34 Quotes by Lawrence Rita

That's the kind of exchange you want to have with a country that has not been that transparent.

We'll have a lot of flexibility to be able to let the forces stack on top of one another during the rotation (of troops in and out of Iraq) so that we can have a greater capability during key points.

We're not trying any harder or less to find bin Laden than we've been doing since 9/11. It's a tough problem, and we have a lot or resources dedicated to it.

The overall level of Afghan and coalition security forces in the country is growing.

You guys really want the definitive answer and so do we. The difference is, that takes understanding facts, and we have tried to uncover facts over the last week.

We see an adversary that ... continues to develop some sophistication on very deadly and increasingly precise standoff-type weapons.

Is there a way to define a threshold, or an anticipated threshold, above which a different set of relationships would kick in? ... That's a good question. It's only been two weeks, so don't expect us to have the answers. But those are the kinds of questions we need to be asking.

Is there a pattern? Certainly, in recent weeks three helicopters have gone down. Nothing has been ruled in or out in any of those three cases yet.

The secretary doesn't feel this is push back. He feels it's an important clarification.