Michael Hayden Quotes

I held top-secret security clearance.

The diverse threats we face are increasingly cyber-based. Much of America's most sensitive data is stored on computers. We are losing data, money, and ideas through cyber intrusions. This threatens innovation and, as citizens, we are also increasingly vulnerable to losing our personal information.

I have an interest in getting government officials to talk to me about National Security affairs. You know, that's my bread and butter; that's how I make my living.

According to the Privacy Rights Center, up to 10 million Americans are victims of ID theft each year. They have a right to be notified when their most sensitive health data is stolen.

There are some classified documents there that we received from the CIA. Our arrangement with the CIA was that we could by mutual agreement declassify these documents, but we had no authority to unilaterally declassify them.

The secrecy stamp … has been used to withhold information which in 99 ½ percent of the cases would present no danger to national security.

… the government should not be permitted to collect and store mass, undigested, non-public personal information.

You have to be very limited in who you give your social security number to.

No country anywhere in the world allows material that genuinely puts national security at risk into the public domain, and that includes a courtroom.

The 'Patriot Act,' 'Enhancing domestic security,' and 'Protect America' all sound great - until you realize that they're catch phrases for programs that contain roving wire taps without a warrant and the collection and sale of your personal information to the U.S. government.

If my son or your son handled classified information the way that Hillary Clinton did, they'd be court marshaled.

Leaking classified information is a crime. And if we have evidence that somebody in the executive branch is committing a crime, we should prosecute that person.

I have a lot of experience dealing with classified material, starting when I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee going into the four years as secretary of state.

General Mike Flynn obviously was dealing with Russia. So that's one person. But he was dealing, as he should have been.

I worked with [Hillary Clinton] for four years very closely when she was secretary of state and I was at the CIA. I provided her - personally provided her some of the most sensitive information that the Central Intelligence Agency has.

You essentially have a human-relations database on millions of Americans. The administration said, "Well we're not listening to calls, we don't collect content." As [Vice President] Joe Biden said when he was a United States senator, you don't need to listen to those calls. If you have who somebody called, when and where, and you learned, for example, somebody called a psychiatrist three times in the last few days and twice after midnight, you know a lot about that person that they may not want people to know about them, especially the government.

[Hillary Clinton] never misused [ information that the Central Intelligence Agency has]. She always protected it. I would trust her with the crown jewels of the United States government. And, more importantly, I would trust her with the future security of the country and the future security of my kids.

Steve Hadley, that's an outlier, for sure. But he's very experienced. He may be national security adviser, but think that would be a hard choice for Mr. [Donald] Trump to make because General [Mike] Flynn he's very comfortable with.

My real issue is that the woman [Hillary Clinton] exposed thousands and thousands of classified documents, which, if I exposed one of them when I was in the Justice Department, they would have put me in jail. That's what I know.

I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret.

There is evidence that Democrates were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Obviously, as secretary of state, I had some of the most important secrets that we possess, such as going after bin Laden. So I am very committed to taking classified information seriously.

National security is a serious matter and I do not think it is in proper to discuss such details in a public forum.

[James Comey] term extends for some time yet. There's no plans at the moment in changing that term. And we've enjoyed our relationship with him and find him to be extraordinarily competent.

We know the Chinese have revealed millions of background information on millions of people in the United States, and these, I suppose, ultimately are part of international big-power politics.