it's just not going to happen. how is that relevant for afghanistan? the u.s. troop withdrawal is already set for the end of 2014. that being said there are vital strategic interests in preventing afghanistan from becoming yet again a safe haven for al-qaeda or allowing any place on the world to be a saturate haven for terrorists to attack the united states and its allies. so i think what this country is evolving of, the narrative spine of our entire book is this new darwinism, you know, terrorists are evolving and getting smarter. the u.s. is trying to evolve and get smarter as well so troops are already slated to come out of afghanistan by 2014 but no doubt a smaller counterterrorism presence is likely to remain there and also in other parts of the world. >> some of you know we're beginning to incorporate different questions from different social media outlets in our forum and this was one was submitted via facebook. how do you think real time

reporting helps or hurts efforts to combat terrorism? >> well, i think certainly it gives you a bird's eye view what's going. let's look at the mumbai attacks, for instance, in india. by having those attacks aired live -- not on indian television but with international television, it obviously gave the general public as well as world leaders and other counterterrorism officials a very clear look as to what's going on. but what it also did and this was deliberately done by the terrorists, it gave them situational awareness. by just watching their television coverage they could see what was succeeding and what was not and they could -- with their handlers back in pakistan they could be directed of certain other kinds of attacks just by watching what is working on some of those floors in hotels and around town and this has raised questions -- in media aftermath of mumbai whether the

media and particularly television broadcasting should either boycott or black out or somehow restrict their coverage of this. this was actually raised by people of new york city pd who was sent over to mumbai to study that. this could happen to new york and any other major city, could the police ask -- request the broadcast media to restrict some of its coverage to impair the ability of terrorist to use that to that i can tactical advantage. it's a discussion that, obviously, has been going on behind closed doors and probably wouldn't work just because the need to know for information but it raise aspretty interesting point of how you in this case would manage from a law enforcement standpoint a very fast moving fluid terrorist-type attack, a small scale attack happening multiple locations simultaneously how you would defeat that when the terrorists are using part of the communications network that, you know, in this case americans

have come to rely on for their information. >> thinking about the recent news on the numbers of soldiers who have been injured none of pakistan by the taliban with their ties to al-qaeda, tuning it's a good idea for the united states to remove the financial aid that we've been giving to pakistan? >> pakistan is probably the most vexing foreign policy issue facing our country today. and, yes, that's my line that i can't give you a direct answer. we have vital interest there. i mean, it's a nuclear power sitting on, you know, the crossroads of violent extremism. what we learned, though, in years past when the u.s. cut off ties completely with pakistan is we allowed an entire generation of their military officers not to have the opportunity to come to the united states and study at leavenworth and interact with

our military and create the kind of ties that really do bind the militaries together. so is there a problem with the relationship? absolutely but is severing ties the first step we should take cutting off all aid, i'm not sure what the effect would be. to understand pakistan's point of view you have to really put yourself where they shi whether we grow or not, they look at one direction they see india and they look way they see the u.s. where the u.s. will leave yet again. they've seen this movie before. it's called charlie wilson's war. they've literally seen this movie before and so they are supporting insurgent extremist groups in afghanistan because that is how they would like to maintain influence. the problem one of our intelligent sources used to say with us pakistan is keeping these poisonous snakes to bite

the neighbor's kids and they will bite their own kids as well. and pakistan is playing a very, very dangerous game and it's up to their leadership internally to come to the realization that that's not the best policy. it strikes me what you studied in the book was secure. it held -- it was tough to get in there. can you tell me something about your sources and did you have any luck with the nsa which must have played a part in it? >> so our book is largely drawn from first accounts, if interviews that we had with more than 200 individuals throughout the government at the highest levels of the pentagon, the justice department, the fbi, cia, other intelligence department, justice department trying to get a hole of government source in our approach to this book.

we did receive pretty good cooperation. and i think in large regard that's because thom and i had been working this story as beat reporters for the times for 15, 20 years and so we're going back to many sources who have been working with us for our daily reporting and basically saying we want to take a step back and try to put the last year in perspective and can you help us do that and with providing us with certain documents, through giving us their real perspective, sometimes after many cases -- after they've left government, it enables them to perhaps be a little bit more candid than they were before. in terms of the purpose of conversation and particularly in this area such as the cyberstuff. we were they careful as we discussed with sources that nothing that we published crosses the line. we were very carefully to go back to our sources and say, here, this is what we're planning to publish. this is what we do with daily newspaper stories too. this is what we're planning on

publish. if you have any questions on grounds of social security methods tell us now. if you have any objection, tell us. some information was this was happens because these agencies may want to try a similar technique or use a similar tactic again without the enemy knowing necessarily all the details that go through it. this was our approach and it mirrors what we do on a day-to-day basis working as new york reporters. >> regarding the nsa, general alexander who's dual hatted director of the usa as well as general of u.s. cybercommand gave us his first interview ever. and fort meade was highly classified we couldn't even meet on the fort meade area and we met outside of the gate and i calls our first date and i

couldn't even get off the front porch. [laughter] . >> there have been several television shows of spokespersons for an organization called the architects and nears for a 9/11 truths. this is about a group of 1600 architects and nears who are claiming the scientific evidence that they've analyzed shows that the two to yourself and building 7 were brought down by control demolition. now, whether we believe this or not, this is what these licensed architects are putting their careers on the line for to say. and they want the -- a new investigation. do you think al-qaeda could have had the capability on 9/11 to plant explosives buildings. would they have had that kind of

capabilit capability, no, they wouldn't. i was asked about it in a previous lecture. i'm not familiar exactly what these architects were saying that, you know, this was unprecedented to have these kind of attacks with basically aircraft full of jet fuel coming in and going through and i think -- neither of you -- i think a lot was not known just this the jet fuel at the high develop allowed me to form a moulton core in the middle but i think we would refer you and refer you to the investigation that had taken place and it had been happen. how do buildings side-by-side, you know, could actually implode like this, not keel over, tip

over of a tip over and it was a greater interest to the engineering community involved and you can imagine the insurers as well how this possibly could have happened, not just once but twice. >> we have just spent an hour listening to how this happened and what this country and others are trying to keep them from happening again. we have sat through several hours in the last couple hours of a very similar forum and i can go all the way back to cane and abel how can you get in the culture that create people that want to go out and give narrow life to bomb? it's one thing to go out when your country has been attacked as we have in defending world war ii and any of those kinds of things. i don't know there's an answer to this question. how how to we get along with people so they don't want to bomb us and the latest thing is why do they hate us so much?

>> well, i think to how do we we get into their culture? that's impossible. i think that has to happen internally in the muslim worlds. muslims themselves must decide that violent extremism carried out in the name of their great religion is something they don't want to tolerate. should the united states and other countries in the west help that part of the world to eradicate what eric earlier described so well as the poverty of hope. of course, that's our job, all of us to help our fell man and woman, of course, but whenever you talk about us getting into their culture, how do we win their hearts and minds muslims find that very insulting because talking about winning their hearts and minds say you would have to approach us. i think one of our interviews is

with mark hurtling and after he left iraq for the third time he said -- he had gotten far beyond the military concept of hearts and minds. what this country should do is earn their respect and the trust of these countries. we can only do that by the way we behave. >> we'll close from another of email from twitter. will there be a backlash of the u.s. launching drones in the horn of africa, specifically, ethiopia? >> i think there's always that possibility as we've certainly seen in pakistan. even as the cia has become much more adept at its targeting and so it lessenses the impact of civilians because they're very productive on this. again think of drones as a tactic and this is tactic that reflects a failure of a certain pastor of another policy and whether it's in pakistan or yemen or somalia, it means it's a means this administration and

the previous administration have tried to build up the security forces of those countries so they can fight the fights on their own territory so the u.s. doesn't have to, with all the baggage that brings but if you look at these examples, pakistan, spanish of north waziristan which is basically a no-go zone, obviously not for american troops but pakistani troops. they're not going after the militants in those areas for various reasons. yemen, the even with the return of president surprising over the weekend is still collapsing largely. it's drawn in its american-drained counterterrorism forces to defend the capital leaving vast spaces or vast spaces of yemen for that al-qaeda affiliate to hold on. there's no yemeni troops out there trying to combat the forces and in somalia itself there's a weak virtually nonexistent government in mogadishu that's trying to hold off this militant group called shabaab. it has international agenda to

attack outside of its boundaries of somalia. so the policy that this administration following on the bush administration is, if we can't get local allies, oftentimes undependable allies to go after this threat, to go after those groups that are specifically targeting the united states and american interests, then we, the united states government, has to do something about that. and one of the only tools at our disposable immediately are the drones. now, we've talked about a wide range of other things, diplomacy, counterinsurgency and these take a lot of time and money and effort and, yes, those are better long-term solutions but if you face a short-term problem and there are imminent threats to this country, what do you do about it if those countries where these terrorists are living and working and operating -- if those countries can't deal with it, the united states feels they have to go after it and, unfortunately, one of the few tools they have in the immediate is to go after with drones, air strikes, those

types of things. it's not the best solution. >> thank you both for a fascinating talking and for your excellent reporting. [applause] >> you're watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on c-span2's booktv. in 2002, booktv took a assure of shakespeare and company an almost 60-year-old bookstore in paris owned by george whitman who passed away on december 14th, 2011 at the age of 98. you can hear from his daughter and patrons of shakespeare and company on booktv. it's about 15 minutes. >> shakespeare and company

bookstore is located near notre dame cathedral in paris. inside, you'll meet 90-year-old owner george whitman and his 21-year-old daughter sylvia beach whitman. george whitman has provided lodging in his bookstore for aspiring writers since the early 1960s. >> the bookstore started in 1950 when my father was living in paris and he -- he fell in love with paris and he decided, you know, he wanted to stay here, and he found this place and he came to some inheritance and he decided to buy this start which only started as the ground floor next door, not including the other floors.

and so 1950 and then it was renamed shakespeare and company in, i think, 1960 or the early 1960s, after silvia beach's sylvia and company. she's the lady i'm named after. >> who was she? >> sylvia beach was a very incredible person, she's very determined. she is famous primarily for publishing james joyce ulysses. and there's a wonderful book sylvia beach and the lost generation which i'm reading at the moment and it describes her contact with the lost generation and what her bookshop was like. and her philosophy which i think my father has continued to an extent helping penniless writers

and other artists who don't have the money to support themselves and she supported a lot of hemingway and joyce and she had quite an incredible circle of writers around her. >> why did you come to paris in the first place? >> i just came for some holiday. before i came to paris, i already made one trip around the world. and i thought this was -- this became my favorite part of the universe right here in this little corner of paris. it sits next to notre dame cathedral in front of us and two cathedrals in the back of us.

>> what are the rules about people who stay here? >> well, that people who stay here -- initially, it was solely for writers who wished to stay in paris, which is such a charming city and has so much history in writing and so initially it was just for writers that wanted to stay and have a bed and in return they would work for about an hour in the shop a day and write their biography. but now there's a whole mix of people that stay here. there's artists, there's writers. there are people that are just traveling by, but dad prefers and i do as well that it's mainly people who are interested in literature who want to read in the library and people who are writing their novels or short stories or something.

>> my name is brian. i'm from washington, dc. i learned about the bookstore when i was reading ulysses, the front cover mentioned a little of the history of the printing of the book. and that bookstore over there is the original one by sylvia beach which no longer exists. but i did find this place and george was kind enough to give me this desk every afternoon to write and so that's what i do. i come here every afternoon in this atmosphere of books and learning. >> where are you in school? is that all gone? >> school's many years ago. i'm actually preparing to do -- travel in south africa. my wife is from paris and her father is a little ill so we're using this time in paris for -- to catch up on things. >> what's the advantage of sitting here writing in this atmosphere? >> well, it's hard to find space in paris to write. it's a tight city. but just being around the books, the reference and then george is very encouraging of writers. he's got a long history of helping writers so it's

rewarding and all these guys ask me questions and bug me all day. i get a page a week done. >> i'm from barcelona, spain, and i got here -- i was coming from berlin and going to barcelona. i knew i wanted to end up in my trip in paris. i've been going around and i just think paris is a seminal place to go to museums. while i'm here i get to talk to people from all over the world while i'm working at the desk but then at the same time, i can research my own writing and paintings by going out and finding amazing people and george has been really nice to me. and we like his pancakes on sunday. >> do you cook also for everybody? >> i do mostly cooking this soup and she made potatoes and leeks

>> what's your philosophy putting people up overnight? >> well, it's just a simple gesture. i mean, if i was an einstein and i gave the world a wonderful theory but i'm not an einstein, i'm just a simple ordinary person, all i can do is give them a bed and offer them a cup of tea. that's about all i do. >> how many people do you put here at night total? >> i think about five -- five is about the best -- five or six. >> and who do you give a bed to? >> well, we feel that we should give them to a man who's trying to write a book, a novel. so we give people like that a priority. otherwise, all we ask them is to make their bed. sometimes we have students staying here helping us to clean up the bookstore. >> how long do you let them stay? >> well, they're supposed to

stay one week but one guy stayed five years. >> did he work for you? >> no. he was a writer. >> my name is john young. i'm from charleston, south carolina. i've been coming to paris 1975. i can't believe it took me this long to find this place. i think maybe it's because i wasn't ready. within the first 15 minutes the way george greeted me and introduced me to sylvia and took me to the tea party and i fell in love with this place and that's the end of my involvement. i'll stay here scenes i'm useful to him. and if not, i'm sure i'll find another way. >> what's the tea party? >> tea party is at 4:00 every sunday. 4:00 to 6:00 they open it up to the general public and they give that and the space and everything else is given back to paris. the shortest trips i take to paris when i walk out the front door every day. it's not the same of anywhere else i've been.

it's an oasis. i like to think of it as an communal monarchy. george is our king >> who's the most famous writer here? >> a lot of creative writers but alan ginsburg was pretty well known and alan ginsburg and john de-prima, some english writers. >> my name is robin king, and i'm from grand forks, north dakota. and i ended up here kind of by accident as well. we're actually in the middle of a trip throughout europe and we started in paris and now we're ending in paris and when we came the first time we ran into some people who were staying here in exchange for work and a short biography for george and they said, if you come back to paris and you need a place to stay and what have you, come back and we came back and i'm not a reader or a writer by nature but this

place is very encouraging for that side of me. it encourages me to want to write and to read and i'm very comfortable here. i've never been so at home with books around me, ever. but we're staying for about a week but i know i'll come back definitely and i'll suggest it to as many friends as i know that will come to france, go to paris and go to shakespeare. >> my fame a colleen, cary and i'm from cleveland, ohio, and i started staying at shakespeare and company when george offered me a place when i walked in just kind of as a client, okay, but i love the atmosphere, love books, love having a book that i want to read within grasp of anywhere that i stand in the bookstore. >> we have bestsellers, obviously. we have a lot of writing from the lost generation writers, the beat generation writers, contemporary writers. we mainly deal in fiction. we also have philosophy,

psychology at theater, of course, cinema, spanish section, russian section, german, italian. not many french books, unfortunately. and we have this room which is the antiquarium which has some quite valuable and very interesting books. >> your daughter, 21 years old, going to run this place for you? >> well, she has -- she thinks she inherited the beauty of elizabeth taylor. she's not used to any real work, so i'm worried about the future of the bookstore. i'm just giving her and taking a big chance that she will be a little bit fearless. i'm worried that she's

interested in acting and she's not a very good housekeeper. >> now, it's unusual that a 21-year-old appearance 90-year-old father. >> yes, heat index >> what are the advantages and disadvantages of having an older father? >> well, firstly, everyone -- everyone says oh, you mean your grandfather. i'm like, no, no, my father. he's my father. no be no, your grandfather. no one seems to be able to take that in. but i think it has a huge advantage because he's -- he has so many stories to tell and he's a real inspiration because it made me realize that life doesn't stop when you turn 70 or even 80. he's 90 and he works harder than me and -- which probably isn't hard. i think people are often asked what do you think his secret