Michael Hayden Quotes

Those who are troubled by our existing programs are not interested in repeating the tragedy of 9-11. And those who defend these programs are not dismissive of civil liberties. The challenge is getting the details right and that is not simple.

Stopping terror is clearly a pretext.

Accusations fit on Greenwald really sounds like he's against all surveillance unless you can find a guy with the Al Qaeda card, wearing an Al Qaeda baseball cap, an Al Qaeda uniform.

In the difficult fight against the new menace of international terrorism, there is nothing more crucial than timely and accurate intelligence

I believe the war on terror is the vital discussion of this decade and of our generation, probably. To win the war on terror, you need a good offense and a good defense. On defense, I regret to say, basically, this administration has not come close to doing what is necessary.

We are in a war on terrorism. We need to conduct that war and take it to the terrorists, not here at home.

In order to be successful against each of these threats, we have to have a presence overseas, work closely not only with our counterparts in the law enforcement community, but also with the intelligence community.

If we had known that one of those terrorist attacks was coming, could our government have electronically eavesdropped on the attackers without a warrant?

There’s always this struggle in a war between liberty and security … during war time we have these excesses and afterwards we apologize.

There isn’t any doubt that in fighting the War on Terrorism you increase the power and scope of government, and it becomes more intrusive.

The safety and security of the nation depends more so than ever before on intelligence.

… the war on terrorism will serve as the justification for restraints on civil liberties.

We don’t have to choose between preserving privacy and preventing terrorism. We do have to decide how much oversight and accountability there should be when the government conducts surveillance on its citizens.

There is no justification for continuing an unconstitutional policy with a zero percent success rate.

… there has been no instance in which NSA could say with confidence that the outcome would have been different without the... telephony meta-data program.

The question is not whether granting the government [this] authority makes us incrementally safer, but whether the additional safety is worth the sacrifice in terms of individual privacy, personal liberty and public trust.

In our view, the current storage by the government of bulk meta-data creates potential risks to public trust, personal privacy, and civil liberty.

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

I’d rather risk being a terrorists victim than live under a surveillance state.

If we have intelligence on the location of terrorist training centers, it is insane not to act.

I think a lot of programs, policies have been put in place since 9/11, have prevented a 9/11-style attack. On the other hand, I think the threat has become greater, not lesser.

The Patriot Act is essential to our continued success in the war on terror here at home.

I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation.

The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles.

In the fight against terrorism, national agencies keep full control over their police forces, security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.