there's a line of books that came out, richard dawkins, sam harris, christopher hitchens, many of whom in the pages. >> friends of mine. >> but they did have the kind of -- there was a critique of this new atheism that took some of the worst formal features of religion and sort of proselytized and standing uncertainty, and you say in this book that to you atheism admits to you it means i don't know. >> is simply is i don't know. that's all there is to it. just to say when any of those questions are asked, how did we get here, why are we here, to simply say i don't know is just to say maybe no one else knows either and if you don't know, you don't believe, and there is a gentleness to it, but i think it's very similar to acceptance of the gay movement in the '60s, when one of the things you had to show was that there was real intellectual reasons and moral reasons to accept gays. that was really important, but there was also the sense of how do people people live their lives, are they normal people, are they people next door and so on, and one of the things i want to do with this book i

was over people's families i was saying a lot of it back to conservative columnist christopher hitchens when and himself was water boarded and as previously stated that it was more of a came back and said this is torture i mean i think that it is not entirely inappropriate it is. as a disappointing part of our foreign policy our defense policy and it's a disappointing a moment in our personal history however and also i would like that i think. that they are radical ideal world with unicorns and poppies i would like to see me held accountable for a lot of the things that he's done you know outside save the valerie plame. it was another thing that threatened this country in terms of him violating some of our laws and what i can but i also want things to go out it came to having an affair and like a leaking a cia agent are what i do or say here's a here's a follow up to this just very quickly president obama went into cairo and gave his talk here's what he had to say there are some who advocate for democracy only when they're out of power. once in power they are ruthless in suppressing the

and christopher hitchens was one of the people who undoubtedly did that. and certainly at the point when there was a key moment when i finally was able to get the meeting with president clinton which was the first time that the american administration had ever really taken an interest, christopher was very key in pushing for that meeting, talking to people he knew inside the administration, and helping it happen. he wasn't the only person. the british government was trying. >> rose: tony blair was responsive too. >> blair was trying to make it happen too. the british ambassador, you know, et cetera. so there were a group of people but of my friends, christopher was, you know, he's very connected in washington and he used everything he had in order to try and bring about what he felt needed to happen. and i mean you notice your friends in need. your friends-- . >> rose: you have also said something very interesting. it is that your sense of respect for the brave people who stood in line to buy satanic versus that they somehow had a kind of courage. >> i th