Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for being here today. I wish that we could have met under better circumstances.
It is now a year to the day that the despicable terrorist organisation known as HYDRA launched their cowardly and vicious attack upon this great nation and upon the peoples of the world. Having spent so long cowering in the shadows, they finally sought to make a strike that would destroy freedom itself.
They failed, of course. They did not realise that the deadly weapons of a helicarrier were no match for the power of the people. Yet the damage they did may never be repaired. Untold numbers of innocents died on that day. I know that many of you had friends and family who were among their victims. They will be made to pay for this terrible crime.
Many of their victims will be very familiar to you. Our beloved President, Matthew Ellis. The Avengers, Dr Banner and Mr Stark. My colleagues, Agent Romanoff and Director Fury. I have had to step into the shoes of one of these men and women and let me tell you they are some big shoes to fill. I hope that I will be able to prove myself worthy of this office during the brief period in which I will occupy it.
However none of these unfortunate demises have been as terrible as that of Captain Steven Rogers. Captain Rogers was a truly great man. For decades he served his country ably, courageously and nobly. He was a true patriot and a true believer in freedom and liberty. Yet he understood that freedom requires vigilance. It is thanks to a lack of vigilance that HYDRA were able to infiltrate SHIELD under the noses of our government and it is only thanks to his vigilance that they were discovered. We must remember Captain Rogers as a symbol of all that is heroic: it is in his name that we must rebuild the world.
We must remember that HYDRA has not been destroyed: they have merely retreated back into the shadows. They have regrouped under the leadership of the traitor Philip Coulson. I must thank Agent Ward for his great service in bringing this to light. Our intelligence suggests that they have formed an alliance with the invasive alien species known as the Asgardians and they retain control over their primary assassin, the so called "Winter Soldier". No matter- I promise you that in the name of Steve Rogers and the millions of others slaughtered that I will ensure that these criminals are brought to justice, no matter where they may hide.
The continued threat of HYDRA is why the emergency measures that have been put into place remain necessary. In order to ensure that HYDRA is unable to become a threat again we must remain vigilant. All communications must be monitored in order to ensure they are not being used by HYDRA. All elections must be suspend until such time as we can determine that no HYDRA plants remain active within the political system. I thank President Stern for his cooperation in giving us at SHIELD the tools to do our job and I am glad that our allies overseas have chosen to follow his example. In order to ensure that the events of last year do not repeat themselves it will be necessary to create a new world order and we at SHIELD are happy to be at the forefront of this.
Alexander Pierce, Secretary of State and Acting Director of SHIELD leafed through the script again. It was a good speech, if a little short. The Rogers material was particularly good. It made him smile to think of putting Captain America on their posters. Oh, if Schmidt could see us now.
He read through the last line of the speech "thank you all and may God bless America".
It's a pity we couldn't add a "hail HYDRA" he thought but that might be a bit much at this stage.