James Clapper

“I do think - the metaphor I always use - it's the role of intelligence community to stay down in the engine room and shovel that intelligence coal, and people on the bridge get to decide where to drive the ship and how fast and how to arrange all the deckchairs.”

“It is not the intelligence community's place to set and implement policy.”

“I think the founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances.”

“A key player with respect to sanctions is, of course, China. And so, if a military option were to be exercised, then obviously we would play very heavily in that process. But that's not a decision, fortunately, that the intelligence community makes.”

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

“This is strictly personal opinion, not company policy, but I do think that we could do with having a USIA on steroids.”

“To the extent that anyone has leverage over North Korea, it's China.”

“The term 'Muslim Brotherhood'... is an umbrella term for a variety of movements: in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”

“The first week in intelligence school, you learn there are only two conditions in life. There is policy success, or there is intel failure. There is no other condition in life.”

“What I said was, the NSA does not voyeuristically pore through U.S. citizens' e-mails. I stand by that.”

“The Russians are bent on establishing both a presence in the Western Hemisphere, and they're looking for opportunities to expand military cooperation: sell equipment, air bases, as well as intelligence gathering facilities.”

“The reason that ISIL was so successful, yes, it had to do with their capabilities and prowess on the battlefield, but they were dealing with a receptive constituency in northern Iraq because of the intense hatred of the Maliki government, which of course is imposing the Shia view on them.”

“If ISIL were to substantially increase the priority it places on attacking the West rather than fighting to maintain and expand territorial control, then the group's access to radicalized Westerners who have fought in Syria and Iraq would provide a pool of operatives who potentially have access to the United States and other Western countries.”

“The country of Iraq is somewhat of an artificial creation going back to colonial days. And so you have the Kurds and then the Sunnis in the north predominantly and Shias in the south.”

“I did get a letter from the speaker of the House urging - enjoining me not to brief Secretary Clinton, and lots of cards and letters from people about not briefing Mr. Trump.”

“When I was commissioned in the Air Force, I was committed to the institution for a career.”

“The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections - theirs and other people's.”