to do the you join nfl and ask questions christopher hitchens authorized "god is not great"nd other books, here he is. [applause] >> well, thank you salman and thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming and thank you for a can for honoring me twice and once by giving me the abraham lincoln podium, which we know would encourage one to the views. i can think of a more solid temptation than that. and also to speak in the name of both arthur miller and the troops with which those of us in the writing business will always identify him. i noticed in my top, certainly not in the same but i can say that i knew him a little. then my wife and i were married by the same rabbi who married arthur n. marilyn monroe, the same rabbi was his character witness at the same time at the house un-american activities committee because he wasn't enough that he was going to get married to the women's in the world. without the time having to ask questions about whether or not he counted as an american at all. and i can't cannot tell you just a couple of things about 10 and maryland. i just can't not,

[applause] >> christopher hitchens is a country been at "vanity fair" magazine. his books include "why orwell matters," "god is not great" in the forthcoming memoir, "hitch-22". for more information, visit pen.org. >> up next, booktv presents "after words," an hour-long discussion with the author of a new boat. this week former cia officer john kiriakou talks about his service in the agency both e4 and after 9/11. he played a key role in the capture of al qaeda associate abu debate that in pakistan and also a good u.s. officials of the planning of the iraq war. he is interviewed by frederick hitz, former inspector general of the cia and current fellow at the university of virginia center for national security law. >> host: sitting here with john kiriakou, talking about his new book, guerrilla spy. i told john before i got on the air that is like to ask them as my first question, how did you decide to write this book, john? >> it was a hard decision actually. i've

in fact, one of the things i describe in the book was christopher hitchens is a friend of mine. but i think his book "god is not great" is a very shallow read. and it's a bestseller because of that. christopher is a wonderful writer. and very intelligent man. but does not grasp the religious sensibility at all. and sarah and i shared this view. over christopher and we had an exchange which i describe at the end in "a cracking of the heart." i think to be a believer you have to be touched in a way. it's possible i spent so many years enthralled over a fake religion. and that believers are wrong. it doesn't really matter. it's what sarah said about politics. maybe i didn't quote that. but it's the way that you do politics that's important. it's the spirit you bring to it. it's not god tells you to vote for a particular party. and if you can be imbued with a religious spirit, that's, of course, tolerant. or very important. and compassionate. there are dimensions of experience that open up to you that are closed to others. and, of course, the one other thing i want to say about chris

i read some christopher hitchens, and they mentioned how it is uncouth for the average person in britain to take too seriously. thank you. host: mike freeman has this twitter comment. "not likely that americans, a young country can take advantage from the europeans, a century old culture. -- centuries old culture. arrogance." independent line. caller: good morning. i wanted to put in my two cents. i do not have the full truth answer for this question. i do feel this way and i do believe this -- i do not have a footproof answer for this question. about 234 years ago, we embarked on a revolution it to separate ourselves from great britain. what concerns me more than anything is i hear a lot of people -- i am not a young man anymore, i hear a lot of people, they seem to enjoy the milk and honey in our country but they do not want to take -- we are not perfect. we have some bad things that go on, but people that want to take the milk and honey and -- or they tend to preach about some other way of doing it, i believe that is wrong. i do not have the answer to the question, but that is all i f