John Sopko Quotes

Drug traffickers have more and more haystacks in which to hide their contraband needles.

If the terrorists were to explode even one suitcase-sized nuclear weapon in a Western city, democratic institutions might not survive. The security agencies in the Western democracies would be granted, or would simply seize, powers comparable to those of the Gestapo and the KGB…. I doubt that democratic institutions will be resilient enough to stand the strain.

I drove across the bridge over the Potomac River and got out of the car. There were marijuana plants growing as far as the eye could see. And they wanted me to eliminate it.

There isn't any way to keep drugs out of this country.

Now we must worry as much about hard-to-detect small-scale biological weapons producers as we do about the large-scale nuclear weapons programs

… adopt and enforce appropriate, effective laws which prohibit any non-state actor to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer, ot use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery …. develop and maintain appropriate, effective border controls and law enforcement efforts …

Biological terrorism poses the ultimate asymmetric threat but it should be considered in the same class as the nuclear threat.

The [U. S, Border] inspectors were great at finding cocaine hidden in limes from Ecuador. But they had little training in looking for bombs—–and little equipment for detecting material that could be used for a radiation-laced "dirty bomb."

There's been intelligence that terrorists would look to programs such as the visa waiver program to exploit.

We know that if al Queda or one of these terrorist organizations were to get a weapon of mass destruction from Iraq, that they would have no hesitation about using it to catastrophic consequences; the potential is for hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Illegal immigration is crisis for our country. It is an open door for drugs, criminals, and potential terrorists to enter our country. It is straining our economy, adding costs to our judicial, healthcare, and education systems.

He can fight terrorists overseas, but he leaves our borders so they can come in here and do their thing.

In addition to anti-American terrorists with global reach, our adversaries include organizations - some nation states, some private and some criminal - that proliferate weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them.

The threat of terrorism is great and with today's porous borders, someone could bring a biological weapon into our country or sneak a dirty bomb across unmanned portions of our borders.

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

We have struggled with terrorism for a long time. In the Reagan administration, I was a hawk on the subject. I said terrorism is a big problem, a different problem, and we have to take forceful action against it. Fortunately, Ronald Reagan agreed with me, but not many others did.

Consular offices make no attempt to determine whether the person obtaining the card is legally in the United States. In fact, the only people who need these cards are illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists. Consular cards also are easily forged.

It's very difficult to tell someone how to protect themselves from a terrorist attack, whether it occurs in the U.S. or on foreign soil, particularly when you have terrorists with no concern for human life.

And you know, it's not just illegal immigration. Terrorists can come across. They're devastating our ranchers down in southern Arizona - drop houses, kidnapping, automobile accidents, extortion, drugs, the spill-over with the drug cartels. We're facing all of it.

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

If terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.

In the aftermath of September 11th, it is critical to secure our borders.

Mr. Chairman, on September 11, we were attacked by terrorists who took advantage of weaknesses in our border security. After infiltrating our country, the terrorists were able to conceal their real identities, and thereby plot their attacks without fear of being apprehended.

For every security measure, there is a counter measure that breeds further insecurity. The acquisition by Pakistan or Iran of a nuclear capability neutralizes the security achieved by Israel’s own nuclear capability. Non-governmental terrorism neutralizes governmental military superiority. Chemical weapons neutralize the security of cement walls.

Any possession of nuclear weapons in the Middle East is a danger.