Porter Goss Quotations

would send the wrong message to our junior officers about taking risks, whether it be an operation in the field or being assigned to a hot topic at headquarters.

What we do does not come close to torture,

What we can learn from him, I hope -- because this is a process which he may not participate too willingly in -- is basically what operations are out there that we can defend against and forestall,

Singling out these individuals would send the wrong message to our junior officers about taking risks,

One of the things frankly we have to do is demystify (the CIA) a little bit, ... You are not going to be James Bond if you sign up and five years later you're going to be driving an Aston Martin with a beautiful young lady at your side on the Riviera. You might be, but I'm not aware of that program yet.

My understanding is that the last, absolute inventory that was taken -- that surely established where these hard drives were -- was part of the Y2K survey, which would be at the beginning of the year.

No agency has greater skill and experience in this difficult, complex, and utterly vital discipline of intelligence,

China has secrets they're trying to keep from the eyes of the world,

There is a leadership problem at the highest levels of the Clinton-Gore administration about focusing on the need for intelligence, making the commitment and the hard choices to put the dollars there.

There is a huge amount of misinformation swirling about on the subject of detainees. That would include alleged activities of this agency,

We've got to have some patience ... It's a tough job,

Having watched the pride of some countries in acquiring the world-stage status of having nuclear weapons -- and what that has meant for nationalism and leadership ... it becomes almost a piece of the holy grail for a small country that otherwise might be victimized living in a dangerous neighborhood,

He's got something that (agency heads) don't have, and that is immediate access to the president if the president wants to get this job done. And believe me, the presidential cache will go a long way on this one.

there are some very hard aspects of this that take longer. We are an overseas organization. We are an organization that requires what I would call sacrifice of quality of life. ... We are looking for specific people that we think will fit our needs. And that means an aggressive recruiting effort.

Our intelligence -- the reason we have it in many forms around the world is to protect Americans at home and abroad, ... We do not fly legal lawful air missions in international space for the fun of it. We do it for our national security. Yes, there is, I suppose, some risk to all of this, but the fact of the matter is we need to have this surveillance. If there is a way we can do it differently that's less offensive to some people, then that might be a matter worth discussing.

Our assessment is they have a greater capability than that assessment, ... In other words, it has increased since then.

represents a grant of trust and an expression of confidence in the CIA.

that any one person or group of people could have prevented 9/11.

I think our safeguards are in place and are working,

You just don't end up with a satellite up there that suddenly, magically gives you the kind of information you want to hear or see because you want it today. If you haven't planned for it about seven years ago, it probably isn't going to happen,

We need to have this surveillance, and if there's a way we can do it differently in ways that are less offensive to some people, that might be a matter worth discussing.

We are developing new and creative ways to get more and more of our officers out of Washington,

We know that Chinese officials chose to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 1996 re-election of the Clinton administration. What we don't know is what they expected to gain from that investment,

Unilateral operations will return to be part of the governing paradigm for the CIA,

To be cut out at the eleventh hour is annoying, and it's certainly not helpful,

We are definitely going to be using new cover arrangements overseas, because we have to,

There is ... a very strong inclination by the current conservative leadership of Iran to make sure they can live up to the same levels as some of their neighboring countries, and some of those neighboring countries, indeed Pakistan comes to mind, have the bomb.

we are maybe at the 5 or 10% level.

The fact that he is now aboard and announcing and saying, 'Gee we have a problem with terrorism,' is a big step forward -- even though it comes about four or five years late,

We can totally disrupt. We've had great success at this already, but this gives us obviously more focus and more clearly about exactly where to go and what to look at.

We will be a fact-driven, witness-driven review inquiry, ... We will not be driven by outside pressures.

This was long overdue, because as the last DCI, I can say that the job had become frankly too big for one person,

We cannot afford to make changes blindly, or in unnecessary haste,

we are a superpower, but we're not an aggressive superpower.

We are going to be in places people can't even imagine,

Every day is a new day for the intelligence people. I would say that we are probably a couple of years away from getting through all the material and talking to all the people we need to talk to about exactly what was going on.

Dysfunctional organizations do not take down or eliminate the most dangerous proliferators in the world ... nor do they aid in the disarmament of a country like Libya.

Things are going a lot better than the press has been reporting on virtually all fronts. We're going to be there for a while. It is dangerous, it is dirty, it is hot, it is not pleasant, but it is moving forward and the strategic doubt does not exist.

It would be a huge embarrassment for us not to discuss the Kosovo situation.

the suspicion that maybe people are covering it up.

reaffirms our role as the lead for human intelligence.

no reason now, nor do we foresee any in the normal course of events in the future, why Newt Gingrich would be ineligible to serve as Speaker.

After great consideration of this report and its conclusions, I will not convene an accountability board to judge the performances of any individual CIA officers,

So we have to, within the law and within all the requirements of our professional ethics in this profession, develop agility. And that means putting a lot of judgment in the hands of individuals overseas.

An enemy that's working in an amorphous network that doesn't have to worry about a bunch of regulations, chain of command, rule of law or anything else has got a huge advantage over a stultified, slow-moving, bureaucratic, by-the-book organization,

As a member right now on the Hill, I know the value of that and the importance of that,

The bottom line is, I want you to continue to do what you do best - provide our country with close-in access to the plans and intentions of its enemies and provide decision makers with the information they need to make the tough decisions.

This is the equivalent of the liberation of Paris in the Second World War,

This conference report illustrates how working together can benefit all Americans, both taxpayers and those who depend on federal programs. This debate is not about winning or losing. It is about treating American taxpayers fairly.

This agency does not do torture. Torture does not work. We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture.

This agency does not do torture, ... Torture does not work. We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture.

This agency does not do torture. Torture does not work,

asks for an investigation of those leaks, with particular concern that if there is any inappropriate leak coming from the United States Congress that we be so advised so we may take appropriate action.

foreign policy team was all on the same page.

The nominations of Ambassador Negroponte and Gen. Hayden are welcome news and a critical step in continuing to strengthen our intelligence community and to create even better coordinated working relationships and communications between the agencies,

I've got to tell you, it was a broken system, ... It was one of the things I found most stunning when I got here.

The turmoil has left some employees shaken and has prompted former colleagues in Congress to question how Goss intends to improve the agency's capabilities and restore morale. The White House is aware of the problems, administration officials said, and believes they are being handled by the director of national intelligence, who now oversees the agency.

They very definitely would like to find out all our secrets so they could copy them and take advantage of them, either in terms of their national security, the modernization of the army -- the PLA -- or in terms of competition in the marketplace,

This is just extremely important and it's going to lead to other very successful activities very shortly, I'm sure.

The need is obvious, ... As we start out today to do our job, we start out a little behind the curve because not enough people speak the languages we need. So we're looking for ways to fix that.

The jobs I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal. I'm a little amazed at the workload.

Their capture alone would not be enough to eliminate the terror threat to the U.S.,

if the president determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack.

In the intelligence community, everyone does his job and you don't share the information unless there is a need to know. This could be a case where the right compartments didn't talk to each other.

Intelligence-related issues have become the fodder of partisan food fights and turf power skirmishes, ... All the while, the demand for our services and products against a ruthless and unconventional enemy has expended geometrically, and we are expected to deliver instantly.

In other words, it has increased since then.

If you see an up-tic of electronic activity in a certain area, ... you might expect that something is happening. It might be a nuclear test, it might be conversations on cell phones, it might be people warming airplane engines, it might be people getting ready to test rockets.

CIA will have the authority to set standards for the entire intelligence community on things relating to (human espionage),

How did it come about that highly sensitive technical information was given to the Chinese? Why did the president ignore the national security experts who counseled against this deal? What damage has been done to our national security?

I am about (a) terrorist reading a top-secret report.

I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified.

The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists.

The only thing that this uproar does is give aid and comfort to the enemy and I don't think there's anybody who wants to give aid and comfort to the terrorists,.

This has nothing to do whatsoever with treatment of prisoners ... I'm not interested in any of that.

The hallmark of our country is decency, democracy, freedom and so forth. The other guys don't, ... But we have to maintain our standards.

the immediate release of the classified files as mandated by the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.

The CIA credo is that the U.S. must always have the place of primacy among our interests,