"Because as I speak to you, Nigeria is not yet fully ready, so I hope some of this will be passed on to Nigeria to force them to be ready in time."

VOA: standard.2009.10.22

"Turkish public opinion could not agree with the fact that an Israeli aircraft would be training on Turkish territory, while at the same time there are gross human rights violation being committed in Gaza,".

VOA: standard.2009.10.27

On Friday,the U.S.special envoy to Afghanistan,Richard Holbrooke,said he believes there will be less fraud this time around because only two candidates will be on the ballot and more international teams will be in place to monitor.

VOA: standard.2009.10.24

"And like Lyndon Johnson he has this really ominous problem, which is if you escalate in Afghanistan and we end up in that swamp that will over time be a kind of constant drain on support and enthusiasm among young people, among minorities,among liberals, among progressives and it will really sap the president's ability to continue to energize this broad agenda,".

VOA: standard.2009.12.29

He also offered some tough talk. "I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption, joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces so that the Afghan people can provide for their own security,".

VOA: standard.2009.11.02