When did you first meet Hamid Karzai?
I met Hamid Karzai the following morning the morning of Nov. 29. We were in [a small] village. He was inside a mud-walled compound, inside a mud hut. The first time I saw him, immediately I identified him from his picture. He spoke perfect English, probably spoke it better than about 50 percent of the guys with my element. … The thing I remember is I immediately took a liking to him. He was very easy to talk to, very friendly. But the other thing I noticed was his two satellite telephones, and he was constantly giving interviews. When I walked in there, as a matter of fact, he was giving an interview to some news agency over the phone. He sat me down and we drank tea. Then we started our conversations about what we could do for the south — what his goals and objectives were for the south. Part of my intent was also that I wanted to make sure that he and his commanders were involved in all the decisions that were made. I didn’t want this to be an American-only operation. I wanted him
