Richard Falkenrath Quotations

From the point of view of protecting the president, we'd rather have nothing out there as regards Air Force One and the security arrangements. If I were still in government, I'd try to get this taken down promptly.

I think this issue, Katrina and our government's response to it, should be looked at by an independent commission,

Our country is not so ready to respond to the uber-disasters as we'd like to be, four years after 9/11.

We are looking at this one videoconference in isolation. I wouldn't conclude based on this that this was the full extent to his involvement.

This was the week that the administration discovered the tide wouldn't come in forever on presidential powers. Partly, that is because so much time has passed without a new attack. And partly, it is because there were so many missteps.

Everything else about the card is perfect for identification purposes. There's a name, there's a number, there's a digital signature. It is in many respects a national ID card even though in the card itself it says 'not to be used for identification purposes,'

Anecdotal information of poor or nonexistent security in this sector is overwhelming,

A port is where chemical, energy and oil facilities all come together with a large number of people, with quite limited security on the water.

Anything in a paragraph marked 'secret' needs to be deemed secret, and revealing it to someone without proper security clearance or without a need to know is not authorized and is a violation.

This is going to improve the quality of our identification, which we use at every checkpoint in the country.

There was a lot of jockeying at the time to try and protect turf.

It's pretty clear that most of this activity was not focused on major natural disasters ... and was really focused more on the problems associated with terrorist attacks.

Social Security cards right now are a problem. They're a very significant breeder-card for other types of identification. It's very easy to get a Social Security card. Many are issued over and over. There are many more Social Security cards in circulation today than there are people in the United States.