In the fall of 2001, Dan Rather traveled to Afghanistan with the 60 Minutes II production team. They worked on a series of stories, including an interview with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, who had been elected in December Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan by participants at the UN-sponsored Bonn Conference.

In an oral interview conducted in March 2015, producer Dana Roberson remembers that this was her first travel to a combat zone and the tips Rather gave her. She recounts the types of stories they were preparing, including an interview with Hamid Karzai in the crumbling palace.

This particular piece allows Roberson to talk about how access of the press in a combat zone is negotiated and the relationship of journalists with the U.S. government when interviewing a foreign leader.

Dan Rather would interview President Karzai several times, on September 16, 2002, during the latter's visit to New York, and on Dan Rather Reports on February 13, 2007.