Gina Haspel Quotes

Intelligence without counter-intelligence is useless.

The skills of the British intelligence community are a great national asset.

We must know more about our adversaries than they know about us.

There is still much to be done by our intelligence community to bring its achievements up to an acceptable level.

I am unable to tell a quarter of a billion Americans what we are doing on their behalf, because if I did, it would become the table of contents of the training manual of the enemy.

SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, also has no executive powers and operates abroad on CIA lines, but with a tiny percentage of the budget and a tiny percentage of the personnel.

The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent.

Throughout my career, I had the great fortune to experience firsthand as well as to witness what it means to be a CIA officer.

Improving our national intelligence capabilities should remain a top priority and a continual process.

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

You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk.

As a nation we have, over the past seven years, been rebuilding our intelligence with powerful capabilities that many thought we would no longer need after the Cold War. We have been rebuilding our clandestine service, our satellite and other technical collection, our analytical depth and expertise.

I have had national security background, 10 years on the Intelligence Committee, the last two years as chair.

The Intelligence Committee will also examine present counterintelligence programs for the Department of Energy, the National Laboratories, and the Department of Defense.

When I was about, I'd say, 18 or 19 years old, I wanted to be a part of the CIA just because they know those intimate secrets... So I was just always into knowing. I like to know things.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

For some, the very act of intelligence gathering seems illegitimate when applied to the crime of terrorism.

Spying is a like a game of chess: Sometimes you have to withdraw, sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your pieces to win - preferably a knight rather than a king or queen.

Since real spies are so good, you never really know what actual spying is. But I do think spying is a lot more dangerous than we are led to believe.

I believe that reforming our intelligence community is one of the most important things that we can do in order to ensure that our country is in fact safer, stronger and wiser.

I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.

From the outside, the CIA seems pretty exotic, but from the inside, it's a big, bureaucratic place. Think 'post office with spies.'

Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism, and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.

Espionage takes place in the world. Even we commit espionage.

Secrecy is as essential to Intelligence as vestments to a Mass, or darkness to a spiritualist seance, and must at all costs be maintained, quite irrespective of whether or not it serves any purpose.