in this remote corner of northwestern iraq, turkish is quite widely spoken, as is kurdish and arabic. i had contacts and i covered the ground in tal afar and we had enough daylight to get to tal afar but we had difficulty finding a taxi driver. >> whenever they heard the word tal afar they were making the movement, no, no, no. >> mujahadeen. >> we could hear that word mujahadeen, mujahadeen, mujahadeen. the mujahadeen is a generic term which americans think of as insurgent or taliban or al qaeda or whatever, but they see themselves as muslims defending their country. that should have set off alarm bells. >> who are these guys? >> but finally we found a taxi driver. >> $30. he just said okay, give me the money, yeah, i'll do something crazy and take you to tal afar. >> my plan was to get inside the city, hook up with mcontacts and from there, i mean, being safe about it, observe what was about to happen. most people would think it was insane to go straight into it. but in my experience being at the vortex you are in the eye of the storm and it's been safe. all the way in we saw cars co

. >> narrator: once the americans were gone, what was left of zarqawi's group, isolated in northwestern iraq, began to rebuild. they had a new leader: zarqawi's successor, abu bakr al-baghdadi. >> i mean, he really is a chip off the old block, in terms of zarqawi. he has the same sort of sensibilities, the same flair for publicity, the same obsession with widespread violence. >> they are part of a similar ideology. they believe in political islam. they have a view of the caliphate. baghdadi had a ph.d. he was a soccer player. >> narrator: abu bakr al-baghdadi's journey from religious scholar to jihadist leader started back in the early days of the american occupation. as the u.s. army conducted mass sweeps of the sunni population, baghdadi was put into an american prison. >> for a number of people who had spent time in these jails, they spoke about them as jihadi training camps. so through being in jail together, people created new networks. >> narrator: they were known as "jihadi universities." baghdadi learned zarqawi's methods. >> he is able to network with other committed jihadists, capa

that's not where iraq's oil is, in these western and northwestern parts of iraq. it's not where syria's historical strengths of its great cities are. now you have a sunni-arab state that is economically destitute and dysfunctional. that can only be a recipe for more violence down the road. that's my practical reason against partition. i can still imagine confederation working. that gets to the mosul question. it has been held by the bad guys for a long time, so a lot of damage has been done. a few more months presumably won't change that much. i don't think we have a really good answer to this. we have been foundering between, should we help the iraqis create a national guard that could be locally recruited and stabilize a place like mosul, should we strengthen the police force, should we divide the city into quadrants. even our advice has not been consistent. i think the only realistic hope is to have these notions of confederation on the table, but to understand, whether it is confederation or the current arrangement, it's going to require collaboration among th

that's not where iraq's oil is in the western and northwestern parts of iraq. it's not where syria's historical strengths of its great cities are out in the center and east, and, so, you have now a sunni arab state that is economically destitute and dysfunctional, and that can only be a recipe for more violence down the road. so that's my practical reason against partition. i could still imagine confederation working and that gets to the mosul question. so my second point would be the real risk here at this point is not so much whether or not mosul will be liberated. it's already been held by the bad guys a long time so a lot of damage has been done and a few more months presumably won't change that a lot, but the question is who will stabilize mosul after i.s.i.s. is driven out and as just mentioned which sectarian group, which foreign power may have the greatest influence? i don't think we have a great answer to this. we have been foundering between shall we create a national guard or help the iraqis create a national guard that can locally recruited and stab

northwestern high school. you can see that live on our companion network c-span at 3:55 p.m. eastern. >> both iraq afghanistan i hope those countries with their constitutions being sort of facilitator of agreement on key issues among iraqis or afghans. your influence is considerable, state or government very anxious to meet with you when you ask for a meeting stake sunday night on q&a, former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan and iraq and the united nations zalmay khalilzad discusses his memoir "the envo envoy." speed and we saw the extremes such as zarqawi exploited, although we've been directed towards the end of the period that i was there by the surge, by reaching out to the cities, by building up iraqi forces, by establishing a unity government killing zarqawi at the end, to bring about security. violence was way down but, unfortunately, when we left and the documents held by rival regional powers, pulling iraq apart, violence escalated every device has now spent sunday night at eight eastern on c-span's q&a. >> earlier this week a new hit of voice of america made her first public remarks since

northwestern high school. you can see that live also on c-span. it is scheduled for 3:55 p.m., just about 4:00 eastern time, again on c-span. >> both iraq and afghanistani helped both countries with their constitutions being facilitator of agreement on key issues among iraqis or afghans. your influence is considerable. heads of state or government very anxious to meet with you when you asked for a meeting. >> sunday night on "q&a," former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan, iraq and the united nations zalmay khalizad, discusses his memoir. >> we saw extremists such as zarqawi exploited, although we corrected it toward the end of the period i was there bit surge and by reaching out to the sunnis, by building up iraqi forces, by establishing a unity government, killing zarqawi at the end to bring about security, violence was way down but unfortunately when we left, and the vacuum was filled by rival regional powers pulling iraq apart, violence escalated and we have isis now. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >>> up next a conversation on genetic engineering and synthetic biology. we'll hear from scientists working on glowing plants, hornless