Asa Hutchinson Quotes

They only have to be right one time, the terrorists do, and we have to be wrong one time.

A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.

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.

I think the risks that people see of terrorism are incredibly important but we are very confident we have got the right people on it and the risks have been minimised.

We remain vulnerable. There is no such thing as 100 percent security against terrorism.

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.

Look, we constantly live looking at the issue of the threat of terrorism.

Since Homeland Security got up to speed in the spring of 2002, it as warned of al Qaeda using or targeting amusement parks, apartment building, banks, beer coolers, boats, cargo planes, cell phone, churches, crop dusters, farmer's almanacs, hijacked oil trucks, inner-city train, malls, nightclubs, reservoirs, scuba divers, sports stadiums, and subways. Add limousines to the list and helicopters.

If we announced threats [to airlines and flights] as we received them, we would be catering to the terrorists' goals.

We could have prevented the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon if we had 20,000 troops shoulder to shoulder.

The nature of Homeland Security is that no news is good news. And no news sometimes means somebody got interdicted at the border, somebody got interdicted before they could get on an airplane, somebody was arrested providing material support to terrorism. Homeland Security means very often something you never hear about.

A big challenge in combating terrorism is learning how to think about things that we can't imagine.

I believe when the country feels threatened it is important that we are seen to be working together to find an appropriate structure for dealing with terrorists in our midst.

Increased and better screening for explosives is necessary - and Congress should fund it and TSA should implement it as quickly as possible - however that screening doesn't reduce the risk posed by a trained terrorist with an unconventional weapon.

I did not want to provide a blueprint or roadmap for the terrorists, saying 'Here are our new security procedures'.

Since September 11, the U.S. has significantly improved its security to prevent another attack.

Terrorists and criminals are increasingly adept at exploiting cutting-edge technologies to carry out or to mask their crimes. To counter current and emerging threats, the FBI actively deploys a wide range of technology-based tools, capabilities, and training that enable and enhance intelligence, national security, and law enforcement operations.

I think that the American people should rest assured and be assured that every federal agency that has a role to play in this terrorism is working overtime now, taking every necessary action to protect our great citizens.

And so every one of us in the FBI, I don't care if it's a file clerk someplace or an agent there or a computer specialist, understands that our main mission is to protect the public from another September 11, another terrorist attack.

The use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work.

The fact that we haven't faced another major terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11 is a very significant achievement, and one that's easy to forget - it's the dog that doesn't bark.

I believe, based on the activities, and I am not an expert on terrorism by any stretch, but I believe that when they attacked the United States and they attacked New York and Washington, D.C., they thought they could defeat us.

The terrorist uses surprise and stealth, and the only way to defeat that is by having accurate and timely intelligence.

But I warn my colleagues that we will fail in our efforts to protect the homeland if we do not take additional steps to avoid a trade-off between protecting ourselves against terrorists attacks and preparing for and responding to natural disasters.

We have gutted our ability to detect the next attack. And I would not stand for that as president of the United States.