[captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: david ignatius is an award-winning columnist pe "washington post" and a best-selling author. his latest is called "bloodmoney" and he joins us tonight from washington. david good, to have you back on the program, sir. >> great to be with you, tavis. tavis: there is a fine line, they say, between fact and fiction. of all the noffs you've written, which all seem to be rather timely, it's almost hard in some instances to know where the line is in this novel, "bloodmoney," between fact and fiction, because so much of what you write is literally happening at this moment. i assume you've picked up on that. >> well, i was astonished when i watched the raymond davis case unfold. your viewers will remember that raymond davis was the c.i.a. contractor who was arrested in january and imprisoned for shooting and killing two pakistanis who were trailing him. it turned out that he was part of an undercover c.i.a. operation that's so much like the one that i'm describing in my novel. and he ended up getting released two months later through pa

david ignatius joins me now.s book and i did by the way the other book "the increment" about iran's nuclear program. you really choose these topics, the jump off the front pages. when one's reading it because i know how much you know about the cia and how much time you spent talking to people, i have to believe lots of it is true. >> i don't want to play games with you, my friend, or the reader. i am painting on a canvas of fiction with the colors of life. i have spent lots of time with the isi. i've traveled with them to south waziristan, i've met with their director-general, general pasha, as i said in "time" magazine, i have e-mail correspondence with isi officers so i do know the life subject and i tried in "blood money" to tell the crazy story about the isi and the cia, often mutually destructive two scorpions in a bottle kind of relationship that they have. that said i do have to say this is a novel. it wouldn't be fun to read if it wasn't reinvented, if it wasn't real life reinvented in the mind of the aut

thanks to our round table, michael duffy, helene cooper, norah o'donnell and david ignatius. we'll see you back here next week. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪ [ woman ] sam begged and pleaded... so i sent him to camp. we'd earned lots of points with our new citi thankyou card... and i put them to good use. he told me about his bunkmates, and how he signs up for every activity. ♪ he even hangs out with the camp director. just like that. [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it.

john heilemann, farr farr, andrea mitchell and david ignatius. first off, it was a week dominated by twitter, but the hard reality of our very economy is what is haunting the obama white house and giving encouragement to the republicans. the new issue of "time magazine" has this cover, what recovery? "time magazine" lists the five myths that shows how hard it will be to get back to how this one was. number one, the current is a blip. no matter how much the white house says it's true, two, more monetary stimulus could work if it comes to us. it keeps interest rates down, but it doesn't make people without jobs buy anything. three, private sector investment will help when it kicks in. businesses spending in emerging country is into the here. four, the people are ready to work. the fact is with new jobs, people can pick up stakes to move where the jobs are and many don't have the right training for the jobs. five, americans are entrepreneurs. that's just not the force it once was. rana this is a top portrait, are we in the downward from the american

thanks to our round table, michael duffy, helene cooper, norah o'donnell and david ignatius. we'll see you back here next week. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

david ignatius, thank you very much indeed. in other news, more than 2000 as traders tried to blockade the catalan parliament in a display of anger at regional budget cuts. police used helicopters to get a number of politicians into the building in the spanish city of barcelona after the building was surrounded by demonstrators feared protectors are angry at planned cuts in health and education. today, congresswoman giffords was released five months after being shot in the head during a murderous rampage in which six people were killed. she has been undergoing rehabilitation and will now look to her husband's home in texas. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, how many new tone on wall street. radio service pandora has become a hit with listeners, but now it is investors which the company hopes will get on board. now what if you did not have a government and no one even noticed? sounds impossible, right? that is exactly the case in belgium. ross -- from brussels, the city without a gove

we have an assessment from james shinn, richard haass, david ignatius and joe klein. >> i'm not re that peace accord has such dismal prospects. i think it's certainly going to be very different but it's preferrable to a retreat soviet style. so the impression is what can you get from such negotiation and how after you brought the military force to bear on it, can you hammer out a deal. >> if i were advising the president, i would go down to 30,000 troops or 25,000 troops over this time period. go down to a minimal force to advise, and train counterterrorism. didn't do the pakistan raid with 70 or 90,000 troops. we did the pakistan raid with a couple dozen troops. >> it's true now as a year ago, why on earth should they take part on any process at all. you will have a vacuum and you will probably have a civil war. so trying, giving your best shawt at making this work by having some leverage seems to me there's a pretty good argument. >> i think that this was a victory for the vice president, for joe biden. and a defeat for those who wanted to do, continue to do extensive counterinsurgenc

also with us, former deputy assistant secretary of state, liz cheney and david ignatius of "the washingtonost." thank you all for being here. let me get to you, ambassador. you heard the testy exchange. this is the real world. why has pakistan done that with the cia informants? >> pakistan round under more than 30 people as part of the investigation about the osama bin laden compound. of course we're taken by surprise. among those are people with all kinds of information. we're dealing with each one on the basis of what information they have. as far as the concern that there are people amongst the people we rounded up who are informants for the cia. we deal with them as we deal with a friendly television service and resolve this to the satisfaction of our friends, as well as to our own laws. >> are they being punished? >> no one is being punished. basically this is an exercise trying to find out what has happened. as secretary gates said that's the real world. when something like this happens you want to know what happened and how and who was involved. >> you imagine, liz cheney is here, d

>> david ignatius pointed out in front a's "washington post" -- friday's "washington post close but is that arresting people who helped the government -- these were spies. we do that in our country when people spy for our friends. we arrest them. i don'tind that incredible. >> did and we give billions of dollars to help find the enemy? >> you don't choose your allies in this world. some of them are double dealing, and that is what pakistan is. we are in trouble if ibecause or best friend in pakistan, at the military head, is under attack from his own military and he could lose his position or more because of the resentment against america and his helping america. >> i want to go back to republican politics and take another look at michele bachmann's performance earlier this week. >> this election will be about economics. it will be about how will we create jobs, how will we turn the economy around, how will we have a pro-growth economy. that is a great story for republicans to tell. >> that is michele bachmann, congressman from minnesota. i will name no names, but in the past, a member

a couple of different paints from david ignatius. your response. guest: he is a wise man, very good columnist. he wants to have it both ways in the column. he wants us to get out of afghanistan faster because he realizes that our vital spwls are no longer served there. and yet he is complaining about the speed of this particular withdrawal. of course, there will be risks in taking 30,000 out in a year. they won't be there to fight for another six months. but nothing is ever going to be perfect there. we can't reduce security risks to zero. it is up to the afghans to take over. that is the theme for president oba obama, and that is the point that drives into the heads of the afghans. host: on the republican line mike joins us from richmond, west virginia. caller: not richmond, west virginia, richwood. host: good morning. i didn't think that seemed right but one never knows. organic from richwood. caller: good morning. am i on the air? host: you are. caller: i was talking about the soldiers overseas. when we go into fight i was in one of those abrams

a couple of different paints from david ignatius. your response. guest: he is a wise man, very good columnist. he wants to have it both ways in the column. he wants us to get out of afghanistan faster because he realizes that our vital spwls are no longer served there. and yet he is complaining about the speed of this particular withdrawal. of course, there will be risks in taking 30,000 out in a year. they won't be there to fight for another six months. but nothing is ever going to be perfect there. we can't reduce security risks to zero. it is up to the afghans to take over. that is the theme for president oba obama, and that is the point that drives into the heads of the afghans. host: on the republican line mike joins us from richmond, west virginia. caller: not richmond, west virginia, richwood. host: good morning. i didn't think that seemed right but one never knows. organic from richwood. caller: good morning. am i on the air? host: you are. caller: i was talking about the soldiers overseas. when we go into fight i was in one of those abrams