David Blunkett Quotes

There is no priority higher than the prevention of terrorism.

In the aftermath of September 11th, it is critical to secure our borders.

You can gesture at the transnational problem of Islamist terrorism all you like, but it's just hot air unless you invest in proper security on the ground in your own country, with the right safeguards to civil liberties.

Since 2001, the Patriot Act has provided the means to detect and disrupt terrorist threats against the U.S. Prior to enactment of the law, major legal barriers prevented intelligence, national defense, and law enforcement agencies from working together and sharing information.

The political solutions proposed against encryption are not going to work against terrorism.

Coalition [against ISIS] need the tools. And the tools involve encryption where we cannot hear what they're even planning. And when we see red flags, a father, a mother, a neighbor who says we have got a problem here, then we have to give law enforcement the ability to listen so they can disrupt these terrorist attacks before they occur.

Years ago, even prior to 9/11, I did a movie called "The Siege." I did a lot of research with the FBI and the CIA. And I was amazed at that time (I guess we might all know it now) how little information they shared with each other. So after that, I'm not surprised by anything.

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

Once the attacks occur, as we learned on Sept. 11, it is too late. It makes little sense to deprive ourselves of an important, and legal, means to detect and prevent terrorist attacks while we are still in the middle of a fight to the death with al Qaeda.

I will continue to push for doubling the strength of the U.S. Border Patrol, and to make sure that every cargo container that enters this nation is screened for radiation and potential weapons of mass destruction.

In the fight against terrorism, national agencies keep full control over their police forces, security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.

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

Since the tragedies, the Department of Homeland Security was established to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, and most importantly, to share intelligence information among government agencies and departments.

More needs to be done to take the fight to the enemy and secure our borders against the terrorist threat. We need more protection on land, sea and air.

Governments in countries across the world have a duty to do everything possible to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks.

Since its enactment in the weeks following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the tools in the Patriot Act have been used by law enforcement to stop more than 400 terrorist threats to our families and communities.

President George W. Bush's aggressive war on Islamic terrorism produced a 100 percent perfect track record of keeping the United States safe from another attack. The result has been increased security for the American people, who, in turn, have become complacent about the true nature of the threat.

I do think we need more cameras. We have to stay ahead of the terrorists, and I do know in New York, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which is based on cameras, the outstanding work that results from that.

On average, since 9/11, the FBI reckons that just over 100,000 terrorism leads each year have come over the transom. Analysts and agents designate them as immediate, priority or routine, but the bureau says every one is covered.

I am committed to protecting our country against the threat of terrorism.

Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism, and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.

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

When these attacks occur, as they likely will, we will wonder what more we could have done to stop them.

There's still a lot of things you can legitimately do to make America safe through electronic surveillance.

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