John McCain Quotes

People often ask CIA Directors what keeps them up at night. Between rogue WMD programs, cyber threats, terrorist organizations, great power rivalries, and other global threats, there's bound to be more than a single reason I'm losing sleep on any given night.

After the Berlin Wall came down and Communism was on the run, I looked around and wondered what the next threat to the United States would be.

Let's remember, the CIA's job is to go out and create wars.

We're fighting an enemy that is far different than any we have got before. It's a nontraditional kind of war, and I think we need to step back, recalibrate how we go about protecting our borders and protecting our people, and resetting our position in the world.

All War Departments are now Defense Departments. This is all part of the doubletalk of our time. The aggressor is always on the other side.

What you get in the Cold War is 'the wilderness of mirrors' where you have to figure out what's good and what's evil. That's good for John le Carre, but not me.

I think all governments engage in intelligence gathering vis-a-vis other governments.

I've been called a spy of Israel since 1996, and since I made my documentary film in 2000 the FBI has investigated me as an agent of Iraq. The FBI has also opened up an investigation into my wife calling her a KGB spy.

It is only natural that for any statesman at the helm of any government the question of his country's security should be a concern of the utmost importance.

Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

Bob Gates is really emblematic of the modern CIA. He joins it in 1968, just a day before the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia. And, of course, he rises very quickly. In less than six years, he's on the National Security Council staff, at the closing weeks of Richard Nixon's presidency and then on into Gerald Ford.

I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.

I don't think, post 9/11, we're going to wait for real obvious things like Country A attacking Country B - because Country A doesn't attack Country B any more.

I think in national security, the war in Iraq is troublesome and a difficult challenge, but our troops and the military leaders we have are managing that situation, although it continues to be very risky and very dangerous.

Looking back over my more than a half century in intelligence, I have not experienced a time when we've been beset by more crises and threats around the globe.

Any foreign policy that is formulated in secret intelligence will always get the nation in trouble… secret intelligence always gets it wrong. It is a sample of a small part of the world---a picture of the world that is dramatically skewed.

Having watched the form of our traitors for a number of years, I cannot think that espionage can be recommended as a technique for building an impressive civilization. It's a lout's game.

The possession of highly developed armed forces by small nations is disastrous in all its consequences.

[Referring to the CIA:] We coexist. They work, and we work.

Absolutely get rid of CIA agents from units and the territory of Cambodia.

For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed.

The only remaining superpower doesn’t have enough interest in what’s going on in the world to organize and run an espionage service.

America’s fundamental aspiration is the preservation of peace…. This can only be done on the basis of comprehensive and appropriate information.

We want our spying agencies spying on foreigners. That’s why we have them.

The search for national security is today a source for urban insecurity.