James Woolsey Quotations

We've got jihadists. That doesn't mean that all Muslims are problems with respect to terrorism, but there is something going on here. We've got a problem dealing with one aspect of one portion of modern Islam - just as hundreds of years ago the world had a problem with Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition.

We were basically spying with one arm tied behind our back. These restrictive limitations on not being able to recruit people who have some violence in their past as spies were ridiculous.

This was a sophisticated operation, ... They should start looking into the ownership of that boat that pulled alongside and blew up -- where it came from, what happened to the information after it arrived in Aden that the Cole was going to refuel.

We need to move away from oil, period.

One of the generals, I think, said yesterday that over 90 percent of the attacks that occurred in the country, including those outside the Sunni triangle, are coming from within that Sunni triangle. It's there that I think they really have to win the war.

France and Russia have oil companies and interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in moving Iraq toward decent government, we'll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and American companies work closely with them. If they throw in their lot with Saddam, it will be difficult to the point of impossible to persuade the new Iraqi government to work with them.

had to do with coordination of intelligence in the United States.

We've got to put up with a lot of lying about what has happened and what we're doing, ... And I think, under those circumstances, the pictures are going to be necessary.

We must encourage the commercialization of technologies that are compatible with existing infrastructure. What makes plug-in hybrids promising is that they are; we don't need a Manhattan Project to make this happen.

Look, I don't think President Obama would have bowed to the ruler of Saudi Arabia if he didn't have oil to the degree that the Saudis do. I think they and other producing states, almost all of whom, except Norway and Canada, are dictatorships or autocratic systems, have thrown their weight around because of oil.

We aren't addicted to oil, but our cars are.

The problem is that after him, we don't know who we're going to get.

Well, just as the Supreme Court follows the election returns, you can bet that the bureaucracy does as well.

Countries are effectively paid deference in direct and indirect ways if they're huge oil suppliers.

The world -- and not just the United States -- has a problem with depending on the Middle East, and not just the Saudis, for such a large oil share, which creates a problem because of the instability in the area.

A single well-designed attack could send oil to well over $100 a barrel and devastate the world's economy. Oil dependence today creates serious and pressing dangers for the U.S. and other oil-importing nations.

This is an issue for people's pocketbooks as well as the economy and national security.

American farmers, by making the commitment to grow more corn for ethanol, are at the top of the spear on the war against terrorism.

As we move toward a new Middle East, over the years and, I think, over the decades to come, we will make a lot of people very nervous.

As we move toward a new Middle East, ... over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous.

It's as if we were fighting with dragon for some 45 years and slew the dragon and then found ourselves in a jungle full of a number of poisonous snakes.

For anyone who believes that this is purely a commercial undertaking, unrelated to a national strategy of domination of energy markets and of the western Pacific, I would suggest that that view is extraordinarily naive.

They are looking hard for technology to get leverage with their conventional forces and to move more quickly than they have been able to in the past into the world of computers, electronics and so on.

If you own a chemical plant and leak a little benzene, you're in big trouble because everyone knows how carcinogenic it is. But coming out of a tailpipe? The government never does anything about that.

It has to be looked at in the context of whether this interim agreement is a valuable agreement and if releasing Pollard ... contributes to it. That's a presidential decision. That's why the president makes the big bucks.

You can't expect the insurance industry to do something out of the goodness of its heart. But you might be able to combine incentives ... and regulation in a way that still lets the market work.

a lot harder to keep track of than the dragon ever was.