in that capacity, prince al faisal helped run the mujaheddin war against the soviet occupation, workinggovernment and meeting with osama bin laden. one of the most powerful people in saudi arabia, the prince's father and grandfather were both kings and he is a former ambassador to the united states and the united kingdom. he sat down with me recently. prince turkey, thank you for joining me. >> thank you, mr. zakaria. >> as the head of saudi intelligence, you dealt with osama bin laden. what was he like as a person to deal with? >> when i met him, it was in the '80s. at that hetime he seemed to be very, very soft spoken, very self-efacing individual. his physique, of course, was imposing. over 6'3", and broad shoulders and so on. so -- >> but not charismat nick a way -- >> well, he never appeared to have any charismatic ambitions, you know. he -- he preferred to keep himself low key at that time. and he provided help to the mujaheddin by bringing money from not just the kingdom but from other places, as i say, medicines and et cetera. and this happened during the 1980s until the soviets

king fahad had authorized me to take a peace proposal to the mujaheddin and the afghan government.tely, that peace proposal didn't go far. and i remember sitting with -- i don't know if he's still alive or not -- with minister of the interior of the first benazir government, the benazir bhutto government. a general bubba. a gruff person, huge body and very loud voice, et cetera. and he was telling me, i want you to see my boys. we have -- the taliban have just begun operating in afghanistan, to help overcome some of the civil war that was going there. and it was clear that the general bubba thought of them as his boys. and so -- and it continued from there. and as you remember in 1998, i was sent to afghanistan to convince the taliban at that time to give up bin laden and to hand him over to us. i went twice, met with him the first time and the second time. unfortunately, for other reasons, mullah omar at first agreed but then subsequently completely dismissed the issue as being unacceptable. >> what do you think -- mullah omar is supposed to be still effectively running the taliba

of the mujaheddin. the second blunder was in 1996 when the taliban emerged and pakistan was the only country which recognized the taliban. at this moment i remember back in 2000, march of 2000, when president clinton came to pakistan. he was persuading me not to deal with the taliban. and i told him at that time that i would suggest a different strategy. that we all recognize the taliban and the world should open missions in afghanistan and let us then moderate them from within. certainly i am not with the idea of -- but confronting them or not recognizing them, it is better to recognize them and moderate them from within. that's not doing that was the second blunder. we could have resolved the osama bin laden issue. if there were missions -- if we did not agree to moderation. so that was the second blunder. now, the third blunder after 9/11 was, i would like to highlight, that after 9/11 with the coalition attack in afghanistan and with northern alliance, the taliban and al qaeda were defeated, it was

they are all products of the mujaheddin become al qaeda now. not only that in 1996, the taliban emerged. why from 1989-2006 in afghanistan, about 10 ethnic groups, all were fighting among themselves. they ravaged the country and destroyed the country of afghanistan. but in 1996, it became the taliban. [inaudible] the total ravaging of the country, destruction of the country. as far as pakistan is concerned , another element started, a freedom struggle in kashmir which started in 1989. its impact on pakistan was there were dozens of hudge had a dean groups which sprung up from our society inside pakistan, volunteers preparing, wanting to go to india as part of kashmir to fight the indian army. why i highlighted these elements is religious military was introduced by us in 1979 and continued until 1989 and then having abandoned the place by the united states, it continued in a different form all bodies fighting each ethnic groups, taliban emerged, al qaeda and kashmir freedom struggle with mujaheddin and pakistan was militaries from the east, from

joanne king herring, convinced a congressman named charlie wilson to get the weapons to the mujaheddinld devote the soviets. and the movie was charles wilson's war. and she was played by julia roberts. >> why is the cia running a fake war in afghanistan. >> they're doing it. >> they're doing it badly. >> the army men, with weapons which would be good except the soviets have specifically armor plated their helicopter to resist 12.7 millimeter shell. if this were a real war. the state would issue a paper outlining communist threat. >> you may be the sexiest woman ever. look you're helen of troy. >> are you patronizing me? >> what do you want me he to do, he joanne. >> this is what i want you to do, i want you to save afghanistan for the afghans and deliver such a crushing defeat to the soviets, that communism crumbles and if so doing end the cold war. >> 30 years later she's still fighting for the people of afghanistan and has a brand new book "diplomacy and diamonds". >> and joining me, joanne king herring, so delightful to have you here. [applause] >> how on earth does a woman who is e