Jan Schakowsky Quotes

The NSA has different reporting requirements for each branch of government and each of its legal authorities.

I suspect Obama did not know he was recording Angela Merkel's cell phones.

In general, I do not agree with spying against one's country.

For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed.

Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about.

I want to make it clear … that America is not interested in spying on ordinary citizens.

I'm not against the NSA. I'm not against spying; I'm not against looking at phone records.

When I was first elected to the Senate, I was fortunate to be appointed to the Intelligence Committee. There, I saw up close the dedication and commitment of the men and women of our intelligence agencies.

I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people.

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

We have actually experienced in recent months a dramatic demonstration of an unprecedented intelligence failure, perhaps the most significant intelligence failure in the history of the United States.

Prior to the passage of the Patriot Act, it was very difficult - often impossible - for us to share information with the Central Intelligence Agency, with NSA, with the other intelligence agencies, and likewise, for them to share information with us.

The NSA should keep close watch on suspected terrorists to keep our country safe - through programs permitting due process, the naming of a suspect, and oversight by an accountable court.

There will always be spies. We have to have them. Without them we wouldn't have got Osama bin Laden - it took us years, but it happened.

I have no evidence of any relationship between IRS and NSA.

Some say Edward Snowden is a hero and a patriot. Others say he's a fool and a traitor. The evidence is mounting that the guy who leaked the details about the National Security Agency's Internet-eavesdropping program may be something more sinister - namely, a willing tool in China's ongoing cyberwar against our nation.

But the technology was accessible, which suggests incompetence on the part of our counterintelligence community and the Clinton Administration, and may in fact rise to the level of treason.

The NSA's business is 'information dominance,' the use of other people's secrets to shape events.

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.

The commission members themselves were never briefed on Able Danger.

We planted bugs, microphones, in premises which interested us in the West. We weren't too successful - I would have said unfortunately in former years, but I don't care anymore now.

It's inconceivable that a secret intelligence arm of the government has to comply with all the overt orders of the government.

An intelligence service is the ideal vehicle for a conspiracy [against its own government]. Its members can travel about at home and abroad under secret orders, and no questions are asked. Every scrap of paper in the files, its membership, its expenditure of funds, its contacts, even enemy contacts, are state secrets.

While the interests of the Intelligence community should not be taken lightly, we must remember that they exist to serve, not dictate.

Espionage is largely separate from the mainstream of foreign policy … you nail the spy and you punish him, and you move on.