Quotes By Leon Panetta

You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world.

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.

The United States has to have the capability to deal with more than one enemy at one time and be able to confront them and win.

You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.

We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don't. There is no middle ground.

There's no question that the main location of Al Qaida is in tribal areas of Pakistan.

Today, I think the attitude is that governing is not necessarily good politics, and the result is that it's much more partisan and much more divided.

The Taliban is resilient.

I know that young people sometimes, caught up in the moment, make some very foolish decisions.

The United States, and the president's made this clear, does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That's a red line for us. And it's a red line obviously for the Israelis so we share a common goal here.

I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation.

I don't engage in hypotheticals.

If the Iraqis fail to implement the reforms, if they fail to get a handle on the violence, there's nothing the United States can do, militarily or otherwise, that can solve those problems. They have to assume the primary responsibility to govern themselves.

The United States is going to defend itself under any circumstances.

Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for Al Qaida or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaida. That's really the measure of success for the United States.

When you're smaller and leaner, you're not going to have that large a presence throughout the world.

Well look, CIA is an agency that has to collect intelligence, do operations. We have to take risks and it's important that we take risks and that we know that we have the support of the government and we have the support of the American people in what we're doing.

Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for.

Go forward, knowing that you are greater than the challenges of your time.

I'm not big on commissions.

Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.

Iran's continued drive to develop nuclear capabilities, including troubling enrichment activities and past work on weaponization documented by the IAEA, and its continued support to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations make clear that the regime in Tehran is a very grave threat to all of us.

I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.

If you're a terrorist, you're a terrorist.

The area of climate change has a dramatic impact on national security.