James Clapper

“Typically, people in the intelligence community are just going to kind of hunker down and do their job, do their mission. And I believe - I have great faith in them. I think they will continue to serve up truth to power even if the power chooses not to listen to the truth.”

“Although we must be prepared for a catastrophic large-scale strike, a cyber armageddon, the reality is that we have been living with a constant barrage of cyberattacks for some time. The trend, I believe, will continue.”

“I think the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause.”

“I have always accepted intelligence was an honorable profession. We are all mindful of the need to comply with our moral values and the law.”

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

“In this job, I've found the less I talk, the better.”

“I had served in the Republic of Korea in the early '80s while I was on active duty as a director of intelligence for U.S. forces Korea, and kind of followed developments on the peninsula ever since.”

“When the Internet was first - as an experiment and then when it - as it mushroomed, security was never an integral part of what the Internet was designed for. I mean, it just didn't - wasn't a consideration.”

“In the future, we will probably see cyber operations that change or manipulate electronic information to compromise its integrity instead of simply deleting the access to it.”

“The most pervasive cyber threat to the U.S. financial sector is from cyber criminals.”

“I've long maintained during my 50-plus year career in intelligence that leaks endanger national security, they compromise sources, methods, and tradecraft, and they can put assets' lives at risk.”

“The number one foreign policy goal of Russia is control of the former Soviet space.”

“The Intelligence Community Assessment concluded first that President Putin directed and influenced a campaign to erode the faith and confidence of the American people in our presidential election process. Second, that he did so to demean Secretary Clinton, and third, that he sought to advantage Mr. Trump.”

“There is no requirement whatsoever for a security clearance for a candidate. The mere fact that a candidate is anointed by its party at a convention - that is all that is required. And it's not up to me or the administration to determine candidate suitability for these briefings.”

“ISIL particularly is very slick, very sophisticated, proselytizing and recruiting, and they are very astute users of social media.”

“It's certainly not helpful when the commander in chief is a critic of the intelligence community.”

“Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.”

“I was a part of the decision-making in the Pentagon, when I was the undersecretary for intelligence, to start CYBERCOM, both as a sub-unified command and under a dual-hat arrangement. That was never intended to be permanent in any event.”

“In the end, we will never, ever be able to guarantee that there will not be an Edward Snowden or another Chelsea Manning because this is a large enterprise composed of human beings with all their idiosyncrasies.”

“The history of the intelligence community is replete with violations of the trust of the American people.”