Christopher Hitchens Quotes

Everyone is now a potential terrorist.

Military strikes on Afghanistan will not prevent something this terrible from happening again, for the simple reason that bombs will not deter people who are unafraid of death and desire martyrdom.

While I agree that homegrown terrorism and the jihadist threat deserve continuing attention, a single-minded approach ignores all other threats.

Around the continent, governments worry that indigenous groups are fertile ground for extremist, terrorist groups. We are trying to make sure that doesn't happen here.

I have clearly said we faced terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people and we have to stop them and we will. We have to defeat radical jihadist terrorism.

I'm just concerned that as long as this caliphate exists, it provides this magnet for radicalization, and we're likely to see more attacks like we have seen in San Bernardino, Chattanooga and elsewhere, and that's the concern I have over pace.

I think it's important to understand that ISIS's biggest enemy are ordinary Muslims. That's why they're fleeing.

Terrorism is obviously on everybody's mind. The other day my son says to me, 'Daddy, how come the bad men hate us?' How sad is that? I actually got tears in my eyes - because he's 18. What kind of a moron am I raising?

Individuals in various countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia listen to the tapes of bin Laden. They gather in groups of four or five. They feel they want to do something to express their support for what they've heard. The idea that they were taking orders is a particularly Western idea.

If there is one Osama bin Laden now, there will be 100 bin Ladens afterwards.

Getting rid of Bin Laden is good for the cause of peace worldwide but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods - the violent methods - that were created and encouraged by Bin Laden and others in the world.

So we mustn't lower our guard in any sense because of what has happened in terms of the death of Osama Bin Laden and we are certainly not doing that. The terror threat level here in the U.K. remains at severe and we're very conscious of the need to continue that.

ISIL's widespread reach through the Internet and social media is most concerning, as the group has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools for its nefarious strategy. ISIL uses high-quality, traditional media platforms as well as widespread social media campaigns to propagate its extremist ideology.

Wherever you have weakening states and turmoil, you will have a fertile petri dish for terrorism.

I think the forms of terrorism are becoming very diverse, amongst them cyber-terrorism, for example.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as more recent attacks in Madrid, Spain, and London, England, showed in a very tragic way just how vulnerable many areas of the world are to these sorts of actions.

To a considerable extent we are faced by a technology arms race with terrorists. The communications revolution has made it easier for terrorist groups to reach out to vulnerable individuals with their violent extremist ideology and propaganda. It has also facilitated fundraising, recruitment and training.

Islamic terrorist organizations use sections of the Koran to recruit and brainwash idealistic young Moslems to engage in violent, murderous attacks on non-Moslems. The important question facing Moslem leaders … is, how do they teach and explain these passages from the Koran to their Moslem congregations and Moslem school students? Is it made absolutely clear that even though those passages are in the Koran, which is their Holy Book, they only applied in the 7th century not the 21st century? It is vitally important that moderate Moslem leaders … do not let Islamic extremists use these passages to recruit vulnerable, Moslem young people into any Islamic terrorist organization.

I can in one week assemble five hundred faithful ready to throw themselves into suicide operations. No frontier will stop them.

Before 9-11 Osama Bin Laden trained more terrorists than we trained FBI agents.

Either Al Qaeda is a threat worth acting against or it is not. CIA leadership has to decide which it is and cease these bi-polar mood swings.

Social media campaigns and the savviness of ISIS and propaganda is what greatly concerns us Homeland Security officials.

ISIL are already using the Internet for hideous propaganda purposes - for radicalisation, for operational planning, too.

Violent extremism is going viral, but our response to it is moving at bureaucratic, sluggish speed.

The poor people of the world tend to be the places that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups can recruit.