I came here today to also tell the American people that they must know that they are served by dedicated, courageous professionals. It is evident on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. It is evident by their work against proliferators. It is evident by the fact that well over two-thirds of Al Qaida's leaders can no longer hurt the American people.

We are a community that some thought would not be needed at the end of the Cold War. We have systematically been rebuilding all of our disciplines with a focused strategy and care.

Our strategy for the future is based on achieving capabilities that will provide the kind of intelligence that the country deserves. The president has ensured that this will be the case.

We constantly learn and improve, and at no time will we allow our integrity or our willingness to make tough calls ever be compromised.

I want to thank you for your patience. I want to thank you for listening through a lot of details. It's always great to be back at a place I love, the greatest university in America. Let's beat Villanova tonight. God bless you.

Moderator: Dr. Tenet has agreed to stand for some questions.

Question: Under both Presidents Clinton and Bush you played an unusually strong role in U.S. mediation efforts to bring a final resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Is it your best judgment that U.S. national security interests were best achieved by the Clinton administration's decision to levy blame against one man, Yasser Arafat, following the collapse of Camp David in July 2000?

Has the Bush administration really made the U.S. safer, in terms of removing the major friction point between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim world, by pinning the legitimate aspirations for Palestine freedom on the isolation of one individual?

Tenet: Well, I think that — first, I'm glad I'm no longer involved in this issue and I'm never really excited to speak about policy, but I'll say this.

We have, over two administrations, made a concerted effort to bring people together. Unfortunately, you have to bring people together with common, like-minded objectives that they do want to live side by side, that they do want to have two states live in peace.

And I would say that, if I went to my principal foreign partners — and not just the British; Middle Eastern services, other European services — none of us called us any differently.