National Security Quotes - Page 13

• I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, War, Mistake

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• Our biggest national security threat is the environmental destruction of our planet and the arms race with ourselves.

  Jello Biafra

  Race, Environmental, Arms

  Address to the US Green Party, 2000.

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• I’ve been an investigative reporter for a long time, and almost always, the government says that [‘you can’t publish that because of the national security risk’] when you write a story. And then they can never back it up. They say that about everything. And it’s like the boy who cried wolf. It’s getting old.

  James Risen

  Writing, Boys, Government

  "James Risen's risk of prison means journalism is being criminalised" by Lindsey Bever, www.theguardian.com. August 10, 2013.

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• The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information. It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems.

  Hillary Clinton

  Country, People, Effort

  Presser on Wikileaks Release of Confidential Documents, delivered 29 November 2010, Treaty Room, Washington, D.C.

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• President Obama's record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship.

  William J. Clinton

  President, Records, Judgment

  Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention, www.washingtonpost.com. September 6, 2012.

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• If our nation goes over a financial Niagara, we won't have much strength and, eventually, we won't have peace. We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors. Within a few years, we will be spending more on interest payments than on national security. That is not, as our military friends say, a 'robust strategy.'

  Mitch Daniels

  Military, Years, Defense

  Keynote Speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee, delivered 11 February 2011, Ronald Reagan Centennial Dinner, Washington, D.C.

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• Second, the resolution contains the blatantly false assertion that negotiating a timeline for bringing U.S. troops home with the Iraqi government undermines U.S. national security. Such a statement shows a misunderstanding of the enemy we face in Iraq.

  Peter DeFazio

  Home, Government, Iraq

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• In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate - and fortunately on matters of national security, he was very often in the minority.

  Dick Cheney

  Years, United States, Minorities

  Dick Cheney's Remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. March 17, 2004.

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• In the Pentagon Papers case, the government asserted in the Supreme Court that the publication of the material was a threat to national security. It turned out it was not a threat to U.S. security. But even if it had been, that doesn't mean that it couldn't be published.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Mean, Government, Paper

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• AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issues would cost about $25 billion... It's, what, a few months in Iraq.

  Jared Diamond

  Iraq, Issues, Cost

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• Let me say this: I believe closing Guantanamo is in our Nation's national security interest. Guantanamo is used not only by al-Qaida, but also by other nations, governments, and individuals - people good and bad - as a symbol of America's abuse of Muslims, and it is fanning the flames of anti-Americanism around the world.

  Dianne Feinstein

  Believe, Flames, America

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• Obama does not need to worry as much as past Democratic presidents about being labeled soft on national security - not after giving the order that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. No, his biggest concern is being labeled tone deaf on joblessness and debt.

  Ron Fournier

  Past, Order, Giving

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• One half of the world's people live on less than two dollars a day. This should concern our national security policy as well as our conscience.

  Lee H. Hamilton

  Two, People, Dollars

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• 2008 was to the American economy what 9/11 was to national security. Yet while 9/11 prompted the U.S. government to tear up half the Constitution in the name of public safety, after 2008, authorities went in the other direction.

  Matt Taibbi

  Government, Names, Safety

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• One of the critical issues that we have to confront is illegal immigration, because this is a multi-headed Hydra that affects our economy, our health care, our health care, our education systems, our national security, and also our local criminality.

  Allen West

  Health, Issues, Immigration

  "West on Issues Facing America". "Your World" with Neil Cavuto, www.foxnews.com. October 11, 2010.

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• The Senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security.

  Dick Cheney

  Attitude, Issues, Doubt

  "Cheney Speech Upsets Westminster Prez" by The Associated Press, www.foxnews.com. April 26, 2004.

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• Stable energy prices and enhanced national security will only come when we increase domestic energy resources, which was accomplished today with the opening of ANWR.

  Kenny Marchant

  Energy, Anwr, Today

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• You can't get closer to the heart of national sovereignty than national security and intelligence services.

  Gijs de Vries

  Heart, Intelligence Services, Sovereignty

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• Lack of accountability weakens the environmental and health rights of citizens; it damages peace- building and reconciliation initiatives; impedes the implementation of global health policies; leads to the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity; and weakens democracy, justice, human rights, and international security.

  Widad Akrawi

  Loss, Rights, Ecosystems

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• Just because you're 40, you don't have to decide whether God exists...when you're already worrying that the National Security Agency is reading your emails, it's better not to know whether yet another entity is watching you.

  Pamela Druckerman

  Reading, Agency, Worry

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• We need not renounce the use of conventional force. We will be ready to repel any clear and present danger that poses a genuine threat to our national security and survival.

  Theodore C. Sorensen

  Survival, Needs, Use

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• The average 20-year-old serving us in Iraq knows more about their country's national security than the average 20-year political veteran serving in the Congress today.

  Fred Thompson

  Country, Average, Years

  "GOP's Thompson shows his conservatism". Miami Herald, September 14, 2007.

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• I think we need to just be very clear about what we're trying to do in Afghanistan. Frankly, we're not trying to create the perfect democracy. We're never going to create some ideal society. We are simply there for our own national security.

  David Cameron

  Thinking, Perfect, Trying

  "British Prime Minister David Cameron Speaks to ABC's Diane Sawyer". Interview with Diane Sawyer, abcnews.go.com. July 20, 2010.

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• We need to make sure that leaks of classified information, of national security secrets, needs to be rigorously pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

  John O. Brennan

  Law, Secret, Information

  Council on Foreign Relations meeting, www.cfr.org. August 8, 2012.

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• I'm fascinated by power, especially veiled power. Shadow power. The National Security Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office. Opus Dei. The idea that everything happens for reasons we're not quite seeing.

  Dan Brown

  Ideas, Everything Happens For A Reason, Agency

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