i mentioned james angleton. when he came out of the cia he could not stop talking.h a lot of these people. i think general flynn, as much as people should respect what he did in the military career, he needs more open roles and running the dia was not a success. as he became a political figure and all we need to do is look at what he pleaded guilty to. in this recent special counsel. i think there is a deeper point about, the secret parts of our government. cia, nsa, these military units. they need to be ventilated more. people need more exposure so that they will make better judgments in them when they come out, they will have more success. >> host: we have a few minutes left with our guest, david ignatius. this is david in pennsylvania. you are on the air. >> caller: i am so glad i got in! i very much appreciate what you just said about general flynn, mr. david ignatius. i have been involved with israel my entire adult life. i've used, on many occasions, a quote - which i believe is from you. which i saw in a documentary to the effect that anti-semitism is the ele

angleton had developed kind of a deep state within the state. when it comes to this smear campaign and politics, do you believe that there is a deep state, a subrosa state within the state controlling? >> guest: i guess it fends on how you -- it depends on how you define it, but i know because i had many great sources under the obama administration, many sources under the trump administration in different federal agencies. some of them were there under clinton and bush. some of the same people persist from administration to administration. and i often argue it's not the president at the top that is pulling a lot of strings, it's that group of faceless bureaucrats that most people don't know their name, but they're controlling the information that goes up to the president, and they're controlling information that comes down and are making sure certain things do and don't happen. there definitely is that, you know, that layer, and everybody who's been in d.c. long enough knows that. we know people who work in that layer. i'm not sure if it fit it

host: i think a new biography of james angleton came out last year and book tv covered it.if you go to book tv.org, our website, type in james angleton book and watch it online their. this is an e-mail from ken. he says i offer you this title for a future novel : the reluctant pessimist. he also asks has the world surprised you in any large way and he's writing from catskill, new york. guest: i like the reluctant pessimist. i my greatest failing, i think, as a journalist is that i often am an optimist. i look for the reasons why something will work, certainly writing about the middle east. friend of my said when i first began covering the middle east 1980, david pessimism hayes. may be i should be the reluctant pessimist after all these years. forgive me. what was the second half? host: has the world surprised you?d guest: i was surprised and pleased by unraveling of the soviet union. i was surprised and deeply troubled by the inability of us military power to create stability in iraq after the us invasion in 2003. by the continuing difficulty in using our military power to