"talibanistan" negotiating the borders between terror, politics and religion" i just want to say a few words of the subject matter to be discussed today were the of what became a years of endeavor and peter bergen will be your host and moderator today. catherine unfortunately is not here to the -- today but is a:editor about the taliban and its environment southern afghanistan, and western pakistan. to get at them itself when the united states was puzzling over its resurgence in afghanistan as a military challenge that had been neglected in the years after the 2001 arab emirates that it presented itself as a grave dilemma to the obamacare administration so we try to provide the regularity about this phenomenon recognizing the cliche image of the of one i aid malaya and his band of fanatics was inaccurate and falsified the problem. said not to prosecute a particular view of the taliban but look at its diversity and aspects of the character fetter not part of american debate to. i am really proud of this book and peter whose leadership from new america has been a joy in my office to supp

brought together largely and in most significant ways in the region we are talking about here, talibanistan. so i think that's important and a marker as to why this is so important. in the chapter i establish and assess the five elements of bin laden's al qaeda and made it historically unique and conspicuously severe threat and then go on from there to argue about why that threat has receded and what implication that has for us to better appreciate the dynamics, the regional dynamics underlying the present and future and south asia particularly afghanistan and pakistan. first, i argue that the five elements of an mlodinow qaeda that may unique was one that it inspired to be a co-organization dedicated to planning recruiting and training or in organizing and this is the important word here, catastrophic global terrorist events. against americans and other westerners that they refer to as zionist crusader targets especially in western homelands. this was for a specific purpose, to drive westerners out of muslim lands. second, al qaeda's core element principle was to serve as a vanguard for or

your new book is "talibanistan." is that how you see the future of the country? >> luckily not. if you look at polling data, most afghans did not want the taliban. they want some negotiated settlement. it will have another election with a high turnout and they're all the things that have gone right. we know what has gone wrong. whether it is very few minds or it is girls in schools. i was there when the taliban were in power. the good news gets excused -- of scared. >> thanks for coming in. afghanistan the focus of attention. i will be discussed at both meetings at the white house. a quick look at other news from around the world. president chavez will not be attending this thursday's story in of his third term. he will miss the ceremony because of ill health. he has been receiving medical care for cancer in cuba and he has not been heard of -- from since his fourth round of surgery which was on december 11. condoleezza rebels have declared a unilateral cease-fire in hopes of an end to nine months of revolt. the rebels had agreed to pull out of the east city in december. they an

talibanistan. so i think that's important as a marker as to why this is so important in the chapter i established and assess the five elements of bin laden's al qaeda that made it historically unique and conspicuously severe threats and then go on from there to argue that why the threat is received and what applications it has for us to better appreciate dynamics, the region dynamics that underlie the present and the future in south asia, particularly in afghanistan and pakistan. first i argue that the five elements of the bin laden's al qaeda that made it unique was it aspired to be a wa court order session dedicated to planning, recruiting and training and organizing of this is important work, catastrophic global terrorist incidents against americans and other westerners, especially in western homeless. this was for a specific purpose. that purpose was to drive westerners out of muslim lands. second, al qaeda scored on a principle was to serve as a vanguard for organizing and coordinating already

talibanistan. laugh -- [laughter] and i just wanted to say a few words about where this book came from and why the subject matter that you'll hear discussed today struck us as or worthy of what became really a couple of years of endeavor at new america led by peter bergen who will be your moderator through most of the program today. peter and katherine teedman, who unfortunately is not with us today, co-edited this book. it's a collection of scholarly and journalistic articles about the taliban and it environment in southern afghanistan and western pakistan. and it was born as an attempt at new america by a diverse group of researchers to try to get at some of the diversity of the taliban itself at a time when the united states was really puzzling over its resurgence as a movement, as a political force in afghanistan, as a military challenge, and really a challenge that had been neglected in the years after the 2001 defeat of the islamic emirates of afghanistan in which revived and presented itself