James R. Clapper Quotes

I did get a letter from the speaker of the House urging - enjoining me not to brief Secretary Clinton, and lots of cards and letters from people about not briefing Mr. Trump.

- James R. Clapper

Although we must be prepared for a catastrophic large-scale strike, a cyber armageddon, the reality is that we have been living with a constant barrage of cyberattacks for some time. The trend, I believe, will continue.

- James R. Clapper

The most pervasive cyber threat to the U.S. financial sector is from cyber criminals.

- James R. Clapper

In the future, we will probably see cyber operations that change or manipulate electronic information to compromise its integrity instead of simply deleting the access to it.

- James R. Clapper

I have always accepted intelligence was an honorable profession. We are all mindful of the need to comply with our moral values and the law.

- James R. Clapper

The Intelligence Community Assessment concluded first that President Putin directed and influenced a campaign to erode the faith and confidence of the American people in our presidential election process. Second, that he did so to demean Secretary Clinton, and third, that he sought to advantage Mr. Trump.

- James R. Clapper

If ISIL were to substantially increase the priority it places on attacking the West rather than fighting to maintain and expand territorial control, then the group's access to radicalized Westerners who have fought in Syria and Iraq would provide a pool of operatives who potentially have access to the United States and other Western countries.

- James R. Clapper

Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.

- James R. Clapper

I've long maintained during my 50-plus year career in intelligence that leaks endanger national security, they compromise sources, methods, and tradecraft, and they can put assets' lives at risk.

- James R. Clapper

I do think - the metaphor I always use - it's the role of intelligence community to stay down in the engine room and shovel that intelligence coal, and people on the bridge get to decide where to drive the ship and how fast and how to arrange all the deckchairs.

- James R. Clapper

ISIL particularly is very slick, very sophisticated, proselytizing and recruiting, and they are very astute users of social media.

- James R. Clapper

The term 'Muslim Brotherhood'... is an umbrella term for a variety of movements: in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.

- James R. Clapper

I had served in the Republic of Korea in the early '80s while I was on active duty as a director of intelligence for U.S. forces Korea, and kind of followed developments on the peninsula ever since.

- James R. Clapper

I think the founding fathers, in their genius, created a system of three co-equal branches of government and a built-in system of checks and balances.

- James R. Clapper

The country of Iraq is somewhat of an artificial creation going back to colonial days. And so you have the Kurds and then the Sunnis in the north predominantly and Shias in the south.

- James R. Clapper

A key player with respect to sanctions is, of course, China. And so, if a military option were to be exercised, then obviously we would play very heavily in that process. But that's not a decision, fortunately, that the intelligence community makes.

- James R. Clapper

I think the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause.

- James R. Clapper

This is strictly personal opinion, not company policy, but I do think that we could do with having a USIA on steroids.

- James R. Clapper

The Russians are bent on establishing both a presence in the Western Hemisphere, and they're looking for opportunities to expand military cooperation: sell equipment, air bases, as well as intelligence gathering facilities.

- James R. Clapper

I was a part of the decision-making in the Pentagon, when I was the undersecretary for intelligence, to start CYBERCOM, both as a sub-unified command and under a dual-hat arrangement. That was never intended to be permanent in any event.

- James R. Clapper

The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections - theirs and other people's.

- James R. Clapper

The first week in intelligence school, you learn there are only two conditions in life. There is policy success, or there is intel failure. There is no other condition in life.

- James R. Clapper

The reason that ISIL was so successful, yes, it had to do with their capabilities and prowess on the battlefield, but they were dealing with a receptive constituency in northern Iraq because of the intense hatred of the Maliki government, which of course is imposing the Shia view on them.

- James R. Clapper

Typically, people in the intelligence community are just going to kind of hunker down and do their job, do their mission. And I believe - I have great faith in them. I think they will continue to serve up truth to power even if the power chooses not to listen to the truth.

- James R. Clapper

A leak is an unauthorized disclosure of classified or sensitive information that is improper under any circumstance.

- James R. Clapper

For the record, in my long career, I've never knowingly exposed classified information in an inappropriate manner.

- James R. Clapper

When the Internet was first - as an experiment and then when it - as it mushroomed, security was never an integral part of what the Internet was designed for. I mean, it just didn't - wasn't a consideration.

- James R. Clapper

There is no requirement whatsoever for a security clearance for a candidate. The mere fact that a candidate is anointed by its party at a convention - that is all that is required. And it's not up to me or the administration to determine candidate suitability for these briefings.

- James R. Clapper

In the end, we will never, ever be able to guarantee that there will not be an Edward Snowden or another Chelsea Manning because this is a large enterprise composed of human beings with all their idiosyncrasies.

- James R. Clapper

It's certainly not helpful when the commander in chief is a critic of the intelligence community.

- James R. Clapper

What I said was, the NSA does not voyeuristically pore through U.S. citizens' e-mails. I stand by that.

- James R. Clapper

When I was commissioned in the Air Force, I was committed to the institution for a career.

- James R. Clapper

The number one foreign policy goal of Russia is control of the former Soviet space.

- James R. Clapper

To the extent that anyone has leverage over North Korea, it's China.

- James R. Clapper

The history of the intelligence community is replete with violations of the trust of the American people.

- James R. Clapper

It is not the intelligence community's place to set and implement policy.

- James R. Clapper