>> guest: actually i did an issue. support their theme comedy reporter very good reporter is excited about the story. that is a perfectly actionable act by the secret service. why should it be penalized? and received this ranch. okay, i would like to put you on any way. i tried to be honest about these individuals and i believe they are on their right. >> in north carolina hi, william. >> caller: a wanted to pay attention to the author. the difference between the cia and the fbi.

when i first went on the police department never trust the fbi. you cannot trust them. then i got into a business, i was going to do something engineers to this country. high contacted one engineer from russia and said i will meet you when i am in the country. he was head engineer and a nuclear submarine. a whole bunch of engineers like this. it is -- i contacted the cia office being a next cop, a

wasn't a stupid. and with my binoculars i saw the first guy get out of a car. that is a cia man. we need more information on russian nuclear submarines. we got all we want. industrial counter espionage, sending back the rest of the entity spies because i know how the russians treat anybody in this country if they go back, the very first engineer i bring into this country, the state department, as that engineer i tried to get in would be an absolute gold mine for the cia. >> host: that ties into your

early >> in "escape from the cia: how the cia won and lost the most important kgb spy ever to defect tothe u.s." i reveal how outrageously this cia traded a russian defected to the cia with all kinds of secrets that they had this attitude that these defectors are inherently treasonous, can't be trusted. and sure enough he believed was his mistress, he decided to go back to the soviet union and sure enough the soviets even though they knew he had defected, he had not because it would show they would strip it for trusting him. that was an example of the cia can be really screwed up.

so this was during a the cold war. it was a little scary. the kgb would follow me and look for bugs in my hotel room. he would lie about almost everything but it was still interesting episode. >> host: en e-mail from brian. ten years ago i applied for a special agent john that the secret service i was successful through several steps until the polygraph after which they rejected me, left me with a poor impression of polygraph which i consider to be thoroughly pseudoscientific. i now work in law enforcement elsewhere in the federal government. do you have an opinion on the use or overreliance of polygraph exams? >> i believe polygraphs are very useful. as a deterrent. if you know you're going to be polygraphs you may not engage in

improper behavior you may not apply. in many cases when confronted with the fact that someone has failed a polygraph individuals will confess. that has led to many people going to jail or people being rejected by these agencies. is not perfect the kgb has various ways for instructing people was instructed on the polygraph so it is not always in fallible but going to back to the robert hansen case the fbi agent who was the spy for russia and the most damaging spy in u.s. history i presented the real story of how he was caught in my book the secrets of the

fbi. the director is used to approve a proposal by the deputy that all counterintelligence agencies are polygraphs so continued spying for another seven years. and was afraid of being caught by a polygraph. polygraph is something i do believe in. >> host: what is the relationship between the fbi, cia, secret service and congress? >> the fbi is smaller than congress. he would spend a lifetime with members of congress behind the scenes, he was very open and honest, a tremendous increase in budget. it is $7 billion a year.

the secret service is pretty good at that they will show them their facilities at national conventions, special access to members of congress. unfortunately that has not resulted in more money because the secret service has not asked for more money which is really outrageous and the cia has been back and forth under william casey, he would lie to the public and congress was not very happy with him or supportive of him the newt gingrich understood they did need more money and would provide more money but washington is all about relationships and if you don't get that you can be a failure. >> host: greg is in san mcphail, calif.. >> caller: thank you, c-span, for a wonderful program and appreciate you allowing me to

participate. i thank our guests ronald kessler. >> host: please go ahead. >> caller: my question regards the administration of herbert walker bush, going on in the white house where he gave carte blanche were the keys to the white house to the log cabin republicans who were picking up young boys, underage boys and bringing them to the white house during that era. i wonder if ronald kessler could shed a little light on that. >> host: where are you sourcing this from? >> caller: it never reached the papers usually it is anti-democratic events more so than the others so i wondered if you could respond to this

question. >> guest: in most cases of conspiracy theory, could this be going on and never hit the press? when so many people are involved? like the jfk assassination if there were applied by the soviets don't you think right now we would have some defectors who would want to make a million dollars to sell a book on the real story? that is all you need to know about some of these conspiracy theory is. they cannot be kept secret, whether the cia was involved in killing kennedy, do you think hundreds of cia people would keep it quiet or dozens to this day? in the case of this claim i think that is one way to approach it ended is simply not true. i reject the implied bigotry that there is something wrong with log cabin republicans who are gay who are republican.

>> host: have you heard that story before? >> guest: never heard that story but i am sure i will hear 1000's similar stories in my future career especially with the internet. i don't understand why people can't be more skeptical about some of these stories. for example the claim about obama being born in kenya. aside from the birth certificate the fact is newspaper articles appeared at the time in the hawaiian newspapers announcing his birth. as my wife pam pointed out in one thing i wrote, unless obama's parents when he was born in kenya decided he was going to be president and therefore put this bogus announcement in the hawaiian newspapers the whole thing is a can of worms and not true. something that should be obvious

to people but apparently is not. >> host: how many presidents have been interviewed? >> guest: only george bush. i can to go behind the scenes, get the real story. presidents are not going to save very much. i love to get the real story. it is a thankless job asking questions of the press secretary. woodward and bernstein would never have had this develop. the fact is at the washington post, thought the whole thing was baloney, try to undercut on the metropolitan staff. they bring in police headquarters covering local stories, this was a big thrill

for them. that is a major region the post was able to reveal stories because woodward and bernstein on the national staff were courageous. >> host: what do you think the health of investigative reporting is today? >> the washington post has been doing a good job as i mentioned they have been doing very good stories on the secret service scandals. on the other hand you have this impetus to put this on the internet without checking or investigation. it is the mixed bag. >> host: martha, you are on with ronald kessler. >> caller: hello. this past september fbi director james toney put forth a strategy of integration of agents and

analysts. ronald kessler noted the strategy. my question is how peaceable is the agency to collaborate with each other? >> if there is a problem, you have to work at it. there has been an effort to be of more status started training that had never been done before at the training facility and progressively both directors have been pushing for more collaboration between analysts and agents but there's still a pecking order where agents happened to be heard, there's work to be done. >> host: ronald kessler is your litter handle land and the one.com is your web site. can people contact you via those

vehicles? >> guest: preferably on the web site. i am not a big twitter aficionado. high should learn. >> my statement and question the veterans administration, one of the biggest scandals in the united states today. i am a veteran and former employee, and i was up whistle-blower. it was covered up. isil go to the va as a veteran receiving treatment but employees tell me what is going on. people die who don't have to die. saving money at the expense of veterans who are indigent, old

have a lot of problems and make uncomfortable. this is the biggest scandal in the united states today. a lot of people don't realize even in nazi germany hitler also eliminated the world war i veterans. this is happening now for economic reasons and the veterans administration. there is an attitude of indifference and unless you have someone there to advocate for you it is the worst thing in the united states today. >> guest: i agree. this brings up house scandals like that can occur. how could people be so callous? how could they cover up in order

to delay treatment that results in death? it is same with the secret service and the culture described their. how could they cut corners? when the president of the united states's life is at stake and yet it continues. that is the biggest challenge when it comes to someone in charge of an agency like that where you don't have a profit motive, they won't go bankrupt if they don't do well, it will just keep on with this culture and that is why in the case of the secret service you need someone who is outside the agency who will understand the culture and the current director does because he is from that culture but at the same time he refused to acknowledge what the

culture is. talk about how dollars and has a problem because of stress. that is not from. we have other incidents, most agents have no time to engage in that sort of thing. it is management. he refuses to acknowledge what the real problems are. >> host: randall whetherspoon e-mail, viagra was not publishing secret techniques. one of the worst, the story about osama bin laden using cellphones yet you--so much information this morning regarding the techniques of planting bugs, description of their size etc.. why did you do the same thing? >> guest: there's nothing anyone can do. everyone understands the fbi could in fact bug them but the fbi is those lie about how they'd do it that no matter what i put in my book, no one will be

able to eat a being bugged or wiretapped. in the case of the secret service and all this laxness that i reveal the secret service can change overnight. they can stop the laxness and corner cutting and say don't let anybody into any event or you will be fired. he could say that today and this would stop and the president's life could be -- would not be in jeopardy and that is why i feel perfectly safe revealing this corner cutting because it can be changed. >> host: on our facebook page i would be interested in the expenditures of former presidents and vice presidents. ronald kessler makes an important point but fails to report the story. >> guest: the expenditures are

public, hundreds of millions of dollars but i think is warranted because if you have a president like jimmy carter or george w. bush or laura bush taken hostage by isis we would be in big trouble. we don't want that. when you compare the budget of the secret service which is $1.9 billion as now projected year with -- it is ridiculous. we need to prevent another assassination. it nullifies democracy. i was in college when jfk was assassinated and cried for days. it was such a blow to everybody. when it comes to money, it should not be a factor. the secret service will not

spend money to have detectives that detect gunshots at the white house, something the metropolitan police in washington -- they won't spend money to use the latest techniques for detecting intrusions or w n d that are available from the national laboratories. any way you look at the secret service is a >> host: president's secret service: behind the scenes with agents in the line of fire and the presidents they protect" as a result of a reagan incident the secret service began using magnetometers to screen crowd that events. not before. >> guest: before the shooting of reagan these magnetometers at the white house to gain entrance but not to screen visitors are spectators but at the same time as i mentioned the real reason reagan was shot was his own

political staff overruled, shouldn't have the authority to overrule the secret service to let people in within 15 feet of reagan as he came out of the washington hilton that is why hinckley was able to shoot him and the secret service covered up and tried to blame the fbi, covered up what really happened. it was reagan's own staff that caused that shooting. >> host: here is a quote from a current agent. the service you would think would be on the leading edge when it comes to weapons and they are just not. >> guest: they are not. they don't keep up-to-date on the latest weapons. even amtrak police have more powerful weapons. it is part of the corner cutting, we make do with less attitude. when the director said we make do with less, soldiers in iraq have to sleep on the floor so if

we have agents working tremendous hours that is not so bad. imagine comparing a secret service agent who could make five times more money in the private sector with a young soldier in iraq that just shows you the lack of management cycle that you see in the secret service today. >> host: the secret "in the president's secret service: behind the scenes with agents in the line of fire and the presidents they protect" the secret service found richard nixon and his family to be the strangest. >> guest: an agent was watching nixon watch tv when he left the white house, in california. nixon was feeding biscuits to his dog and he took one of the biscuits, looked at it and ate it. this was normal behavior.

he just didn't have a clue about how to do normal things the rest of us do and this is one story out of many about nixon. >> host: next call from steven in decatur, illinois. you are on with ronald kessler. >> caller: thank you for letting me speak and thank the good writer for being part of looking into what our government does and the individuals that have power but i think the greatest -- his comment, for the republic is the gotcha government and the truth keatons on who has got it and how they want to use it partisan politics, putting aside the needs of the nation. mr. nixon you just talked about mr. nixon, he was a pretty effected president in so many ways except he didn't trust the media, wanted to control it got

involved in doing something that probably didn't make any difference in his reelection, he didn't trust the democratic process and it got into a lot of trouble trying to cover it up. another thing on iraq. i was there, everybody around me was beauty excited about invading iraq. from this far distant place saddam hussein is a complete liar and there was some evidence whether he had anything immediate that caused us to invade iraq and a lot of people died on the assumption that a lawyer had weapons that even i knew were questionable at the least. i heard a guy talk about politics. domestic politics in foreign affairs. i think the american people were

ready to kick somebody's but and iraq was there to get their butts kicked and a lot of people died and pandora's box is opened that hasn't been closed yet. >> guest: on the nixon description is a good description of nixon, mistrustful and that sort of thing. that goes back to character. if we don't look at character when we choose a president we will be in for trouble and that is a very good example. people often ask me do i ever get threatened or do i ever fear for my life? no, i do get e-mails that are very nasty sometimes from former agents, probably this cover-up culture, if you expose the truth there will be this retaliatory attitudes.

one 9 interviewing the cia later arrested by the fbi, they went to war jesus and things, i interviewed them with my wife pam. at one point karl started asking my wife pam, he knew that ham, the washington post, she didn't want to talk to anybody. answering questions and i could tell they're getting suspicious. this was during the polls war and i laid out exactly where is stories appeared in the washington post and later at the airport karl admitted that he thought that pam was an fbi agent and i was her shell.

that was the conclusion about this whole episode. the cia at war,. >> host: you discuss george tenet. >> guest: he did a great job. he was wrong about wm ds as almost any intelligence official was in this country, but he knew how to rally the troops, improve more route which is so important. there were successes under his tenure. >> host: he was not your typical cia director. >> guest: he would go to a greek restaurant every day for lunch. that was a big thing with george tenet. he was a very real person. >> host: what do you think of the new system where there is a

director, the c ion is not head of u.s. intelligence. >> guest: i don't think much of this system. i don't think most people in the intelligence community think much of it. just another layer of bureaucracy. it is true there was the need for more coordination among the agencies that that could have been done by the cia director with the staff and perhaps additional legislation. i don't see that it has added anything. in my mind book "the bureau: the secret history of the fbi" we talk about all these boring meetings and waste time. it doesn't help the cause whatsoever. >> host: believes is in st. petersburg, fla.. go ahead with your question or

comment. >> caller: i wonder if you are familiar with the case down in sarasota, former governor of florida, senator from florida who was on the 9/11 commission and never passed on it. the case in sarasota was a case with the saudi arabian family in a gated community six miles from the airport where the men who ran into the twin towers in new york got their lessons. these people one of the people that went into this gated community, they took license of these people and one of the people, belong to mohammed hadi and he is one of the men who

flew the plane. >> guest: that story is not true. in fact, osama bin laden and others in saudi arabia. and expelled onslow's took away their assets, didn't want anything to do with them. we need to keep in mind to is our friend and who's the enemy and in the case of saudi arabia they are a friend. >> host: former senator graham called for full disclosure of the 9/11 report, hasn't he? >> guest: i have seen him critical of a lot of things. as far as i know almost everything from the 9/11 commission has been disclosed. it has been an issue about saudi arabia, some sensitive stuff

that has to do with them being involved in 9/11. pinpointed what the problems were and something worth reading. >> host: stories over the last several years, and what is being kept secret from the american public. >> guest: this series of articles, which has this conspiracy to the intelligence community, and i would hope so. given the fact we have not had successful attack since 9/11,

never said that. the dishonesty, and the washington post. i don't understand how these people live with them sells writing dishonest stories not to mention the fact that a paper like the post today is going to be more successful. people will start over time recognizing you can actually trust the washington post. we should subscribe and look up website. it was opposed to some other examples where they're going down hill. it is so ideological. >> host: next call from robert kincaid coral, fla.. >> caller: thank you very much and thanks to c-span very enjoyable to get topics delivered end of thank you, mr. kessler. i was in college during the

nixon administration. i was struck when you said it was the first attack on the constitution. i would like to comment on that for a little bit and then come back to the present where i hear obama being called the worst attack on the constitution we have ever had. >> guest: my reference to the constitution and nixon, a special prosecutor people over him who would not appoint a new special prosecutor, to lie about money and the cover-up what nixon would want out, all these activities not to mention a break-in at democratic headquarters. all these things that were clear to me and i was in the center of

it, nixon's next could be to disband the constitution and become a desperate. it is a close call. for obama i don't think is that clear that his executive quarters are illegal on the one hand killing terrorists overseas with drones. the radical islamic terrorism, what could be more ominous than the vast majority of muslims are peaceful, many of them are friends. i have several muslim friends who are admirable people. on the other hand there's a sect within that religion, they are

terrorists. they're like serial killers. i don't see what is the problem with distinguishing in that way. it does not lead to bigotry against muslims. to the contrary it makes it very clear that we should respect muslims and treat terrorists like terrorists. >> host: 20 minutes left with this month's "in depth". if you can't get through on the phone lines try our social me addresses, we will flash those on the screen for you. >> caller: i am a democrat and i have questions about hillary in regards to an observation about hillary in regards to her e-mail that came from c-span watching. i am concerned with her whitewater issue and also i met

her at the democratic convention in maine in 1994, i helped somebody with the wheelchair get to talk to her and she was very interested in the paper that i wrote. when i moved to new york city, i was her constituents and didn't expect her to remember me. i did have an appointment with her aid and the office would not let me in to see her and happens to be fair, walked by me and had to get up and talk to her seemed very close to constituents i am concerned how somebody in the lower class would be treated and concerns about her transparency as a

president in terms of the e-mail, and i saw how in c-span should the judicial watch , asking many legal questions and dennis separate story not on c-span, how the secret service could keep the server out of a server save could you give more examples how secret services could keep such a server safe, and also -- >> caller: we are going to leave it there. >> caller: >> guest: had nothing to do with servers. if we are talking about burglars coming and stealing the server, that is not the issue. the issue in the case of keeping

her government on this server there could be something else the secret service would not be involved in whatsoever and as she treatise people, maybe in the horse people, hillary instruct secret service agents when she was in the white house that they were not supposed to be seen by her. they were supposed to when she was coming down a corridor to actually literally hide behind curtains because she didn't want to see them. that is sick behavior. you, can imagine how someone with that kind of personality might react when she gets in the white house where typically presidents become even more arrogant and disconnected from reality because of all the adulation. those of the clues to character we need to keep in mind as

opposed to house someone appeared on tv, whether that person reacted well in net debate. those are totally irrelevant to real issues. the real issues are character and track record. you have to look at the track record. fbi agents are taught when they go to conoco for initial training in virginia that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior and that is how it is obvious most of the time but most of the time we ignore those >> host: from house: the hidden lives of the modern presidents and the secrets of the most powerful institution," never forget turning the door knob to one of the seven capital highways when lbj was majority leader of the senate and making his rounds to make sure all offices were locked, and opening the massive door on the sofa, having sex

with carol tyler a blond curvaceous secretary, quote, there was lbj on top, excuse me, you son of a bitch, jumped up, took off running because i knew the man's tender. i ran to the other end of the senate building down the marble stairway pass the clock ran through the rotunda. he was running after me. i ran to the house wing to the terrace level to the chief's office. i cost lbj he is threatening to kill me. the officer said to hide in the locker. those lockers were little. i had a gun and flashlight and crammed myself in so i could hardly believe. lbj came flying in. i thought it would break, he said where is that officer? the desk officer said who are you talking about? johnson replied that son of a bit too came in here i will kill him. eventually johnson tired of the and and the desk officer extricated him from the locker.

>> guest: i revealed in "the first family detail: secret service agents reveal the hidden lives of the presidents" the johnson was having sex with most of his secretaries and his wife caught him in the oval office with one of the secretaries, johnson blew up at the secret service and said you should have warned me and ordered them to install bugging system so in the future if she was near, they would warn him she was in the area. this shows the arrogance, the hypocrisy and when you think about it how could this person ever be president? how could this person be in charge of the vietnam war that led to 50,000 or 70,000 deaths? what kind of judgment does that show? these are things that people are in denial about? they put blinders on. they don't look at the real picture. that is one of the messages of

my book. >> host: neil in long beach, calif.. >> caller: i am proud of un c-span and ronald kessler, you couldn't find a better person. i have one question. it is about the assassination of kennedy. there are a lot of stories. i am not a conspiracy junky but they show a lot of proof that lbj in the back of all that, richard helms that lbj was the instigator of all that handle lot of proof he knew about it before it happened. i leave that question on the floor, you are a good man, you should have your own show. >> guest: none of that is true. the warren commission, fbi investigation did a thorough job that oswald was the lone assassin.

that is typical of assassins, they are unstable and commit these actss to get attention and how many people, if they were true. and made a few million dollars. >> host: fred in maine. >> caller: thank you very much for the ability to talk with people three copies of ron's book i lived in maine, i worked in d.c. 50 times a year. you have a good program going on. congress doesn't represent a cross-section of america. among groups anywhere else in this country, groups think the

same way we do, to get something done. one of the major reasons we can't get anything done, gerrymandering and we can't get that solved so we can get the right district and the right states. one of the major problems is unfortunately the supreme court building along with unlimited contributions to candidates. my question is on this. political cronyism, corruption in the sense it is not transparent. one of john boehner says nothing gets done but i am proud of that because of least we had bad legislation in. my suggestion is this. half humorously but very seriously, i think we should force these politicians to wear a jacket similar to nascar, they

must have patches on themselves equal proportionate to the number of dollars they donated. if the nra donate half the money is bigger. i want to look at a senator and a congressman and have them show me that jacket and see who has fought them. comments about gerrymandering, about allowing big money into this political system please. >> guest: those are major problems. they occur within the democratic party and the republican party. i do think given the fact that the supreme court has ruled the money is free speech and should not be limited, we should have term limits which at least would bring in new candidates who would not be as the hold and to certain many interests and i think that would help the lot. that would require members of congress to vote against their

own interests so i don't know if that will happen. elections do have consequences do make changes. republicans coming and democrats coming and changes are made and in the end litter is possible to have the fairly affective government. >> host: here is chapter viii from inside congress called follow the money. but go to mary and from california. >> caller: hello. yes. i think i have a suggestion for all book. i would like to see a book written on the coos sponsored by the united states. the first time remembers batista when i was a child. the reason for them, special comment on the latest, the

ukraine. thank you. >> guest: we had a short-sighted policy that we thought we could overthrow governments in iran and look at what we have got. it was foolhardy and the cia was part of that. all that was approved by the president and the cia never did anything the presidents didn't approve of. that certainly has not been food for us and a good example of the problems that existed in those days within the cia. we had the bay of pigs which was ridiculous where everyone, even the new york times, new the invasion was being planned and yet the cia went ahead with that. hundreds of people lost their lives. outrageous things. in many ways the country has

gotten much better. has become more focused. the improvement in oversight has made a big difference. in terms of civil rights we have seen big improvements. i remember when i was at police headquarters at the boston herald, the other reporters referred to a cheap murder meeting of the murderer was black, that is how bad things were in those days. now blacks are often advancement or accepted to college because we do want to be more diverse. >> host: the volume of 20 books do you have a favorite? >> guest: i love them all but one is the palm beach book where i learned to drink champagne, i

have a wonderful time with my wife pam. remarkable story of what can happen when you have too much. the reason. "the first family detail: secret service agents reveal the hidden lives of the presidents" encompasses of many of the important messages that i feel people need to know about not to mention exposing this laxness. many of those stories have still not hit the press. my book on joe kennedy, the father my wife did the archival research, exposed so many myths about him. for example he was described in the press as that very religious guy who went to church every day. he never went to church according to his mistress. i love coming up with the truth whether it is a small tidbits

like that or something like william sessions abusing his position as fbi director leading to his firing by bill clinton and other stories like that. >> host: your first book on life-insurance game, what is that about? >> it reveals how deceptive the life-insurance industry is because it is regulated by the state. if it were regulated by the fcc it could never get away with some of the scams and deceptive practices. they will tell you universal life gives you 4% or 5% and a death benefit. they don't tell you, that is not an honest percentage disclosure. the agents commission are taken out of that 4% so in this milieu end up with may be 1% if you are lucky and i went and visited various life insurance agents

and said i am interested in life insurance can you tell me about it and reported what they said and half the time they didn't know what the truth was. it was just outrageous. if the fcc were in charge, not than they are perfect either, they didn't and, the bernie madoff scam when they should have but it would be a big improvement. >> host: susan, thank you for calling. >> caller: i want to refer to a question earlier, the person, the caller was asking about, would have been been john o'neil who worked in the fbi and was on to osama bin laden for years. he was let go and took that job with security and died in net hours. do you refer to him in any of your books? that is one question. my second question is the woman that just called not too long ago about sarasota, there was a

nurse in sarasota who was on to the fact that the flyers were staying in venice, fla. just south of sarasota. the night before 9/11. there is something to that story. mohamad off the was dating one of these girls. i was with my mother in her presence the day of 9/11 and the fbi did come to visit her so there's something to that story also. are you familiar with it? >> guest: no. i don't believe it is true. facts about mr. o'neill, he was highly respected in charge of counter terrorism in the new york field office of the fbi. he left of his own accord to get higher paying position with the world trade center and he was tragically killed. he didn't have any premonition about the attack.

he certainly was aware of the danger and the threat but there is no conspiracy aspect to what happened. >> host: ronald kessler's 20 books beginning in 1985. life-insurance game. the richest man in the world the story in 1986. spy vs. spy, stalking soviet spies in america. moscow station, how the kgb penetrated the american embassy. the spy in the russian column. "escape from the cia: how the cia won and lost the most important kgb spy ever to defect tothe u.s.," a whole series of u.s./ration books. "inside the cia: revealing the secrets of the world's most powerful spy agency" 11 came out in in secrets of the most powerful institution" "the sins of the father: joseph p. kennedy and the dynasty he founded" about joseph kennedy came out in 1996

inside congress in 1998, the season that we talked about, inside palm beach, 1999, "the bureau: the secret history of the fbi" came out in 2002. the cia at war in 2003, "a matter of character: inside the white house of george w. bush" 2004 laura bush, 2006. the terrorist watch, inside the desperate race to stop the next attack 2007 and then ronald kessler's last three books the president's secret service: behind the scenes with agents in the line of fire and the presidents they protect" 2009, the secrets of the fbi and most recent "the first family detail: secret service agents reveal the hidden lives of the presidents". green castle, indiana, go ahead with your question or comment. >> caller: great program. one question for ronald kessler would be going back, getting

fought on the presidents back to truman who had the best understanding, the importance of each of the three agencies, he took the time to understand them and out of those presidents from truman forward, the best mutual respect going both ways. >> guest: truman created the cia. that should say something about his understanding. george w. bush was very involved with the cia, very appreciative of what they did. george h. w. bush as you know was cia director for a year but never got very involved in the intricacies and was not as involved as you would imagine. you asked about why i write the

books. with inside the cia, that is the one book as i understand it that the cia recommends to applicants and new employees at the cia even though the book came out years ago and the book on the one hand goes into all their foolishness, secret plots, lack of understanding of the need to uncover real espionage, cover up their malfeasance until john martin as i mentioned before, the prosecutor of the justice department would not put up with that and would basically start prosecuting cia officers such as that but on the other hand it goes into how they really work. not like homeland at all. it is quite different. that is why i think it is important for employees to learn

from these lessons, with the fbi to know what was right about the hoover era without a lot of misinterpretation, to understand very clearly why hoover was not someone to be admired as many agents did because he did abuse of american rights, he did blackmail members of congress and presidents even though he also did a lot of good things. those are all lessons i hope as i write these books will be taken, inculcate it within management, within the employee work force and i believe that has happened. >> host: george, nashville, tenn. you have twenty-second. >> caller: great program. i would ask ronald kessler the question why is it the death of dr. martin luther king is consistent with evidence of his autopsy protocol.

i am curious to know if that is not a cover-up too. >> guest: what happened? >> host: martin luther king, is that a cover. >> guest: it is not a cover. and was the fbi that got the suspect from england. in so many cases the fbi has been on the side of civil rights, white doubt the ku klux klan, it took a lot of courage, a lot of understanding and wisdom so the fbi gets a lot of bad knocks understandably because they did arrest martin luther king in the old days but today the fbi is something that i think we should admire. if your kid is kidnapped you better be sure you will be appreciative the fbi is on the case. >> host: ronald kessler has been our guest for the last three hours on booktv, thanks for your time. >> this sunday on q&a senior

editor for the weekly standard andrew ferguson on his writing career, the gop presidential candidate for 2016 and what voters are looking for in a candidate. >> they want somebody who looks like he stood up for them. i am amazed the degree to which primary voters on both sides are motivated by resentment and the sense of being put upon. those people really don't understand us. here is a guy who does understand us. he will stick it to them and that happens on both sides, hillary clinton will give her own version of that kind of thing. i don't think that was actually true 30 years ago. resentment has always been part of politics obviously but the degree to which it is the motivating factor in truly committed republicans and

democrats. >> sunday night at a:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q&a. c-span2 providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and keep public policy events endeavour weekend booktv. 415 years the only television network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. ..