and frequently lead to cl view >> hamid karzai is an interesting fellow.i think at the time he had american and international support, the interim chairman of the interim afghan government was elected president and reelected president, very interesting individual. like most of us he had some good qualities and some flat sides. as time went on and the situation evolved as it did with the u.s. taking a prominent overwhelming role in afghanistan, he frequently found himself as somebody who's influence was limited by the confines of the palace that he occupied. that was an extremely humiliating situation for him. it made his relations with americans increasingly poisonous over time. the fact that the taliban during his entire tenure absolutely refused to deal with him at all, was 8 huge humiliation for him. essentials what the taliban was saying is we can deal with the putt or the puppet master. wide deal with the puppet? that stunned him particularly in circumstances where he was frequently made to feel like a puppet and overtime he built up enough baggage th

brian: asking about karzai. was he honest? vanda: i think he was honest but the timeframe that he was working in, i am not sure that it translates to how we translate honesty. brian: billions of dollars have been lost over there. did he take any of it? don't have any personal information but there have been newspaper articles. perspective, this was not personal bribes. money given toe -- from his perspective, this was just every day doing business. certainly know that people close to him including his vice president, people in his family like his brother, had their hands in any money coming in, taking bribes, and correct money as well as participating in many illegal activities like smuggling. know thew well did you new president before he was elected? vanda: i had many exchanges with him. brian: you surprised when he was elected? vanda: i must say, yes. inas with his first campaign 2009 against president karzai them. -- then. he was learning how to become an afghan politician. he had a change in persona. brian: how much time

karzai is no longer president. on paper, the new government is committed to combating terrorism. .- combating corruption committed to improving governance and i think we should not quit as yet. we need to demand accountability from our partners. brian: has it been worth the price? 2700 americans killed. -- 2700 people killed. americans, more than that. we go to bed here -- vanda: i think that the u.s. did achieve improvements in security but it depends on how it ends. here is where i hesitate and .ncreasingly interrogate myself we do not know how it will end. if we withdrawn now, it may collapse. it is possible five years down the road, we will be back in a new civil war in afghanistan. isis is emerging in the country. it is much worse than the taliban and. the taliban is deeply entrenched. if we end up five years down the road in a new civil war in afghanistan and safe havens for taliban and isis, then i would say it is not worth the price. brian: let me ask you about karzai again. was he honest? vanda: i think he

president karzai is no longer president. there is a governmental focal nonetheless y, but on paper the government is committed to combating corruption. so -- also committed to improving governance and -- so i think we should not quit yet. we definitely need to demand accountability from our partners. host: has it been worth the price? 2,700 people killed, americans killed, more than that. i mean, what do we got other than the fact they may have beater life? we go to bed here in the united states -- vanda: i think the u.s. did achieve improvement in security. how netheless it depends it ends. i hesitate as i increasingly interrogate myself, we don't know how it will end. if we withdraw now, the moment -- it's also possible that still two, three years, five years down the road we'll be back and a new civil war will be in afghanistan. isis is now slowly emerging in the country. it's much worse than the taliban. the taliban is deeply entrenched and hardly defeated. and so if we end up five years down the road in a new civil war

one of the most common karzai whom we know and love. came out of this nicely thank you very much two-time president of afghanistan and also the former governor of kandahar who had the dubious distinction of being the first provincial governor to be driven out of power in the taliban in 1994. those were the only two that we could induce initially to take the fight to the taliban. much of this book tells the improbable and at times hair-raising story of these two individuals going back essentially on their own to their respective tribal areas racing small tribal armies and somehow surviving long enough for me to get my cia officers accompanied i u.s. army special forces to join with them and to marshal u.s. airpower one from the north and one from eisen they finally converged on kandahar in on the seventh of december of 2001 toga taliban and al qaeda from power. we thought that was into the war. in fact it turned out only to be the first american afghan war but as that was underway there was a separate campaign that was also being fought

and you just had president karzai at the helm. and doctor abdullah had handled the day-to-day operations. and so this is very difficult. what is fascinating to see is how both leaders have a different approach to common problems and how their strength after all have the ability to be good. they are generally on the same page when it comes to broad-based policy. so when it comes to security and regional relations and women's rights and that shouldn't be taken lightly with regard to some of the earlier challenges that we have had. and so where are the challenges that they face and they have had this a long time until even one president karzai was president, it took many months for him to put his cabinet together and so what are the benefits. and while it does take time to come to an agreement, once an agreement is made, that agreement is much stronger. because both of them are able to deal with their own constituencies who fundamentally disagree on political dynamics. but it actually strengthens the bond of the decision we have an c

and you just had president karzai at the helm. and doctor abdullah had handled the day-to-day operations. and so this is very difficult. what is fascinating to see is how both leaders have a different approach to common problems and how their strength after all have the ability to be good. they are generally on the same page when it comes to broad-based policy. so when it comes to security and regional relations and women's rights and that shouldn't be taken lightly with regard to some of the earlier challenges that we have had. and so where are the challenges that they face and they have had this a long time until even one president karzai was president, it took many months for him to put his cabinet together and so what are the benefits. and while it does take time to come to an agreement, once an agreement is made, that agreement is much stronger. because both of them are able to deal with their own constituencies who fundamentally disagree on political dynamics. but it actually strengthens the bond of the decision we have an c

you just had president karzai at the home. now you have this unique arrangement where connie was president dr. gillette being the chief executive who had handled a today operations. his position was established through a presidential decree. so this is very different. what is fascinating to see is how both leaders have a very different approach to common problems. their strength actually have a real tendency to complement one another if they are able to work together on these issues. what is most fortunate is both are generally on the same page when it comes to broad-based policies. when it comes to security, they agree. when it comes to regional relations they agree. rights,comes to women's they agree. when it comes to reconciliation, they have a broad understanding of the need to move forward. those are key things. that should not be taken lightly with -- with regard to the earlier challenges. they had. where are the challenges they face. they faced difficulty with regard to personal. time.s a long it is important to put it

president hamid karzai at a press conference from the palace in 2009. 2009 i went out with the new york times to a central afghan provincial capital to see what was going on in part of the province that is 80% controlled by the taliban. in the picture, it is not very clear here, but over in the left, you've got a brand new ford pickup truck that the united states had given them. these are british designeden ventedesco bears or mesh-like items with wire and you open them up and fill them up with dirt and you have instant barricades. the afghan flag. the chinese or russian rooftop, a broken chair, a traffic cone tips over, dirty socks and two very innocent but scared out of their mind afghan national policemen inviting me in for breakfast. the takeaway from this is this is a brand new ford pickup truck that has no gasoline. the gasoline that leaves kabul in an 18-wheel truck would be diverted an the gasoline would be unloaded and sold on the black market. so they had no gasoline from their brand new pickup trucks. this is the legacy of what we're going to leave the afghans and it is an in

president karzai was allowed to stand as president. so you had a whole new crop of candidates who were standing up. in fact you had 26 candidates declare running as president. when we think there might be a lot of candidates running for president here afghanistan had more of them. but at the end of the day you had eight candidates run frg the election in april of 2014. and in order to win the candidacy, you had to reach over 50%. but no candidate was able to reach that threshold. so the two top candidates, first one was abdullah with 45% of the vote and ghani with a lower percentage forced a runoff election. and that runoff election happened about two months yards in june which was then contested because of how some of the -- it switched from abdullah being on top to ghani being on top. and so there was a wide recount that happened for a number of months. so you didn't have an arrangement in place until september. and that arrangement was helped brokered by secretary kerry and the united states. in order to wring the leaders together i

year ago, the prospect for stable leadership seemed remote, included anons extension of president karzai's term and parallel government. after an afghan request for intermission, secretary kerry made to visits to cobble him a when he brokered the compromise agreed to the unity government. after achieving agreement on , i was left to handle the mediation and hammer to a political agreement form a unity government, becoming the first democratic transition of power in afghanistan's history. grapplen governments with implementation, and afghanistan is no different. the government has made progress in a range of key areas of the past year, from appointment, anticorruption initiative, to the recent establishment of the special electoral reform commission, which was especially fulfilling for me to relieve -- meet with. for this unity government to achieve its promises of reform, it must operate in an inclusive manner. this includes empowering ministries and governors to assume much of the work and engaging more comprehensively with a full range of afghan stakeholders. the parliament, civil societ

out there, and he thanked the coalition, something you didn't hear a lot with underneath president karzaibut underneath this new national unity government, they've embraced the international community. >> general campbell understands the importance of improving the economy and has followed the work of roots of peace in afghanistan, working on agricultural development. he met with the founder, heidi kuhn, and president gary kuhn at the base. i first went to afghanistan in 2005 to see a pilot project by roots of peace to remove land mines, raise grapevines off the ground, and put them on trellises. now the roots of peace program has evolved to link farmers and traders with the international export market. >> this program has really helped out afghanistan, and that's really the baseline for afghanistan -- agriculture. >> general campbell's personal roots trace back to the san francisco bay area. >> i grew up as an air force brat. my dad was stationed at hamilton field in novato, california, marin county. and then we moved over to fairfield, just up interstate 80. so, i went to elementary sch

the apple and google play stores recruit for the philadelphia police officer is department after a karzais motorcycle sending him into a light pole. it happened on the 1200 block of jade rash avenue in north philadelphia. officers tell us the 24-year-old recruit has a big garb on his leg. he's in the hospital in stable condition. and this comes just hours after an off duty philadelphia police officer died in a car crash. investigators say speed did play a role. sergeant raphael ali's pick up slammed into a tree on henry avenue in roxborough. sabina cure rows looks into what happened. >> reporter: debris scattered at the scene of the wreck tragically took the life of off duty philadelphia police sergeant around 11:45 saturday night. police tape marking off the 6,000 block of henry avenue in roxborough. where investigators say he hit the center media in 2014 dodge ram pick up and slammed into this tree. >> speed was a factor and losing control for sure. >> reporter: captain job, of the accident investigation district says sergeant ali was going well over the posted speed limb of 35 miles pe

karzai had to make my peace with this to be at the level with the sensibilities i was approaching that i was thinking and in -- to be empowered but other people had different reasons. >> host: when you went to oxford did you convert your british friends who were calling people followers? >> some of by christian friends were. but of the one hand i thought i was sharing something with them. to use these words for being a community so did i always feel comfortable? no. but then the question is how do i evaluate what a comfortable owe are acceptable use is and what doesn't? why should i be arbitrary? if they want to use these words certainly someone thought i would be too cavalier or too easy so they should be allowed to do this also i shared with them however they want. >> host: your worlds collided at one point in the book gives some of the set -- the suspense is up because you have written the book so we know how far you have, but there is a moment your status was in jeopardy because of a teenage prank to try to be cool and i am referring to the tower records incident and in your book y

of afghan security just wind year-ago the prospects were removed with the options and included the karzai term after the afghan request he famous a broker the political compromise of the government lie was left behind to the the mediation to hammer out a political agreement to form a unity government becoming the first democratic transition of power in afghanistan history polishing governments grappled with the implementation and afghanistan is no different there has been progress over the past year from the consumption initiative to the electoral reform commission that we met with last week. but the government to achieve the reform it must operate in a more inclusive manner to include in powering ministries to assume much of the work to engage comprehensively with a full range of civil society and opinion leaders domestic media and in all to believe the afghan people. those who feel excluded paved the way for spoilers to create unnecessary instability that is why i urge my colleagues to take the last best opportunity to demonstrate the government is durable and functional to translate th

the electoral impasse seemed remote and the unpalatable options included extension of president karzai'sterm and parallel government. after an afghan request for intervention, secretary kerry made two visits to kabul last july and august when he famously brokered the compromise that resulted in the unity government. after achieving agreement on the parameters of that framework, i was left behind in kabul to lead the mediation and hammer out over the next six and seven weeks a political agreement between now president ghani and ceo ab dull la to become the first democratic transition of power in history. coalition governments even in the most mature democracies -- president ghani's government has made key areas, from appointments and anti-corruption initiatives to the recent establishment of the special electoral reform commission which was especially fulfilling for me to meet with last week. for this unity government to achieve its promises of reform, it must operate in a more inclusive manner. this includes empowering ministries and provencal governors to assume much of the work and eng

karzai. [applause] >> there is a lot more, copies of the book are available, please form a line to the right of the table. thank you. you are watching booktv and c-span2 with top fiction -- nonfiction books and authors. booktv television for serious readers. >> here are some programs to watch this weekend on booktv. missouri senator claire mechanical talks about her life and political career on afterwards. dinesh d'sousa discusses pleading guilty to campaign finance laws. and a look at the history and impact of the americans with disabilities act. barnum swaying on his experiences as us speech writer for former south carolina governor mark stanford. an account of the lives of people on the gulf coast in the american revolution. and british consul turned spy, charleston, south carolina in the lead up to the civil war. for complete television schedule visit booktv.org. booktv, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors, television joy serious readers. >> here is a look at the books president obam

we put in the wrong person, hamid karzai, is hopelessly corrupt, the government is hopelessly corrupt. the afghan national army was corrupt and incompetent like its iraqi counterpart. what we look at and look over what is happening in the middle east, what we are saying is societies and countries which are in a state of extensive collapse and failure there is nothing the united states could have done to patch this situation up. trying to with stablish democracy in afghanistan and in iraq with schools and the united states should have instead maintained a hands-off approach and it is not just the best policy but the only -- the best worst policy in dealing with countries in situations like that. given your experiences in afghanistan do you think this would have had a completely different outcome, needed a different point. than we are. if a different strategy and different policy followed. >> there have been a lot of mistakes made in afghanistan. we struggled because we have vacillated between policy of trying to turn afghanistan into a viable democracy and one of narrowly focusing on o

president karzai in 2009 at a press conference in the palace. 2009, i went out with "the new york times" to a central afghan pruvenchulate capital to see what was going on in part of the province that's 80% controlled by the taliban. in the picture it's not clear here, but over in the left you've got a brand-new ford pickup truck the united states had given them. these are the british designed barriers which are collapsible burlap or meshlike items with wire. fill them up with dirt and you have pretty much instant barricades. the afghan flag. the roof top to a pickup truck. a broken chair, a traffic cone tipped over dirty socks. interesting gutter here, and two very innocent but scared out of their mind afghan national policemen inviting me in for breakfast. the take away from this is, this is a brand-new ford pickup, has no gasoline. the gasoline that leaves kabul in an 18 wheel truck would be diverted, the gasoline would be unloaded and sold on the black market. they had no gasoline for their brand-new pickup trucks. this is the legacy of what we'll leave the afghans. it's an infrastr

pakistan and is not going to be a satellite of india, which was a suspicion that pakistan have president karzai. but on the other hand, at the same time he's got to send a message to india that afghanistan is not going to outsourced its foreign policy to pakistan, not going to be under a satellite of pakistan either. he's going to have to exclusively balance that relationship because he needs both countries. he needs pakistan to help them do with his taliban problem and he needs india to help them deal with particularly with his economic problem. so you know the are a few presidents in the world today that have a set of challenges in front of them that president ghani does. but i wouldn't bet against him. >> i know the question don't want to get, but they mullah omar question, particular i think beyond that, of course lots of daily moving stories in terms of how that's going to unfold in the impact it could have on the peace process but maybe taking a step back and going into more detail in terms of why they think we actually got to this point right now in terms of the peace process that we did

from the senior leadership, they surrendered in summer of 2001 and met in fact with karzai who was being escorted by the speci special forces to engineer a deal. every one of them from the senior officials like the minister of justice, the minister of defense, the minister of the interior, is wall the way down to rank and file field commanders, they surrendered and tried to switch sides. it's not because they suddenly felt they believed in the american ideas of freedom or they loved the united. this is how war worked in afghan over the last two or three decades. when the russians left, they rebranded themselves holy warriors. people would switch sides out of nothing more than bald pragnatism, in a situation where life gets so deadly, you learned to switch sides depending on which way the wind blew. after 2001, these taliban members tried to switch sides. there were a number of high profile incidents that were covered in the press at the time. covered in the new york times and other places, in which taliban members tried to hand over their weapons and try i to cut a deal with the new offi