David Hackworth Quotes

Any information about U.S. special operations forces is highly sensitive.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, who has risked so many lives with her careless handling of sensitive information, my administration will not telegraph exactly military plans and what they are.

I think that is a responsibility we all share as Americans. But as State Department employees, we have a special duty to guard ourselves and our sensitive information. Complying with department policies and being alert to potential threats will help protect all of us.

Leaking of classified material is a concern.

I think anybody in our - in the, in the national security apparatus has, has got to take full cognizance of their responsibility for the safeguarding of classified information.

I have heard Obama officials say more than once, 'You will have blood on your hands if you publish this story.'

The nature of this new endeavor is such that under no circumstances should the existence of the program be made known outside the Bureau and appropriate within-office security should be afforded to sensitive operations and techniques considered under the program.

Many complaints have reached me from the army of the advantages conferred upon the enemy by the publication of intelligence from the seat of war, not only in letters from the correspondents of the English newspapers, but in letters written by officers to their friends at home in the spirit of confidential intimacy, and which those friends send to newspapers…

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.

It is very important that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency adhere to the same classification guidelines that all employees must adhere to because there are very good reason for those classification guidelines.

I was in the CIA for nine years. I am intimately familiar with the information classification system. I used it every day on the job. Like every other one of my colleagues at the agency, I approached the handling of classified information with immense care because I understand the ramifications.

There are some episodes in the history of Israel that are still kept under the strongest secrecy thick veil possible. Some of them are 40 years old, 50 years old, and are still under thick, thick secrecy, and anyone violating this secrecy would be thrown into jail himself.

It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.

[Chelsea] Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified files and videos to WikiLeaks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy.

A leak is an unauthorized disclosure of classified or sensitive information that is improper under any circumstance.

Regarding Wikileaks, I have profound ambivalent feelings about it. I am a firm believer in a strong intelligence service. There's a need for classified information.

I worked with people like Edward Snowden. Well, not people who took stuff home.

Secretary Clinton should be denied access to classified information. Congress must also hold the State Department accountable for fixing the culture of lax handling of classified information.

As ever, I caveat with saying that I don't write about the factual content of my C.I.A. experience. Ever. People who are working hard to save lots of lives depend on me to keep my mouth shut.

For the record, in my long career, I've never knowingly exposed classified information in an inappropriate manner.

Most importantly I never sent classified material on my email and I never received any that was marked classified.

We cannot have people leaking classified information at any level, and we certainly take that very seriously and would not ignore that.

In the case of someone sharing classified information with foreign intelligence, for example, the FBI could surreptitiously ensure that they are no longer able to obtain sensitive information.

The consequences of leaking sensitive information is that Americans and coalition forces die, and we lose trust with foreign spies, and our national security is put at risk.

My father was in the army, and you know not to talk about things on the telephone that you wouldn't want to hear transmitted.