but you know what, they like karzai more than they like the taliban.the taliban are hugely important in afghanistan. the best way of preventing them from taking over the country is, really, what decides us on the talk about afghanistan. >> we have talked over the years the way 9 taliban ran the basic necessities such as local government. the taliban sort of governing court and jury that would go from area to area, town to town and issue declarations based on things that happened and the taliban would rule. >> i was living in pakistan at time when the fall ban were formed and they were formed by neighboring pakistan, by the interior minister when bhutto was in power. there had been a long civil war when the soviets pulled out and the mujaheddin were fighting in a brutal civil war and the afghan people were sick of war and the taliban came along and pakistans wanted to stabilize afghanistan and try and build a gas pipeline to central asia and they thought by recruiting the religious schools and sending the taliban through kandahar, choosing one of the af

he's meeting with president karzai. what more do we know about will trip? >> it's a dramatic moment and still hard to believe that ten years after the war in afghanistan started after 9/11, the president of the united states still can't arrive in afghanistan under normal circumstances, has to go through all of these extraordinary security precautions in order to protect his security, the security of other u.s. men and women who are traveling with him. if it says a lot about what's going on in afghanistan. this is a very sensitive delicate mission under way right now. let me bring in brianna keilar. throughout the day, withere hav been these rumors that the president was doing something extraordinary and for security reason, no owoone wants to talk about where he is. but set the scene for us. what did they say at the white house where he was, what he was doing, what was on his schedule. because we now know what he actually was doing. >> when you looked as his public schedule, he had a lot of meetings and i think the expe

let's listen to hamid karzai.d karzai, the president actually -- looks like that videotape just froze. here's hamid car zashgs the president. [ speaking foreign language ] >>. >> all right. he's speaking in pashtun right if you. my pashtun is not that good and i don't think senator reed's pashtun isn't that good. senator reed, you were there and this is videotape feeding in right now. did he speak for long in pashtun or did he eventually get to english? >> his entire speech was in his language and then the president spoke in english. there were translation services for us in the audience, headphones. their speeches were short. both presidents were quite complimentary and recognized the sacrifices of the citizens of both afghanistan and the united states in this common struggle and they were very short speeches and the documents aside and exchanged and signed by the other president to each other and the president was enroute to visit american soldiers in bagram air base. >> did you have a chance during the course o

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it is a pleasure to welcome president karzai to my hometown of chicago. he extended this to me during my visit to kabul. we were able to finalize a partnership agreement that effects a future where two soverign nations are operating as partners, to the benefit of withountry's citizens, stability in the region and around the world. i want to thank president karzai for his help in making this agreement. the nato summit is going to be largey devoted to -- largely devoted to ratifying and reflecting what so many of our partners. what we have agreed to. we are working to achieve a complete transition where we provide support for the afghan security forces. they have made excellent progress over the last several years. and creating a vision where we have ended the combat role and the war is over. the commitment to friendship and partnership continues. this is part and parcel, a shared vision we have. afghanistan can transition from decades of war to a transformational decade of peace and stability and development. i want to express my appreciation for the work

he is meeting with afghanistan president hamid karzai. of course, this all comes on the one-year anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden. certainly this timing is not coincidental but president obama there to discuss the strategic partnership with the president of afghanistan, including the plan for withdrawal. >> and do you know anything or any detail yet about how this was carried out? because we knew absolutely nothing about it. the president clearly leaving the white house. i mean, i'm assuming that somebody must have known. what do we know about the detail of that? >> well, we know that of course, senior administration officials were aware of this plan. but the white house certainly keeping this a secret throughout the day for security reasons. we're all just learning it at this point in time, that the president has in fact landed. this is something we've seen in the past. remember when president bush visited, traveled overseas to a war zone back in 2003, it was also a secret. it wasn't announced until until he in fact cleared

they've placed in power karzai. not because he was strong but because he didn't have his own militia, largely. the other warlords said, gee, at the loya jirga, the meeting to decide this, let's make him the temporary one. it's easier than making one of the more powerful warlords the temporary leader of the country. so then they fashioned a constitution. and then they vote on the constitution. and then people who'd left afghanistan a decade, two decades earlier start coming back. over a million refugees returned to that country. problem was you look around where there's a piece of construction going on and what's happening is most of the people working there aren't afghans because they're not literate. they don't know how. they don't have people who are trained electricians and trained pipe fiters and trained to do these things. so they've got a difficult situation. they've got a whole generation of women who weren't allowed to go to school or to learn. so karzai's in there. here's a country that's not known for havi

karzai is a longtime ally of the pak.e he dealt with. so, yea, he is overly, overly associated with pakistan, and he's not sitting down with his own people. he's sitting down with the paks for guidance. i'm sure he disagrees on that. in total disagreement with the total partnership agreement that the u.s. and pakistan have signed and also in total disagreement from what we're hearing from the republican presidential candidate mitt romney. >> i don't know what mitt is saying about it, but i am absolutely opposed to what the president just did. >> we should be looking for ways to get troops out of afghanistan at a quicker pace and we shouldn't be committing ourselves to another ten years of military involvement in afghanistan and we can do that if we worked with all of the afghan leaders rather than putting all of our eggs in the karzai basket and trying to force everyone to accept his power. >> what governor romney says there should be an open-ended mil commitment in afghanistan. he doesn't like the timeline, if you will,

president karzai is happy.his is a relationship based on mutual interest, mutual respect, two sovereign nations together, happy that the u.s. won't be bolting but we'll see how much stays. >> and the definite sill in the details and still not a lot of details in the strategic partnership agreement that's been signed. the president will be speaking less than an hour from now. certainly not the first commander in chief to go overseas, his critics say so score political points with a photo photo-op, we'll talk about that ahead. we're tracking the presidential news conference, coming up. we'll be right babble with. makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies. [ male announcer ] for our families... our

is the taliban either way let's not forget that we put karzai into power and the majority of afghans actually favor negotiating with the taliban or about the fact of the taliban didn't actually attack the united states on nine eleven never mind the fact of the taliban's popularity can not be understood by simple minded models derived from european history and of course for get the fact that neither cars i nor the taliban not even under the looses interpretations of history have ever tried to impose their will on the united states west and west forget we're occupying afghanistan now the other way around karzai he says taking advantage of it in more ways than one but still congressman west to compare obama meeting with karzai and potential to go sheehan's with the taliban to a regime bent on racial domination and global empire why well because the war in afghanistan is now the longest this country's ever fought its increasingly unpopular and a growing number of americans see it as pointless benefiting neither the american nor the afghan people so congressman west desperately tried to i

karzai wants more support, he doesn't want us to be abandoning him. what do you think this all means in substance? >> well, personally, i hope the president doesn't elaborate what it all means because that is frankly not wise. one, the situation can change on a dime and a situation like this, but two, you don't really want to give your whole play book to the enemy. because the enemy can be very patient and they can stand by when they know something is going to happen on a given date. while he has to work things out with karzai and meet our national interests and their national interests, i hope he plays it a little close to the vest. >> let's not treat karzai -- the guy has not exactly been a good ally and reliable. he resided over a corrupt government. it's about a commitment to the people of afghanistan. he is walking a tight rope here. you could say that this was a courageous act. for him to go and give the person people a reminder that we're going to be there for ten more years after 2014. >> he has to tie a bow to the american people that wish it

i look at what happened between president obama and president karzai is a 1930's cherry blossom festival but there is not going to be peace of art and when you know the president basically a speech he talks about to go shares with the taliban well as we said less than ninety minutes after his departure he got the response yeah that's right congressman west boiled down obama meeting with karzai in negotiations with the taliban to appeasing hitler although i must say a little confused as to who hitler is in the scenario is that karzai is the taliban either way let's not forget we put karzai independent are the majority of afghans actually favor negotiating with the taliban or how about the fact of the taliban didn't actually attack the united states on nine eleven never mind the fact of the taliban's popularity cannot be understood by simple minded models derived from european history and of course forget the fact that neither cars i nor the taliban not even under the looses interpretations of history have ever tried to impose their will on the united states west and west forget we're occu

so president karzai, welcome. i'm confident this will be a productive nato summit.work to implement the plans that we've laid out. >> great. thank you, mr. president. we have had a good meeting today. in which afghanistan reaffirmed its commitment to the transition process. and to the completion of it. in 2013. and the completion of withdrawal of partners in 2014. so that afghanistan is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends notice international community. >> on the shoulders of the united states and our other allies. afghanistan, indeed, mr. president as you very rightly put it, is looking forward to an end to this war. and a transformational decade in which afghanistan will be working further for institution-building and the development of sounder governance in the country and better economy, where afghans will be taking steady steps towards self-reliance and all aspects of life. that afghanistan will be collecting its own revenues. but in the meantime, that the world community in particular, the united states and our allies in nato and isaf will be wit

it's karzai i don't respect.i don't think i owe an apoloapo apology to the people of afghanistan. of course karzai is a corrupt and incompetent leader and i certainly owe no apology for trying to get the afghanistan to trying to do investigative work. >> as you can see, no love loss between karzai and rohrabacher. >> ahead, we have shocking details of a taliban alleged attack. >> and thousands of forces training near syria right now for a potential full fledged war. cnn is there for exclusive access to their mission. stay with us. technologies protect air - the by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... have you ever partaken in a car insurance taste test before? by taste? yes, never heard of

after arriving at bagwam air base he met with afghan counterparts, hamid karzai. the two leaders say they signed a partnership agreement. the agreement lays out how the united states will be involved in afghanistan after u.s. troops leave the country in 2014. >> i've come to afghanistan to mark a short moment for our two nations. to do so on afghan soil. i'm here to affirm the bonds between our countries, to thank american and afghans who have sacrificed so much over these last ten years and to look forward to a future of peace and security and greater prosperity for our nations. >> we can expect to hear more about in his president's address coming up shortly. he addressed u.s. forces at the air babes and waded in the crowd for hand shakes, thanked them for all the sacrifices they have made. he said he could not be more proud to be their chief. ed, we're getting dribbles from the white house what the president will say tonight. >> we got a preview from the president himself as soon as me landed in afghanistan, basically he made some quick remarks we're saying that

to what extent now is the united states linked to the future of this -- some karzai or even karzai successor? there's a strategic partnership agreement. to what extent has the united states hitched its wagon to an afghanistan that's not run by the taliban? that really remains to be seen as well. >> when you see it in print, the time frame is staggering. 2024. you think october 7, 2001, is when we first went into afghanistan. 23 years later, at the very, very least, we will still be in afghanistan. nearly a quarter of a century later. >> by the way, willie, we will still be in afghanistan when george, your george who is 2 years old right now, is in high school. >> oh, yeah. >> in high school. >>> let's bring in jack jacobs, retired u.s. army colonel. jack, we want to pick up on a conversation we were having earlier this morning on what this means practically. the line out there is that 2014 is the end of combat. but we know between 2014 and 2024 there will be united states troops, there will be young men and women in harm's way. >> well, the first thing to keep in mind is that you don't want

it is believed hollande sought karzai's understanding on the early withdrawal during their summit. hollande vowed maintaining french personnel to train afghan police and military. >>> a shadow is being cast over afghanistan's security as it is set to be transferred back to its government. amidngoing terrorist attacks by the taliban militia, france and other nato nations were moving toward an early removal of their forces. nhk world's hideki yui reports from kabul. >> reporter: afghan security forces learn how to search for enemy fighters in civilian homes. this sort of operation is currently done by u.s. soldiers, but soon afghans will take over. the size of the afghan security forces, including both military and the police, has grown to nearly 350,000 personnel, but most of them are not yet ready to take the lead. >> translator: we don't have enough training or equipment to fight for afghanistan. >> reporter: international troops used to be in charge of training, but now just two or three of them observe as advisers. afghan officials are responsible for training their own soldiers

time afraid left as one quick question i wanted to ask you refer about that interview that hamid karzai gave you see confirm that international forces the americans in particular will be present in afghanistan after that official troop withdrawal of twenty fourteen for at least of the decade he said how different will be from nato as current mission begs a question i guess well i think this is a very big question you see the americans and the british and all the others have been saying yes of course we're going to go in twenty fourteen now they make these agreements i know the least the americans will be there for another ten years it seems to me this is still occupation this is still a war which they are not winning and they should really learn the lessons from previous wars particularly vietnam that this is going to be more and more unpopular more and more deadly and most importantly will not bring peace to the people of afghanistan or i lose you germany in london thanks ever so much for your thoughts much appreciated. this is r.t. still to come we have more on another state where nat

the iranians did things with karzai.e admitted it pip today interrogate an operative in 2003 in afghanistan. we know they have been doing things to destabilize their efforts. we need to look at a wider set of issues. focusing only in afghanistan will only get us in trouble. we need to look the the whole thing as a chess game, an checker game. >> so how much of that chess game, that really we are using it as a point ever military bases to deal with the middle east? >> we have rights in a wide variety of areas near there. we don't necessarily have to be in afghanistan but suffice it to say we will stay there with special forces and special operation forces as long as we possibly can. the really interesting thing is what happens when afghans want to go conduct raids and we mentioned it before. they won't do anything without american air power and that's why the people will be on the ground for a while. yes, we're there in order to put pressure on both pakistan and iran. but to be quite frank, we don't have to be in afghanis

so either karzai has to come here or the president has to go there.e the choices. >> so what happens with this? this is total -- it's almost as if he and clinton came up with it. he signs this, congo po-- congress opposes this. from a political perspective, it makes total and complete sense. >> the only flaw in all this is i don't know why he did everything leading up to thisment i don't know why the campaign decided to take on romney. they were doing something so big with this, celebrating it, he would have had the cd, so i'm surprised they added that. >> those are the judgments along the way. the thing that most concerns me is when you look at -- i've always defined the mission in these militaries personally through the lens of security. to diminish the probability that somebody we don't know somewhere is going to require weapons of some kind that can inflict suffering. and what has become unclear is what achieves that. in other words -- and i'm a big fan of rhett greenwalds, for instance, who i knows worries about the outcome of all these. not evil

or whoever the next karzai is. >>bob: no one can take over afghanistan, it is a tribal country. >> you made the point, it is different from the shiite situation. >>greg: there is nothing to do there. >> please! >> and now your response, dana, a veteran for a strong america act. compelling. play it and listen. >> osama bin laden has been killed. >> there will be no-parades, they have gone back in the shadows. >> i directed panetta. i was briefed. i determined. at my direction. i called president karzai. >> we don't need to spike the football. >> i said we would go after bin laden if we had a clear shot. i did. dana: the white house and the obama campaign thinks that is unfair but that is how people feel. that is what a lot of them think. often in politics you do not know you have crossed a line until you have crossed it unless you have a lot people on your team that are saying if we do this, x is going to happen or people will thing this. on either side with this ad i don't know the conversation but their problem, a

president karzai is going to have to step down someday. what this agreement does is elevates those issues of political and economic sustainability. >> ifill: brian katulis of the center for american progress and seth jones of the rand corporation, thank you both very much. >> thanks, gwen. >> thank you. >> brown: still to come on the newshour, the persident's speech; consumers and banks after the financial crisis; babies born addicted to drugs; research on growing nehuman tissue; and rights and wrongs for the g s. and china. but first, the other news of the day. here's har csreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: five men have been arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a bridge near cleveland, ohio. the f.b.i. announced today that the men were taken into custody overnight. they allegedly targeted the brecksville-northfield high level bridge, which crosses part of the cuyahoga valley national park. agents said the suspects thought they had planted explosives at the site. in fact, an f.b.i. informant had sold them "dummy" explosives. >> a myriad of coord

the strategic partnership agreement signed with president karzai commits the united states to afghanistan economically and militarily for the next 20 years through 2024. the agreement also guarantees afghan sovereignty and it says that the united states will not launch military operations against another country from afghanistan. the united states will not strike iran from afghanistan but will be able to carry out counter terrorism operations. speaking to troops the president was blunt about what operations are still going to look like in afghanistan over the next few years. >> some of your buddies are going to get injured. some of your buddies may get killed. and there's going to be heartbreak and pain and difficulty ahead. but there's a light on the horizon. >> 1,945 u.s. service members have been killed in the war in afghanistan. nearly 16,000 have been wounded. questions remain. we don't know how much money we'll be spending in afghanistan. that will be negotiated and appropriated annually over congress. we don't know what the u.s. military support presence will be. the president said

welcome, president karzai. i'm confident this will be a productive nato summit and i look forward to continue to work and implement the plans we have laid out. >> thank you, mr. president. we have had a good meeting today. afghanistan reaffirmed its commitment to the transition process and to the completion of it in 2013 and the completion of the withdrawal of partners in 2014 so that afghanistan is no longer riverton on the shoulder of our friends in the international community -- is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends and allies. as you have very rightly put it, mr. president, afghanistan is looking forward to an end to this war and a transformational decade in which afghanistan will be looking forward to institutional building of an economy and we will be taking steady steps towards self- reliance in all aspects of life. afghanistan will be conducting its own reviews. in the meantime, the world community, and a particular -- in particular the u.s. and our nato partners, make sure they take a st

is behind the strategy that we've laid out. >> reporter: at this summit, both president obama and karzai have the same goal. convincing other nato nations afghanistan is ready for this transition and spending money on security and other resources post-2014 is worth it even in these tough economic times. nato secretary-general rasmussen. >> at the end of the day, it is less expensive to finance the afghan security forces to do the combat than to deploy our own troops. >> reporter: republican criticism of the president's afghanistan plan has been relatively muted. mitt romney's op-ed in today's "chicago tribune" avoided this issue, instead saving criticism for proposed defense cuts. and even the most hawkish of republican senators are optimistic about where afghanistan is headed. >> the afghan security forces are getting better. they're better trained, they're better equipped. >> reporter: well, the one piece of tension at the summit itself, lester, appears to do with pakistan. president zardari is here. president obama is refusing to meet with him. the administration denies that it's beca

karzai and the government but beyond that. it's not just the right of woman, which as important as it may be, unfortunately does not have security concerns. the other issue i will leave you with because i'm running out of time is the concern we just last night president obama and president karzai signed a strategic dialogue -- strategic agreement between afghanistan and the united states. one of those elements basically would allow to us stay and support the afghan government between the 2014 withdraw day. there's a problem in that and what the taliban want. the taliban's number one demand is no the imposition of shariah, it's the withdrawal of foreign forces from that country. how we reconcile those is very much an important aspect of it. as we go forward, the taliban two hours ago issued a new statement, they have announced their operation, they're now using our lingo, somebody, themselves or their handlers no exactly what language to use. they say that both are attending. somebody knows they're doing their pr pretty well an

and president obama letting president karzai know that the u.s. and nato allies will not be abandoning afghanistan. let's take a listen to what he had to say. >> the world is behind the strategy that we've laid out. now it's our task to implement it, effectively. and i believe that we can do so in part because of the tremendous strength and resilience of the afghan people. >> reporter: and so, fred, they're also going to be talking about what that post-nato role is. after 2014, how is nato going to be working in afghanistan with the afghan forces and the afghan government. and you see right now, secretary general of nato, anders grassman. today they'll be discussing smart defense. how in this time of tight budgets, how can nato do more with less? that's about sharing and pooling resources and capabilities, such as drones, such as intelligence. they're also going to be talking about partnerships. how nato can partner with other countries, if you remember, in libya, it wasn't just nato allies that took part in that operation. it was also countries l