John Brennan Quotes

If we have intelligence on the location of terrorist training centers, it is insane not to act.

We ought to recognize that we have an offensive responsibility to take the war to the terrorists where they are. That responsibility has waned in the last year as military and intelligence resources were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Pakistan to be used in Iraq.

The prompt assimilation of that intelligence will be essential if we are to avoid another September 11th.

One of the great intellectual failures of the American intelligence community, and especially the counterterrorism community, is to assume if someone hasn't attacked us, it's because he can't or because we've defeated him.

I think the important thing to remember here is that we haven't been attacked again at home since September of 2001.

Our top focus - protecting our Nation - must go beyond homeland preparedness; America will only be secure if we deal with threats before they happen, not just after they happen.

Clearly the Secretary of Defense, my boss, would like nothing better than to get Osama bin Laden and to get... to ensure the complete defeat of al-Qaida, because we know that al-Qaida is planning operations against the United States even as we speak here.

Because of the terrorist threat, the FBI and CIA have become as important as the military in preserving our freedom. Yet while thanking our military is standard practice in American life, no one thinks of thanking the FBI, the CIA, or the rest of the intelligence community for keeping us safe since 9/11.

If you wait until those weapons pose a direct, clear, present danger to the United States, you've probably waited too long.

The FBI. is a massive culture. It's been a culture that served America well, and it's been focused on prosecution. But what we need in terms of terrorism is prevention.

Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

I strongly support the call to greatly expand our human intelligence capability to penetrate al Qaeda and gather critical intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks on our homeland.

I think what we've learned is that the terrorist threat is serious, but it shifts. You cannot make a single person the sole focus of your counterterrorism.

In full accordance with the law - and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives - the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qa'ida terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones.

The security of the United States, which is so dependent on having accurate and timely intelligence, is not a Republican or a Democratic issue.

The war we are fighting today against terrorism is a multifaceted fight. We have to use every tool in our toolkit to wage this war - diplomacy, finance, intelligence, law enforcement, and of course, military power - and we are developing new tools as we go along.

There is no doubt that our nation's security and defeating terrorism trump all other priorities.

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

The same tools we need to use to keep this country safe by bringing terrorists to justice, because I guarantee you, if they have the opportunity and the means, they will take American lives.

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.

To preserve our security in a dangerous century, vigilance is not enough. National Intelligence must do more.

In the difficult fight against the new menace of international terrorism, there is nothing more crucial than timely and accurate intelligence

The safety and security of the nation depends more so than ever before on intelligence.

Here are some additional things we (the National Security Agency) can do for the War on Terror but we may not do them because we do not have the authority

If you don’t know who they are, where they are, and what they’re planning, you can’t get them before they get you.