First I have the privilege of being Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It is not an oxymoron I assure you.

Affairs of state tend to drive most presidents toward the center on both foreign and domestic policy no matter where on the political spectrum they begin and especially so in the areas of intelligence and law enforcement.

The plan we developed to deal with al Qaeda depended on developing sources of human and technical intelligence that could give us insights into his plans at the tactical level. This is easy to say but hard to accomplish.

We worked to develop our own operations to advance U.S. counterterrorism objectives by penetrating terrorist safe havens and collecting intelligence that would inform policy and enable our own operations.

I am sure that in Canada the people appreciate this principle and the general intelligence which prevails over that country is such that I am sure there is no danger of a reactionary policy ever finding a response in the hearts of any considerable number of our people.

And I understand that I testified in closed hearings over eight years because there are intelligence matters there are sensitive matters that should not be held in a public hearing.

Collecting intelligence information is like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant. You know in hindsight It's great. The problem is there's a million dots at the time.

The terrorist uses surprise and stealth and the only way to defeat that is by having accurate and timely intelligence.

If you look at the publishers I've worked with generally they're a great bunch. Creation is unlike any other publishing house you can think of. The people I've worked with have integrity and intelligence and almost always less money than ideas.

I'm inspired by the sheer ingenuity and intelligence possessed by my fellow band mates.