embassy in kabul in 2002 and as well as 2003 and 2004. in the last but not least, a pleasure to welcome back to usip and old friend and former usip colleague alex thie. are. alex is assistant to the policy plan every administrator and learning. june 2010 to june 2013 alex served assistant administrator afghanistan and pakistan affairs overseeing usaid two largest missions in the world are before, joining us. s aid and served as advisor for director of pakistan and afghanistan from 2005 to 2010 until he convinced me to come take his job here. then from 2002 to 2004 he was legal advisor to afghanistan's constitutional and judicial commission in kabul and also in the 1990s, worked in afghanistan for the u.n. and various ngos for 1993 till 1996 of the with that i turn it over to you, ambassador grossman. each much our speakers will speak about eight to 10 minutes and then we'll have some time for question and answer in discussion afterwards. thank you. >> andrew, thank you very much. let me first of all say thanks to all the organizers of thi

this is a letter from kabul by doran townsend. are you here? you are, excellent. i'm going to quote you. this is in foreign affairs relevant to this. he wrote that, and he worked for unama in kabul, when western legal technicians are asked about these programs typically dismiss them as peripheral and prop began disi can, sideshow to serious institution of stayed building, audience surveys say that the shows make powerful impression comparing their own police, lawyers and judgings to more virtuous ones on fictional television. he didn't use the word fictional. viewers expected hope for clean, efficient justice system with new sense of your again system. mention as another show, crime scenes, producers received hundred of phone calls, to ask authorities to look into the violations highlighted in the shows. before we get into this, now we will, to broaden it slightly, what do we talk about when we talk about the afghan media? so we have a, a very strong panel to talk about this with us. on my left immediate left, peter bergen, national, director of the national secur

i'm with the kabul-based think tank called afghanistan analysis and awareness. i have two questions. one is, well, at the same time that we have these good activities we've got, also, groups like -- [inaudible] who are relentlessly working to radicalize the population. they have been very, they have been successful to some extent. did you go over there, matters of activities and radicalization in your study as well? and my second question is considering the importance of the interventions with regards to engaging the civil society network and religious leaders and this marley becomes important -- particularly becomes important considering the fact we have such religious cultural foundation in afghanistan for that considering the fact that sufi islam has been historically -- afghanistan has been big place, so why has the afghan government and instructional community has failed to tap into this opportunity? because extremism is, well, afghanistan is in the front line, but the growing threat to the security of the whole world. >> thank you. [laughter] >> conspiracy

one network correspondent friend of mine used to come to kabul every few months when i was working at the end of seat and he would do stories about the american troops and what they were up to. frankly in the business we called those beanbag stories because they always had an explosion in them somehow. and my friend told me he knew the international forces were only there is the purpose of the forces was to open up space for the aid workers, ngos, investors and most of all afghans to rebuild their country, their shattered economy, and to build some hope for the big generation that is coming forward in afghanistan. he understood that that was what they were here for. but he said that story is not sexy. but as it was noted in a previous panel between 2001 to 2010, the primary schools rose from 1 million nearly seven only in. a sevenfold increase in eight years. the proportion of girls went from virtually zero to now close to 40%. while i was serving at the embassy in kabul i helped to arrange come and i'm terribly proud of this, we found a launch of the afghan version of sesame rate. ok

for example, in kabul religious scholars and academics and radio personalities will convene at a major pilgrimage site to discuss how to disseminate messages of tolerance within friday sermons and on other public platforms. next slide, please. conflict resolution is another key type of program because local and land disputes or tribal disputes often feed militancy, if left unresolved. these types of disputes were traditionally handled by the council of committee leaders or elders. one particularly effective example of how this traditional mechanism can be scaled up comes from herat or hundreds of imams congregate at the mosque to resolve committee concerns. what's remarkable about this program is that you often have these programs televised, and local scholars who are participating will take lessons learned to their particular community. there are several secular organizations funded by usip, usaid, like ptr oh which is also designed excellent piece on conflict resolution training to bolster these kinds of grassroots mediation efforts. next slide, please. >> social welfare assistance t

i go to kabul, and stay in a guy's house and try to write a campaign plan, and so on the way houston he gives -- on the way out he gives me a rug, and two leaks later i got reimbursed for my air fare, which was not a bad deal. i didn't make any money but at least i wasn't out 13 grand for the tickets. >> now, you want to hear what we fight about? you would think a guy who is going to kabul, where his wife had been, all over afghanistan, and an armored vehicle, with double snipers, would have asked me something about security? no. he is driving around in some little bus, you know, and ieds everywhere, and this is pretty scary when the traffic stops. you can get blown up. i'm like -- >> actually, the house -- totally blew his house up. it was pretty -- a difficult -- trying to write a campaign plan for afghanistan was really different. we got one -- a great guy, great experience. >> can't win them all. >> people say that they have lost races with political consultants and some people say they never lost a race, we call those liars. >> mary, it's 1992. the election is over, and you don'

i go to kabul and try to stay in his house and write a campaign plan and on the way out gives me a rock. two weeks later i got reimbursed for my effort which was not a bad deal. at least i wasn't out 13,000 grand for the ticket. >> you want to hear me fight about you would think a guy who was going to cover where his wife had been, had been all over afghanistan in an armored vehicles, snipers, would have asked me something about the kid. he is driving around in some little bus, i e.d.s everywhere, this is pretty scary when the traffic starts. >> sometimes it was after i left, totally blew his house up it was a different thing, a kind of campaign plan for afghanistan, was really different. 1% is what we were predicted to get, a great guy, great experience. can't win them all. what is the old saying? people say they lost races and political consultants and people said they never lost a race and call those liars. >> it is 1992, the election is over and you don't have a job, you don't have much money and you end up on what you call the first check fight show. and you also write that fish sh