John Ashcroft Quotes

There is only one law of espionage—there are always going to be spies.

Betrayal, in one form or another, is at the very heart of the world of intelligence.

I handed over names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet Union.

Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

Since real spies are so good, you never really know what actual spying is. But I do think spying is a lot more dangerous than we are led to believe.

Espionage is largely separate from the mainstream of foreign policy … you nail the spy and you punish him, and you move on.

If you’re going to be involved with espionage, you’ve got to be motivated. It’s not fun and games. It’s dirty and dangerous. There’s always the chance that you’re going to get burned.

When you're in the CIA, you anticipate the possibility that you'll be betrayed by a foreign government or a source, but you never anticipate that it would be by your own government.

That’s the thing about spies. Most of the secrets we keep are from each other.

You couldn't trust anyone or anything that belonged to the world of espionage.

In my head, I think I'd make a perfect spy, but in reality, I don't think I'd fare very well.

When I handed over the names and compromised so many CIA agents in the Soviet Union, I had come to the conclusion that the loss of these sources to the U.S. would not compromise significant national defense, political, diplomatic interests.

I'd be a terrible secret agent. I can't keep a secret and I'm not sneaky.

Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.

The only thing I ever withheld from the KGB were the names of two agents whom I personally had known and handled and had a particular feeling for.

I knew quite well, when I gave the names of our agents in the Soviet Union, that I was exposing them to the full machinery of counterespionage and the law, and then prosecution and capital punishment.

Perhaps my information hurt the Soviet Union more than it helped. I have no idea. It was not something I ever discussed with the KGB officers that I was dealing with.

Having watched the form of our traitors for a number of years, I cannot think that espionage can be recommended as a technique for building an impressive civilization. It's a lout's game.

Anyone who tells you he deals with the CIA is either a fool (for admitting it) or a braggart.

It was given for all purposes to which a secret service fund should or could be applied to the public benefit—for spies, if the gentleman pleases.

Secrecy is as essential to Intelligence as vestments to a Mass, or darkness to a spiritualist seance, and must at all costs be maintained, quite irrespective of whether or not it serves any purpose.

Intelligence without counter-intelligence is useless.

It is important to seek out the spies that the enemy has sent to spy on you so you can bribe them to really spy for you.

There are more foreign intelligence officers inside the US now, working against US interests, than there were at the height of the cold war.

I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of [CIA] sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.