This Week They Said

Your enemy is not surrounding your country - your enemy is ruling your country

Your enemy is not surrounding your country - your enemy is ruling your country.- President Bush's message to the Iraqi people.

Why is the United States behaving so arrogantly? All that Bush wants is Iraqi oil.

- Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa.

The contradiction is that they're looking for a unified position but they're not asking everybody.

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- Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on the controversial "gang of eight" letter circulated among European leaders this week.

Basically I got on the plane with a bomb. Basically I tried to ignite it. Basically, yeah, I intended to damage the plane. I am a follower of Osama bin Laden. I am an enemy of your country and I don't care.

- "Shoe bomber" Richard Reid who was this week sentenced to life plus 180 years by a US court.

I have watched my son die a hundred times; every time they show those takes of the towers falling. Even now, when I watch - and I always do - I lean towards the television and in my heart and my mind I scream, 'Run, Carl, run. This time you'll make it out'.

- Joan Molinaro, whose firefighter son Carl was last seen racing up the stairs of the World Trade Centre's north tower.

I just hope there isn't any more trouble. and there isn't any more people hurt.

- Mary Ryan as her sons Edward and Kieran are released a week after their abduction. Their kidnapping is thought to have escalated a bloody criminal feud in Limerick.

It is wrong to say because of the high profile incidents you would be less safe in Limerick.

- Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne.

It's the biggest job in the world as far as I'm concerned.

- Brian Kerr, appointed Ireland soccer manager this week.

A prescription for disaster.

- Stephen Rowen, director of the Rutland centre for addiction treatment, on a controversial "all you can drink" promotion in a Dublin pub.

Finally they have to admit that I was never telling lies, that all I ever told was the truth, just me, a 10-year-old child against all those big priests.

- Clerical abuse victim Mervyn Rundle who this week reached a settlement with the archdiocese of Dublin. He is believed to have received between €300,000 and €400,000.

There are pluses and minuses. The plus is that I am known by everybody. The minus is that I am known by everybody.

- Television host Jerry Springer.

Although we did not participate collectively in the war which served as the back-drop to the Holocaust, our State's formative years coincided with the flood tide of evil which brought it about. We must acknowledge our own failings as a society and as a State in those events.

- Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell.

I am still in the game and might win the lovely b****r outright.

- Actor Peter O'Toole who, at 70, feels he is too young to accept a lifetime achievement Oscar.

This ban will mean a massive cultural change for people - it will be very challenging but I don't underestimate our capacity to change.

Minister for Health, Micheál Martin unveils plans to prohibit smoking in pubs.