Michael Hayden

“Intelligence collection is not confined to the communications of adversaries or of the guilty. Rather, it's about gaining information otherwise unavailable that would help keep Americans safe and free.”

“Intelligence is often viewed as a profession that steals secrets and then knits those secrets together for policymakers in order to inform their judgments.”

“When at the CIA, I was fond of saying that many jihadis join the movement for the same reasons that young Americans join the Crips and the Bloods: youthful alienation, the need to belong to something greater than self, the search for meaningful identity. But it also matters what gang you join.”

“ISIS is a learning enemy, and former Deputy Director of NSA Chris Inglis says that they have gone to school on the documents released by Edward Snowden and have changed their communications practices.”

“Access to the security clearance database would disgorge even more detailed personal information, including the foreign contacts of American officials.”

“In my heart of hearts, I don't think it's a good position to say that Guantanamo is not an acceptable answer for anyone we might capture now or in the future.”

“Nothing more threatens Vladimir Putin than not being able to track his own citizens.”

“I told them that free people always had to decide where to draw the line between their liberty and their security. I noted that the attacks would almost certainly push us as a nation more toward security.”

“Great weight should be given to the judgment of professionals on what information, if disclosed, would harm national security.”

“American political elites feel very empowered to criticize the American intelligence community for not doing enough when they feel in danger, and as soon as we've made them feel safe again, they feel equally empowered to complain that we're doing too much.”

“If we don't get our relationship with the emerging People's Republic of China right, that is something that could lead to global catastrophe.”

“There is no worse place for an intelligence service like CIA to be than on Page 1, above the fold in your daily newspaper.”

“I don't know if the European Union contributes a great deal to espionage. At the union level, they talk about commerce and privacy. But to keep citizens safe, that remains a responsibility back in national capitals.”

“Anger can be a useful emotion; it's built into our genetic code to help with self preservation. But it can also be destructive, even when it is justified.”

“I blame the Russians for a lot, but pinning the creation of ISIS on them is a murky, tenuous, triple-carom bank shot at best.”

“National security looks different from the Oval Office than it does from a hotel room in Iowa.”

“As much as we might look for opportunities to keep Iraq together, we need to be prepared for the reality that it's not going to stay together.”

“People have a right to privacy, but they also have a right to live. Fundamentally, we need cybersecurity and need to secure communications as well.”

“Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith was equally insistent in 2002-2003 about an operational relationship between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.”

“Counterterrorism, counterproliferation, and counterintelligence are staples. The four countries of highest interest - Russia, China, Iran and North Korea - are constants.”