I am committed to ensure that our intelligence community law enforcement medical professionals and military have the information and funding needed to protect the American people from threats at home and abroad.

One of the great intellectual failures of the American intelligence community and especially the counterterrorism community is to assume if someone hasn't attacked us it's because he can't or because we've defeated him.

The Patriot Act removed major legal barriers that prevented the law enforcement intelligence and national defense communities from talking and coordinating their work to protect the American people and our national security.

I've always felt in all my books that there's a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts providing they have the information.

While the intelligence profession oftentimes demands secrecy it is critically important that there be a full and open discourse on intelligence matters with the appropriate elected representatives of the American people.

Well look CIA is an agency that has to collect intelligence do operations. We have to take risks and it's important that we take risks and that we know that we have the support of the government and we have the support of the American people in what we're doing.

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

Since we launched the original 'Pop Idol' in England I've remained close with Simon Fuller. Working as executive producer on 'American idol' for its first seven years not only was an inspirational journey into the heart of American pop culture it opened my eyes to the untapped potential of the incredibly dynamic young people in this world.

I guess something that I've noticed from American acts who had success in touring is more of an explanation as to their music. Which is I think quite funny. I think British acts might like to leave more to the imagination - maybe a bit more obscure perhaps - a bit more shy.

While F.D.R. once told Americans that we have nothing to fear but fear itself Mr. Ashcroft is delighted to play the part of Fear Itself an assignment in which he lets his imagination run riot.

It will take some time before a politician will capture the imagination of the American people and have the vision and understanding to do what is necessary for a better future for the people of America and the world.

President Reagan was a leader at a time when the American people most needed leadership. He outlined a vision that captured the imagination of the free world a vision that toppled the Communist empire and freed countless millions.

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.

The face of nature and civilization in this our country is to a certain point a very sufficient literary field. But it will yield its secrets only to a really grasping imagination. To write well and worthily of American things one need even more than elsewhere to be a master.

Our democracy our constitutional framework is really a kind of software for harnessing the creativity and political imagination for all of our people. The American democratic system was an early political version of Napster.

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of plus some that are beyond imagination.

We are really living the American dream to be a successful brand in the States and in Europe and to steep ourselves in our heritage. But we do it with a sense of humor. We don't take ourselves too seriously in fashion.

I think at its best the American sense of humor is the same as the British sense of humor at its best which is to be wry and ironic and self deprecating.

I mean yeah I'm sure that Python and the other things have paved the way for a greater understanding of the British sense of humor but I don't think it's all that different than the American sense of humor.

Sometimes Americans don't quite get my sense of humor. My good ol' British sarcasm seems to go over their heads.

Bob Hope like Mark Twain had a sense of humor that was uniquely American and like Twain we'll likely not see another like him.

I think Canadian humor is a little less broad than American humor.

I don't know if my sense of humor goes over Americans' heads.

I love the diversity of America. I love the plain normal sense of humor Americans have. It is not wicked like in some countries. And I also love how new America is.