they would be constantly fighting. one thought is that we drove them out which would be potential progress. the other school of thought is they left. we declared victory in marsha. then there were public retaliation. they're not stupid. they'll always choose the ladder. >> the larger question that occurs to me in the pretty gloomy assessment that you were giving, during the campaign the president said afghanistan was the war that we took our eye off the war when we were in iraq. and i'm going do something about that and he came up with a new policy in 2009. does that tell you that even with a surge of troops or at the threavel the president supported, this is not a winnable conflict? >> it's a great question. and it's one that i wrestled with on the trip. i'm not sure what "winnable" means. that wouldn't matter much. i'm a journalist that cares on some level. but when i asked the guys in kandahar, they didn't know what

>> reporter: 4 million pounds of in kandahar alone. infantry surge with the mail room. >> today, the more and more boxes there are. >> reporter: for a couple of days the army is focused on its own hearts and mind. just e-mail won't do. there's something special about mail you can touch and hold. but moving millions of pounds of mail in the middle of a war has its challenges. and there's only one piece of equipment that can do the job. the venerable chinook. since 1956 in vietnam, it has been the army's christmas wagon. it carries all the christmas letters flying well above the ieds, the ambushes and fire. they skillfully slipped their lumbering craft into tight spots and tougher spots all the way to the seeming edge of the earth. >> i'm sure everybody will be happy. >> reporter: letters that are as important today as they were ten years ago. mike boettcher, abc news, kandahar. >> people in the northeast are battling mother nature this morning, so much snow and it continues to fall. >> and that is the big story of the day. really the bi

and even in kandahar city, the focus of so much u.s. attention, the taliban are still able to assassinate government employees. and that means afghans there are so scared, two-thirds of all government jobs are unfilled. >> reporter: and that's an area that you're citing as a success? >> there's no doubt that the taliban has a very targeted assassination program. but as we deny them safe havens within afghanistan, their ability to carry out these kind of terrorist acts will be diminished. >> reporter: but given 60% public opposition to the war, is time running out? how can the obama administration continue to wage this war with so little public support? >> leaders and certainly this president will not make decisions that are matters of life and death and the future security of our nation based on polling. >> reporter: and diane, president obama acknowledged today that pakistani forces have not gone after extremists in the tribal regions enough, he said, quote, progress has not come fast enough. diane? >> all right, jake. want to turn now

kandahar has been the focal point for the war in afghanistan in 2010. many service members have lost their lives there, but we should note that although the violence continues, lester, it is much less than what we saw this past summer where we saw a deadly raging battle day after day. >> thank you. >>> veteran diplomat richard holbrooke remains in critical condition in a washington hospital after 20 hours of emergency surgery to repair a torn artery leading from his heart. latest word is he is stable. holbrooke is special envoy to pakistan and afghanistan for president obama who called him a towering figure in american foreign policy. holbrooke is 69 years old. >>> mayor broomberg put to rest the speculation about his presidential aspirations. in appearance on "meet the press" bloomberg sounded unequivocal. >> i don't know. i've got a great job, and i'm going to finish out by 1100 days left to go, and i'll leave the politics to the experts. >> if i came to us and said, mr. mayor, we've taken a hard look at this. we think this would not be a vanity play.

this time last year i went inside the city of kandahar. it was a pretty scary experience.be on guard everywhere you went have security with you. from what i'm hearing on the ground in kandahar city, at least, the security situation has improved. the surrounding areas, bit by bit, day by day, there are still attacks going on in the province. there are still ieds laid out by the insurgency killing american soldiers, but at the same time it's better than it was earlier this summer. but that being said, and i think we're going to hear from president obama in his assessment that that is still reversible. that this might not be able to be sustained if the americans, if the nato forces, don't continue the mission. kmuk and savannah? >> seems, the question of progress might come down to who you ask. folks in your building, in the pentagon, have been saying, give us more time. we are making progress. while some in the intelligence community paint a dire looking picture. >> pentagon and u.s. military officials will consistently tell you that those national intelligence estimates lag

and there has been success around kandahar and the districts around kandahar which is a spiritual home. can this be... how many more marjahs do you need to do as one white house official said to me not too long ago andç can theç afghan forces do it on their own once the u.s. leaves? >> woodruff: and that takes us back to what role pakistan is and will play. so tell us a little bit more about what these n.i.e.s at least say about pakistan's role. how extensively they're assisting the afghan taliban. and other insurgents who are in the border area and cross over? >> well, i don't think it's just the n.i.e.s, i think it's the entire obama administration right now acknowledge what is a big problem is this is is that the pakistani intelligence service is using these proxy insurgent groups on the border to... they go right across the border, commanders were saying that last week in the eastern part of afghanistan that they go right across the border, they plant homemade bombs, they attack american forces and then they go right back across to pakistan for rest. >> warner: rest and relaxatio

civilians have been particularly instrumental in the progress we've seen in helibond and kandahar, and they will be critical in helping us consolidate the gains we've made in the last year as we move toward a transition to afghan responsibility. our strategy also recognizes that rebuilding afghanistan is a global commitment. the isaf coalition continues to grow. today it stands at 49 countries. nato and our partners, including the many oic, the organization of islamic countries, that have recently joined the international contact group, know that helping the afghan people and standing up against violent extremism is essential for the region and the world. disallowed of our international effort was on full display at the nato summit in lisbon last month where the coalition committed to a long-term partnership with afghanistan while laying out a plan for the afghan government to take responsibility for its own security. the transition will begin in 2011 and conclude in 2014. now, of course we are clear eyed about the way ahead. the review emphasized the need for a political process in af

mike boettcher has more from kandahar. >> reporter: ten decembers in afghanistan. ten christmases at war. and still the mail pours in. >> we've got candies! >> reporter: little notes. >> just a letter from my daughter. >> reporter: big gifts. >> best of court tv. >> reporter: tasty munchies. >> a bunch of junk food. >> reporter: silly things too. 4 million pounds of it in kandahar alone. the infantry has surged, now it's the mailroom's turn. >> the days are really kind of like blending together, the more and more boxes there are. >> reporter: for a couple of days the army is focused on its own hearts and minds. just e-mail won't do. there's still something special about mail you can touch and hold. but moving millions of pounds of mail in the middle of a war has its challenges. and there's only one piece of equipment that can do the job. the venerable chinook. since 1966 in vietnam, it has been the army's christmas sleigh. the chinook carries all those letters, flying well above ieds, ambushes and gunfire. theirs is a risky job but so important this week. they skil

the americans died on sunday in the southern kandahar province. this is the deadliest attacks of far this month. taliban is claiming responsibility. >>> richard holbrooke is in critical condition recovering from life-saving heart surgery. he is the president's point man on the war in afghanistan. he became ill and collapsed at the state department on friday. he underwent more than 20 hours of surgery at george washington university hospital to repair damage in his aorta. he has received a present -- calls for the presidents of pakistan and afghanistan. >>> it looks like there will be a shake-up at the chair of the republican party. michael steele says there will be an announcement. reports are that he will step down after a single two-year term. >> and has been a tumultuous tenure. he has been there for two years, but the party has made huge gains. they are not in good shape. >> he took over the post in the early 2008 and his term expires in january. there is a wild -- a wide field of candidates ready to take his place. >> goodbye tater tots? the

and that is the senior civilian official in kandahar talked to the financial times yesterday and say,u know, we are on a bullet train to failure here unless something is done about the sanity waries but nothing -- sanctuaries but nothing can be done because pakistan is fragile. we are in a terrible situation with respect to pakistan and to the civilian government in kabul the president of that country, karzai, has a corruption problem >>shepard: "seems to have," a corruption problem. >>guest: and he is out there stealing or having his people steal and tolerating it, and between those two problems it is hard to see how afghans begin to have faith in their government and without faith, how does the insurgency strategy work. that is what the officers have asked from the beginning and there is no answer but "hang on, it will be better, the taliban will retreat but the one taliban whom we were negotiating with turned out to be a frawtd, a man we were paying. there are so many mistakes along the way, it is really hard to see how the president turns this around. also, please notice, what was

these are the images called world you've been seeing from the streets of kandahar. giant corporations to rule the day. in india is the move to join the those who live below the gateway who took the brunt imperial truly the torch was the. new kind of let's go to socialism good to see don't need to go publicly and read this in the kennel was such a retreat. more riot police deployed in central moscow over fears of fresh violence as president made pledges swift punishment for those involved in last weekend's clashes a rally on saturday commemorating a football fan was killed and turned into a bloody brawl with police and attacks on ethnic minorities. north korea's attack on the south and are just pyongyang to abandon its nuclear activities moscow expresses concern over reports of the country's your rainy and rich men and called for the six party talks to restart. and in russia a controversial anti-drug campaign is dividing public opinion authorities have defended the ad saying that only harsh reality will discourage youngsters from substance abuse. next the kaiser repo

after october they started making a lot of progress in kandahar. seems a little bit thin as far as spin is concerned. >> the surge has been going on over the last year. they reached maximum level. the number of afghan security forces they have fwraning are increases. overall what the pentagon says is we are going to ignore the intelligence estimates. the student in the class saying we are doing better at the end of the class. we are going to be able to deliver. president obama gave those 30,000 troops in return for committed deliverables by the pentagon. we are going to hear the president thinks the strategy is sound and reaffirm the process in 2011. they are not going to be able to say the pentagon has delivered on what they promised. that is beneath the veneer of the positive story they are going to try to sell tomorrow. >> steve, these intelligence reports are two separate reports which were done by the 16 intelligence agencies. if you don't trust the 16 intelligence agencies you have to rethink your strategy. >> national intelligence estimates

civilians have been particularly instrumental in the progress we have seen in helmand and kandahar. they will be critical in helping consolidate the gains we made last year as we move toward a transition of afghan responsibility. our strategy also recognizes that rebuilding afghanistan is a global commitment. the isap coalition grows, today it stands at 49 countries. nato and our partners, including the oic, the organization of islamic countries that have recently joined the international contact group know that helping the afghan people and standing up against violent extremism is essential for the region and the world. this alignment of our international effort was on full display at the nato summit last month where the coalition committed to a long-term partnership with afghanistan while laying out a plan for the afghan government to take responsibility for its own security. the transition will begin in 2011 and conclude in 2014. now, of course, we are clear eyed about the way ahead. the review everyone sized reconciliation and expanded regional diplomacy. it needs to complement

we are making some progress around kandahar. the problem isn't and never has been our troops.e troops are doing everything. >> bill: i agree with you. the problem is the political situation there where we're supporting like we did in south vietnam and other places a very corrupt regime. and the afghan people don't like them. so, i don't know what to tell you about that. but i -- you know, i hesitate to throw this whole conflict under the bus. you know, the 60% of americans, they are not wrong. this has been a 10 year slog and cost us billions of dollars. and our guys i went to walter reid last week. our guys coming back with some of them their limbs blown off. for what in the americans don't know what the end game is. i can tell you the end game is to have a government that's going to fight the taliban and al qaeda. that's what we want. i will give you the last word on it. >> instead, we have karzai government that's trying to cut a deal with al qaeda there is a big difference between vietnam and afghanistan. some south vietnamese really supported the president even though he

and petreaus made it very clear before kandahar that the issue is governance. we need to put a high priority on that. it turns out that is not the highest priority at all. you find out that walid karzai's people are the ones that we've used to seize cities. there was a big ship that took place between -- contradictions between public and private. he changed his mind for reasons we do not understand. there are a lot of questions here about whether the military leadership really has the understanding that would be required to ask the american people to make this kind of commitment. >> that is a very good question. >> this is not about choice of military leadership. every american needs to take an active role in making a judgment out there and they need to look beyond the military leadership. we of the u.s. ambassador and about -- and a thousand american civilians deeply involved in the civil part of the civil-military equation. it is not about listening to one individual out there. and as we described in the report, this is a problem whose nature changes on a reg

kandahar has been a focal point of the fighting in afghanistan in 2010. although we continue to see attacks in the area, we should note that the situation, the security situation, has gotten a bit better than what we saw this past summer. tamron? >> all right, atia. thank you for the latest out of kabul. >>> and rough seas rock a cruise ship leaving some passengers injured. we're going to talk with a woman still on board the ship right now. she will recount her terrifying experience. >>> plus, new details about how much money the airlines are making off the baggage fees. wait until you hear the numbers. >>> and are we too caught up in labels? poll tigs come together to try to put aside the political labels. we'll check in with michael smerconish at the no labels event. host: could switching to geico really save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance? do woodchucks chuck wood? (high-pitched laughter) man: hey you dang woodchucks, quit chucking my wood! vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. aren't absorbed

these were some of the first marines into kandahar that secured the base. they song carols after the sun went down and two separate religious services one early for the protestant marine and a midnight mass for the catholics. the military also established phone lines so that the military can call home free of charge. they say the marines are bolstered by the support that they are get from home and says anyone in their right mind would want to be here defending their country. they have the training to do that and they are proud to be here. >> reporter: holidays in 2001 were particularly difficult ones for members of bay area afghan community. tonights are struck in the land where they lived and war had broken out in the land of their ancestor, but as ktvu's robert honda found they felt they still had much to be thankful for and much for accomplished. >> reporter: it was low-key, but there was definitely the feeling of a last-minute christmas shopping rush today in fremont's afghan community. this section of town is the center for about 10,000 bay area afghan

killed when a mini bus packed with explosives blew up at the entrance of the nato afghan base in kandahar province. >> it hits you right upside the head, and you know such a tragedy is just, just unbelievable. >> simonetta and the other soldiers were all part of the 101st airborne division. >>> we have new information involving the investigation into the deadly san bruno pipeline explosion. a preliminary report released today from the national transportation safety board is raising new concerns about pg & e and the way it inspects it's natural gas lines. ken pritchett is in san bruno now with the details, ken. >> reporter: with this fence blind behind me, you can see the blast zone. it appears that investigators have a better idea of what did not cause the explosion. >> the september ninth explosion was not caused by a preexisting leak or excavation damage. that's according to the ntsb. >> we move on to looking for yet another cause. >> reporter: jackie spears says this update from the ntsb does raise serious concerns about pg & e's records. >> we know that they didn't know what they had

civilians have been instrumental in kandahar. they will be critical to help us consolidate the gains we have made in the last year as we move toward the transition to afghan responsibility. our strategy recognizes that rebuilding afghanistan is a global commitment. the isaf mission continues to grow. today, it stands at 49 countries. the organization of islamic countries has recently joined the international contact group. they know that helping the afghan people and standing up against violent extreme live -- violent extremism is essential to the world. this part of our national effort was on full display in lebanon -- in lisbon last month. we laid out a plan for the afghan government to take responsibility for its own security. the transition will begin in 2011 and conclude in 2014. of course, we are clear-eyed about the way ahead. the review emphasizes the need for a political process in afghanistan, including reconciliation an expanded regional and international diplomacy. it means to complement the continuing military presen

a suicide car bomber in afghanistan has killed at least three police officers in kandahar. officials say the vehicle exploded in front of the bank or people were waiting to collect their salaries. the blast damaged houses and buildings in the facility. the region is considered a stronghold of the taliban. in iraq, the deputy interior minister says to bomb blasts left at least 17 people dead and dozens wounded in one of the western cities. a vehicle exploded outside the building of the provincial government. that was followed later by suicide bombing. it used to be a stronghold of al qaeda, but in recent years, local militias have restored relative calm. in ivory coast, a call from it -- call for the general strike from the prime minister has failed to shut the city down. he asked him to go on strike until the incumbent president steps down. western powers have been increasing pressure on him to step aside. many ignore the strike, but supporters of the paris succeeded in occupying the embassy there and demanding he step down. italian bond disposal experts have defused a bomb

. >> my name is robert moss coming to you from kandahar air force base.ing to my grandson evan. i'd like to say happy holidays to my family in monterey county and loved ones and a specialme th anks t thoan to my daughter angelina and my son robert. happy holidays. this holiday season, chevy's giving you more. like a 100,000 mile/5-year powertrain warranty. that's 40,000 miles more than ford. and now we're giving you our best offer of the year. 0% apr financing... plus $1,500 holiday allowance... plus no monthly payments until spring. on most chevy models. but hurry, because your chance to get our best offer of the season ends soon. see your local chevy dealer now. the moment you feel run down or achy nip flu-like symptoms in the bud, with oscillococcinum. get oscillo and feel like yourself again. oscillococcinum, nip it in the bud. >>> the sharks going for their longest win streak with phoenix at the tank. the 20th anniversary. ray whitney the only current player in the nhl with the visiting coyotes tonight. he scored the first goal. on the power play dan

soldiers in kandahar in southern afghanistan. veteran u.s. diplomat richard holbrook, president obama's special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan remains in critical condition tonight in a washington hospital. the 69-year-old holbrook had 20 hours of surgery yesterday to repair a torn aorta. the march of dimes said last month that america's pre-term birthrate has declined over fast two years but is still too high. one innovative approach to health care for expecting mothers may help improve that. here's dr. jennifer ashton. >> reporter: when expecting mom stacie walsh goes for her regular check-up -- >> take a nice slow deep breath. >> reporter: -- she's not alone. in fact, she's surrounded by pregnant women. >> we learn so much about the pregnancy, about what to expect, and we bounce ideas off of each other. >> massage and walking and position changes. >> reporter: unlike individual prenatal care where appointments are often just a few minutes per visit, women in group care spend two hours with their provider. boston mid-wife beth monahan sa

progress, meaning they are expanding the circle of the territory in the pashtun areas in the south and kandahar, where we are in control and not the taliban. the taliban, remember, have an approval level of about 6%, and nancy pelosi levels. the reason people support them is not ideology. it is fear. it makes it easier. if it is ideology, you have to change people's ideas. if it is fear, you have to provide protection, as happened in the surge in iraq. if you can do that, you can expand the area under control. in the long run, is karzai the guy who can handle it? that is where the real issues are. >> richard holbrooke, 40-year career. remarkable career. >> remarkable career. just one thing i object to, mentioning nancy pelosi and the same sentence with the taliban. i think that is a cheap shot, and beneath the panelist -- >> let me specify, nancy pelosi is not a terrorist, in case it was unclear. >> that was the message of rush limbaugh yesterday, calling her one on national radio. i did not want to put you in the same category of the echo chamber. >> i would not normally say you lack a sense o

we have spent time in kandahar, and people in that city are much happier and feel safer.y're not sure if the taliban are going to come back, but the brigade commander is frustrated because the afghan security forces aren't getting what they need. they're not seeing the support from the central commander. and get them to take on the taliban where there are other areas in the south. that's before you look at the east or north of the country. now taliban are getting much stronger. there are no surge troops to send into those areas, so they remain very, very troubling, tony. >> nic robertson for us in kabul, afghanistan. cnn national security analyst peter bergen has been going over the report in some detail. he joins us now from washington. let me start with a pretty bask one. any surprises for you, peter? >> no, i mean, the contents of this report have been dribbling out over time, general petraeus in afghanistan and the white house have sort of been saying for some period of time that, you know, this is not going to mark some huge change in strategy. they used the word "di

derrick simonetta and his fellow soldiers were fatally wounded when insurgents attacked their unit in kandahar province, using an ied. all six were assigned to fort campbell, kentucky. >>> now to an nbc bay area news follow-up in a san francisco courtroom today. the man accused in the cross-country kidnapping of a virginia child waived extradition. jeffrey easley will soon be heading back to virginia where he faces charges of abduction and credit card fraud. the girl was found outside a san francisco supermarket. investigators in virginia say he's also a suspect in the killing of the girl's mother, who was his girlfriend. >>> san francisco supervisors have decided to move ahead with the potential congestion pricing plan. but they did stake out some detours. the bottom line, some commuters could see tolls in high traffic areas. nbc bay area's tracy grant is on the story. last night this threatened to become a border war with san mateo, tracy. >> reporter: you're absolutely right, tom. san mateo elected officials not only threatened to come up with state legislation to keep san francisco from op

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he was one of six soldiers killed in a suicide bombing sunday every sunday in kandahar. he leaves behind a wife of two years. >>> three months after the deadly blast in san bruno, the national transportation safety board released its new findings. and among them, investigators found a patchwork of seams on the pipe that exploded. the utility had long claimed the pipe was seamless. on the other hand, investigators did not find any outside corrosion for this dents nor leaks. nor dents nor leaks. >> i think we all know more about pipeline safety than we did three months ago. and i think pg&e had a -- a horrific wake-up call. >> an earlier report indicated a power failure before the disaster may have caused a pressure surge in the pipe. well, not to the levels that should have caused that pipe to burst. the ntsb is still investigating. it's not expected to release a final report before next fall. >>> the former head of pg&e's smartmeter program is in some hot water again. william devereaux resigned last month after admitting he used a phony name to monitor online discussion

. >> happy holiday from kandahar air base.'m sergeant grul and shout tout my girlfririririi you can see this holiday season, chevy's giving you more. like a 100,000 mile/5-year powertrain warranty. that's 40,000 miles more than ford. and now we're giving you our best offer of the year. 0% apr financing... plus $1,500 holiday allowance... plus no monthly payments until spring. on most chevy models. but hurry, because your chance to get our best offer of the season ends soon. see your local chevy dealer now. rizon 4g lte. rule the air on the most advanced 4g network in the world. you youing. >> would he know that you already count on us for coverage of the issues and stories that mat to you thank you very much for that. now all the information that you depend on from us is available on your i pad. >> this is the abc 7 news i pad app now available on i tunes. >> we are the first station in the bay area to release an i-pad specific app an offers lot of great feature. >> whet news. >> lisa is live. >>reporter: or weather. the abc 7

and warlords are getting top jobs in kandahar, and a lot of concern about the forces. >> and barbara,al and is he really confident that things will work out there? >> well, he believes he is making progress as nic says in southern afghanistan where he believes he has broken some of the taliban momentum and the key leaders and the ied factories and the safe havens, and the question, wolf, is the progress enduring, and lit lawill it las is it only as good as the troops there, and in eastern afghanistan, they say they see no break in the taliban's attacks, and the attacks keep coming, wolf. >> and jill dougherty, you have gone through the diplomatic cables showing the strain between the u.s. and the karzai regime and afghanistan, and a lot of corruption, and a lot of fear that things are not going in the right direction. give us a few examples? >> well, wolf, probably one of the most disturbing ones is about president karzai and the attorney general letting prisoners go. essentially, what they are saying is that they authorized presidential pardons for narco traffickers, and here is what

it is a key gateway to kandahar.ecure, kandahar is vulnerable. >> the low ground down there, she would shoot rockets up here at us. >> reporter: his job, expel the taliban from one of its strongholds. >> we've gained the initiative from the enemy, our job is to sustain that. improve the development here. >> reporter: as he takes us on a tour, we stop to see some of that development. designed to win support for government. road building, 150 men employed, good for the community, good for the government. a boom for farmers, too. even if it's not always corn they're growing. >> yes, yes. >> and how many people are working? >> there's a truckload of marijuana. >> yes, it is. >> what can you do about that? >> i don't know what you can do about that, sir. >> reporter: it weaves through the convoy. troops are told to leave farmers alone, but the drugs often fund the taliban. the road engineer tells me this area is safe, but in nearby areas, he says, taliban would kill them for working on such development projects. we're abo

fifteen people in a truck died and many were injured when a roadside bomb went off in neighboring kandahar a car bomb blast near a police headquarters wounded at least six and in the north a suicide bomber blew up a stolen police car packed with explosives here an army checkpoint more than a dozen were wounded mostly women and children. and the older son of a jailed financier bernard made off has been found dead in new york on the second anniversary of his father's arrest mark made off was discovered hanging in his apartment days after he was named in a new lawsuit by the liquidators of his father's empire marc and his brother who both worked at the forum or under investigation but hadn't faced any criminal charges in the massive ponzi scheme that led to their father's jailing bernard made off admitted to eleven counts of fraud and was sentenced to a maximum hundred fifty year prison term. st petersburg has played host to a number of celebrities from all across the world but one has recently stood out and it wasn't an actor singer it was russia's own prime minister vladimir putin even got

you recall at one point we thought him in kandahar. but if we fire missiles into kandahar and we didn't get him we were going to kill 300 officials, women and children included without any assurance whatsoever that he was there. one particular case we elective not to do it and found out later we missed him by about three hours had we done that but we had about 300 people were killed and we would have been branded as terrorists ourselves so it gets to be very complicated. everyone wants to get him and my answer is yes, we will get him it is just a matter of time. with all of the intelligence we have got focused he's just got to make one mistake that he is very good the way he operates. >> host: can you talk about the one time you thought you had an opportunity to get bin laden and you called upon the services of your great jared? >> guest: we thought we had the chance to get him because he was at some of the training camps in afghanistan, and in order to do that we would have to fire missiles the what goes through the air space and laun

we've kicked the taliban out of their homeland in kandahar province. everything is going to -- you aren't going to see very many troop reductions in this coming july. everything's going to depend on the next fighting season which takes place during the summer. and whether the taliban are able to come back to their that is rightland successfully or not. if they're not able to come back successfully, then we're going to be able to bring -- begin bringing troops home a lot at the end of 2011. and early 2012. if they are successful, then we're going to start bringing troops home anyway because it will be such a mess and the president will -- chris: joe said they're on the same page. my question is political. is this president now committing to winning in afghanistan? or staying there long enough to achieve petraeus' ambitions? >> oh, no. i don't think so. i think the president is committed to making the best effort he can and -- over the next couple of years. but the political realities are such that he can't commit to forever. because the american people

people in a truck died and many more injured when a roadside bomb went off there and in neighboring kandahar a car bomb blast near police headquarters wounded at least six also in the north a suicide bomber blew up a stolen police car packed with explosives near an army checkpoint more than a dozen wounded mostly women and children. delegates to you and climate change talks in cancun mexico of agreed on measures to tackle climate change they include setting up a green climate fund that will raise one hundred billion dollars to help developing nations cut fuel emissions and cope with the effects of global warming over one hundred ninety countries approve the deal with only bolivia rejecting it saying the move don't go far enough but that was a rule. to block in central stockholm were killed at least one person tonight and injured another two car exploded near a busy shopping street in the center of the swedish capital shortly afterwards a second explosion was heard in the same street and a man was found injured on the ground he was later pronounced dead it's still unclear what caused those ex