It is remarkable that jealousy of individual property in land often goes along with very exaggerated doctrines of tribal or national property in land.

The skills of the British intelligence community are a great national asset.

I rise today to discuss the National Intelligence Reform bill. I commend my colleagues in both Houses for their hard work in coming to an agreement. As with any conference each voice is heard but none can dominate and compromise must be achieved.

I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest.

A lot of the things that we've been able to do in the last several years were Democratic ideas including the structure for this new director of national intelligence.

Since 2001 the Patriot Act has provided the means to detect and disrupt terrorist threats against the U.S. Prior to enactment of the law major legal barriers prevented intelligence national defense and law enforcement agencies from working together and sharing information.

Not all intelligence can be artificial now so if we make a mistake the consequences are no longer simply located within an institution or a national culture.

Over the course of two years we arrived at a point where we began to look at the value added by making information more easily accessible across the intelligence community both defense and national.

I can remember when I was National Security Adviser the intelligence community told us... they put out an intelligence report saying that Iran would never back off from attacks on shipping in the Gulf if we use force.

The National Intelligence Director needs the authority to do the job we are asking him to do. That means power over the intelligence budget. And to be effective to be allowed to do his or her job they must have authority over the budget.

The 9/11 Commission strongly recommends that the National Intelligence Director be fully in control of the budget from developing it to implementing it to ensuring that the National Intelligence Director has the clout to make decisions.

Louis Freeh said on national TV that actionable intelligence could have allowed us to stop the hijackings.

The Intelligence Committee will also examine present counterintelligence programs for the Department of Energy the National Laboratories and the Department of Defense.

Legislation passed in the aftermath of September 11 2001 enhanced our intelligence capabilities and strengthened our national defense but until now our nation's immigration policies have not adapted to the needs of a post-September 11th world.

I have had national security background 10 years on the Intelligence Committee the last two years as chair.

I will not nor will I ever publicly divulge sensitive intelligence sources and methods. For when that happens our national security is endangered and lives can be lost.

You can't get closer to the heart of national sovereignty than national security and intelligence services.

In the fight against terrorism national agencies keep full control over their police forces security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.

Improving our national intelligence capabilities should remain a top priority and a continual process.

Our intelligence community needs better coordination of operations and exchange of information and that's why we need an overall director of national intelligence and a national counterterrorism center.

If you look at military and intelligence positions from the 1950s the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been against American national interests.

The Clinton White House today said they would start to give national security and intelligence briefings to George Bush. I don't know how well this is working out. Today after the first one Bush said 'I've got one question: What color is the red phone?'

There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that the National Portrait Gallery's version of the Barack Obama 'Hope' poster previously belonged to a pair of lobbyists. Depressing because Mr. Obama's Washington was not supposed to be the lobbyists' Washington the place we learned to despise during the last administration.

When I think about the world I would like to leave to my daughter and the grandchildren I hope to have it is a world that moves away from unequal unstable unsustainable interdependence to integrated communities - locally nationally and globally - that share the characteristics of all successful communities.