Lee H. Hamilton Quotes

I think the American people believe in stopping and preventing terrorism pretty much at any cost.

To win the war on terror, we must know who our friends are and where our enemies are hiding. We can't continue fighting terrorism using the same foreign policy blueprints that were in place before September 11th.

We do not take away the powers of surveillance. We do not take away the right and the power of the government to go after those who would do us wrong.

The administration asserts that two thirds or three quarters of al-Qaeda’s managers have been captured or killed, and that al-Qaeda must therefore be on the ropes. Why spend vast sums defending against it?

I have no doubt that if you’re going to fight terrorism you must have a secure, national personal, identification system

… the war on terrorism will serve as the justification for restraints on civil liberties.

If we give up all our privacy rights, have we become any safer?

If we take away all our privacy rights, we become our own terrorists.

Stopping terror is clearly a pretext.

The counterterrorism strategy known as CONTEST aimed to reduce the risk to the UK and its interests overseas from terrorism, so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence.

There's no national strategy to deal with combating terrorism and foreign fighters.

I am ready to debate how we fight terrorism without giving up our liberty.

We need intelligence services to fight against terrorism, but they have to respect the principles of good relationships between allies and protect personal, confidential data.

For the FBI and for the United States, the war on terrorism is a complex and perplexing issue. It is as complex and perplexing as any issue we have ever faced.

Because of what happened on 9/11, a lot of our resources, our money and our people were dedicated to the terrorism fight.

In 2001, terrorism was fought in a completely different way.

The problem is that the same technological tools we use to thwart terrorists can also be used against the people whose job it is to stop them.

Should any terrorist strike or act of war occur in which American lives are lost, we must be on guard for any attempt by the government to turn that tragedy into justification for sweeping action.

Preventing terrorist attacks is of the highest important, but trashing the Constitution is not the right way to do it.

The Patriot Act is essential to our continued success in the war on terror here at home.

The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles.

I believe the war on terror is the vital discussion of this decade and of our generation, probably. To win the war on terror, you need a good offense and a good defense. On defense, I regret to say, basically, this administration has not come close to doing what is necessary.

This has been the new normal since September 11. Everyone knows, but nobody says, that if something happens again, the elite consensus in this country, and the overwhelming consensus of the citizenry, will be to pitch the Bill of Rights out the window and start rounding folks up.

The actions we took in the aftermath of 9/11 were harsh but necessary and effective. These steps were fully sanctioned and carefully followed. The detention and interrogation of top terrorists like Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Muhammed and Abu Faraj al-Libbi yielded breakthroughs which have kept this country safe.

We are in a war on terrorism. We need to conduct that war and take it to the terrorists, not here at home.