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 coming out down the highway, people with furniture, cars packed. we arrived and there was a police check