National Security Quotes - Page 4

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

  Ben Bradlee

  Campaigns, Telling The Truth, Claims

  "Deep Throat Revealed: Ben Bradlee". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. June 2, 2005.

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's very hard to stand up to the government which is saying that publication will threaten national security. People don't seem to realize that reporters and editors know something about national security and care deeply about it.

  Ben Bradlee

  Government, Editors, People

  "Deep Throat Revealed: Ben Bradlee". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. June 2, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• National security is a really big problem for journalists, because no journalist worth his salt wants to endanger the national security, but the law talks about anyone who endangers the security of the United States is going to go to jail. So, here you are, especially in the Pentagon. Some guy tells you something. He says that's a national security matter. Well, you're supposed to tremble and get scared and it never, almost never means the security of the national government. More likely to mean the security or the personal happiness of the guy who is telling you something.

  Ben Bradlee

  Mean, Jail, Government

  7 Copy quote

• Our biggest national security crisis is Barack Obama.

  John Bolton

  Crisis, Barack, Security

  "John Bolton CPAC Speech Lambasts Obama". www.huffingtonpost.com. March 6, 2014.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Failure in Afghanistan would have profound consequences for our national security. It would undermine the NATO alliance structure that has been the bedrock of Britain's defence for the last 60 years... I will not allow this to happen on my watch.

  Bob Ainsworth

  Years, Profound, Watches

  4 Copy quote

• Nothing is more important to national security and the making and conduct of good policy than timely, accurate, and relevant intelligence. Nothing is more critical to accurate and relevant intelligence than independent analysis.

  Dennis C. Blair

  Independent, Important, Analysis

  4 Copy quote

• [N]othing is less reliable than unchecked claims from political officials that their secret conduct is justified by National Security Threats and the desire to Keep Us Safe.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Political, Secret, Desire

  6 Copy quote

• The Earth should not be cut up into hundreds of different sections, each inhabited by a self-defined segment of humanity that considers its own welfare and its own "national security" to be paramount above all other consideration.

  Isaac Asimov

  Cutting, Self, Humanity

  Isaac Asimov (2009). “I, Asimov: A Memoir”, p.591, Bantam

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America - not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security. For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.

  Michael Pollan

  Past, Oil, America

  4 Copy quote

• We have huge national security issues in this country, and the United States Senate ought to be pushing President [Barack] Obama towards the proper policies that right now are a complete disaster based on his policies.

  Jeb Bush

  Country, Issues, President

  "RNC chair blasts CNBC's 'crap sandwich' debate; Bush, Kasich call out GOP rivals". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, October 29, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For reasons of national security and out of consideration for some people still alive I have omitted certain material. Some of this material cannot be made available for many years, perhaps for many generations.

  Harry S. Truman

  Years, People, Generations

  Harry S. Truman (2014). “1945: Year of Decision”, p.6, New Word City

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a very real and critical danger that unrestrained public discussion of cryptologic matters will seriously damage the ability of this government to conduct signals intelligence and the ability of this government to carry out its mission of protecting national security information from hostile exploitation.

  Bobby Ray Inman

  Real, Government, Information

  6 Copy quote

• I think disease and all the things that we treat are tied to national security in a lot of ways that we maybe don't realize or that the American people don't realize. If other countries have a chance to be stable, then that helps us. If there are ways we can prevent if there are ways we can help other countries defeat diseases, we're about to totally eradicate polio. And can you imagine? That would be so terrific.

  Laura Bush

  Country, Helping Others, Thinking

  "Laura Bush, Melinda Gates, CARE President on Women’s Issues, U.S. Foreign Aid". Interview with Judy Woodruff, www.pbs.org. March 9, 2011.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban.

  Karl Rove

  Military, War, Differences

  Karl Rove's remarks at the New York Conservative Party, www.washingtonpost.com. June 22, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What the Agency [CIA] does is ordered by the President and the NSC [National Security Council]. The Agency neither makes decisions on policy nor acts on its own account. It is an instrument of the President.

  Philip Agee

  Agency, Decision, President

  4 Copy quote

• Throughout the twentieth century and into the beginning of the twenty-first, the United States repeatedly used its military power, and that of its clandestine services, to overthrow governments that refused to protect American interests. Each time, it cloaked its intervention in the rhetoric of national security and liberation. In most cases, however, it acted mainly for economic reasons-specifically to establish, promote and defend the right of Americans to do business around the world without interference.

  Stephen Kinzer

  Military, Government, World

  Stephen Kinzer (2007). “Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq”, p.3, Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Waterboarding ok if national security were at stake.

  Fred Thompson

  Stakes, Ifs, Security

  4 Copy quote

• There's no question that the US is engaged in economic spying. If there's information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security of the United States, they'll go after that information and they'll take it.

  Edward Snowden

  Thinking, United States, Would Be

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once you take yourself off the pedestal, saying, "It's bad for you to torture, but for us, this is our national security, so we're gonna do it". You can't live that way and the United States doesn't need to do it, it shouldn't do it, and I think a Democratic administration, whoever the democratic president is, will repudiate that kind of conduct. I think it was an overreaction caused by a lot of different strains of thought in the administration. I think it was clearly wrong and I think that repudiation, which will come from the United States, will be a key in restoring America's legitimacy.

  Wesley Clark

  Thinking, America, Keys

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Thinking, People, Damnation

  "Ford: Bush made 'big mistake' on Iraq justifications", www.cnn.com. December 28, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yesterday during a speech on national security, Jeb Bush mispronounced Boko Haram and got confused between Iran and Iraq. When reached for comment, his brother George W. said, 'He sure sounds presidentiary to me.'

  Conan O'Brien

  Brother, Confused, Iran

  4 Copy quote

• One of the great threats to our national security is social cohesion. If people no longer believe that you can start out anywhere and end up at the top successfully in America, that the American dream is part of the past, I think that erodes a sense of belief and confidence in our nation.

  Joel Klein

  Dream, Believe, Past

  6 Copy quote

• We want to determine whether he understands the inherent limits that make an unelected Judiciary inferior to Congress or the President in making policy judgments. That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national security interests of our country.

  Alberto Gonzales

  Country, Judging, President

  Speech to American Enterprise Institute, www.justice.gov. January 17, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence -- words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security -- there is the reality of enormous wealth in the hands of a few, while billions of people in the world are hungry, sick, homeless.

  Howard Zinn

  Reality, Self, Hands

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.9, Beacon Press

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Israel will not transfer Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza District to any foreign sovereign authority, [because] of the historic right of our nation to this land, [and] the needs of our national security, which demand a capability to defend our State and the lives of our citizens.

  Menachem Begin

  Israel, Land, Sovereign

  "Iron Wall". Book by Lenni Brenner, 1984.

  73 Copy quote

  Show source