Michael McCaul Quotes

There is no question that Iraq is one of the main problems. You'd have to be blind not to see what a magnet and generating force it's become for terrorist groups.

The Syrian regime is helping the insurgency in Iraq and allowing all kinds of militants to come in and out, and go to Iraq to attack random soldiers and innocent people.

When you look at Syria, and you look at all the militant groups on the ground, there are many groups in Syria that could pose a threat to the United States, not just Khorasan.

The invasion of Iraq, particularly, gave a big shot in the arm to the jihadi extremists.

The presence of American troops is fueling the insurgency in Iraq, as acknowledged by General Casey and numerous other experts, and is helping terrorist recruiters build their numbers across the globe.

Libya became a rat's nest of extremism after NATO helped depose dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and it now exports weapons, jihadists, and ideology to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Choosing to arm and train the Islamist opposition against dictator Moammar Gadhafi unleashed its most ruthless terrorist elements.

If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.

Without U.S. forces in the country, there is a strong possibility Afghanistan could host a reinvigorated Taliban allied to a reinvigorated al Qaeda.

Many of our forces collapsed when Daesh rolled into Iraq.

It's getting tougher and tougher to defeat ISIS, because they're in more and more places, more and more states, more and more nations.

The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.

We all know the epicentre of terrorism in the world today is Pakistan. The world community has to come to grips with this harsh reality.

The fate of Syria hangs in the balance, but it is entirely possible that the fall of the Assad regime will result in anarchy and cause Syria to turn into a second Afghanistan, a base for anti-Israel terrorism.

Iraq is in a civil war. There is no road in that country that is safe.

International terrorism is throwing down a challenge, and not just to Russia.

Al Qaeda is closely aligned with the Chechens.

You have 60 countries in the world with a terrorist problem. That's two-thirds of the world. We have this group in Basilan, which is a small island in the far south of the Philippines, and the island itself has a population of - what? - 300,000.

I would not be surprised to see Syria break apart entirely.

Al Qaeda is alive and well in Libya, Iraq, Syria and the wars are not receding.

The war being fought in Afghanistan and Iraq is bringing about a fundamental change to the environment that has given rise and power to the extremists who export terrorism.

We've had Saudis and Jordanians and Pakistanis who have - and Syrians - who have been involved in armed attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.

The situation in Iraq is dangerous but the regional situation is also very complicated and precarious.

We can't afford to see Afghanistan roll backwards into a failed state that could become a base from which terrorist campaigns can be launched anywhere in the world.

If Syria collapses completely, the United States and the world would have to consider who, and what, fills the vacuum.