In fact the converse is true: At a time when the United States has been called on for a level of moral leadership vision and inspiration not seen since World War II we cannot afford to dissemble about crimes against humanity.

There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility.

And the whole world the whole world that believes in freedom whether you're talking about personal freedom economic freedom religious freedom they look to the United States for leadership and you're part of that leadership.

I talked about the need for American leadership I talked about the importance of the United States to a more peaceful world a world that has been quite turbulent in recent years and needs a strong American anchor.

France after the month of May will share trust with the current leadership of the United States which on many subjects has tended to take useful positions in our view.

It's really necessary for the United States to continue to give strong leadership to the Middle East peace process supported by European countries at the same time.

Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way including George Bush senior Gerald Ford and others including myself and Bill Clinton.

We have a tremendous lack of knowledge of how far we have gotten away from the Constitution of the United States. Democrats and Republicans alike have taken us away from the original intent. You see I believe in this document as our founding fathers intended it.

But I am just as appalled that my experience knowledge dedication and service relative to defending the United States against biological warfare has been turned against me in connection with the search for the anthrax killer.

This crisis exposed very significant problems in the financial systems of the United States and some other major economies. Innovation got too far out in front of the knowledge of risk.

There are whole precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence does not equal that of one representative American woman.

Since the tragedies the Department of Homeland Security was established to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States and most importantly to share intelligence information among government agencies and departments.

Another factor is the decision made in 1976 to sharply divide the FBI and the foreign intelligence agencies. The FBI would collect within the United States the foreign intelligence agencies would collect overseas.

By definition intelligence deals with the unclear the unknown the deliberately hidden. What the enemies of the United States hope to deny we work to reveal.

Well our position and our chairman has talked about this extensively is that we had a lot of intelligence prior to 9/11. We knew that two al Qaeda operatives who ultimately participated in the 9/11 disaster were in the United States. We didn't find them.

The security of the United States which is so dependent on having accurate and timely intelligence is not a Republican or a Democratic issue.

Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.

As Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak have repeatedly said the intelligence and security relationship between the United States and Israel at present is unprecedented. It has never been stronger.

These are Canadian and United States intelligence and law enforcement offices who are working in teams and who are using good intelligence and good law enforcement to really stop the criminals and terrorists before they ever get to the border.

The United States has done more for the war crimes tribunal than any other country in the world. We're turning over all the information we have including intelligence information.

Cynicism and naivety lie cheek by jowl in the American imagination if the United States is one of the most venal nations on Earth it is also one of the most earnestly idealistic.

We're in an emergency situation. The United States has become an absolutely terrifying country and I would hope that I could participate in some way in stopping the horror and the brutality.

And I hope America will realise as the only superpower now it really must use its power in a way that's going to build up the world and to support the United Nations.

The myth of the liberal media empowers conservatives to control debate in the United States to the point where liberals cannot even hope for a fair shake anymore.