Famous Quotes & Sayings

Robert Mueller

Prior to the passage of the Patriot Act, it was very difficult - often impossible - for us to share information with the Central Intelligence Agency, with NSA, with the other intelligence agencies, and likewise, for them to share information with us.

James R. Clapper

We must remain mindful of the potential impact of over-correcting the authorizations of the intelligence community.

Mike Rogers

I would argue, by the way, if the French citizens knew exactly what that was about, they would be applauding and popping Champagne corks. It's a good thing. It keeps the French safe. It keeps the U.S. safe.

Lindsey Graham

I hope we follow Mr. Snowden to the ends of the Earth to bring him to justice.

Gail Collins

The IRS targeting certain groups for harassment because of their politics would be unfair. If we found out the NSA was keeping special tabs on everyone who worshiped at a mosque or took a Bible trip through the Middle East, you'd have an uprising.

Dianne Feinstein

There is no more direct or honest person than Jim Clapper.

Edward Snowden

I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines.

Edward Snowden

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.

Edward Snowden

Ending mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen. Yet while we have reformed this one program, many others remain.

Edward Snowden

We need the security standards to apply to the internet. We need to be able to trust that when we send our emails through Verizon, that Verizon isn't sharing with the NSA, that Verizon isn't sharing them with the FBI or German intelligence or French intelligence or Russian intelligence or Chinese intelligence.

Edward Snowden

These [NSA] programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power.

Edward Snowden

Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President

Edward Snowden

The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything.

Edward Snowden

The community of technical experts who really manage the internet, who built the internet and maintain it, are becoming increasingly concerned about the activities of agencies like the NSA or Cyber Command, because what we see is that defense is becoming less of a priority than offense.

Edward Snowden

Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Al Franken

I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people.

Edward Snowden

If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.

Edward Snowden

They still have negligent auditing, they still have things going for a walk, and they have no idea where they're coming from and they have no idea where they're going. And if that's the case, how can we as the public trust the NSA with all of our information, with all of our private records, the permanent record of our lives?

Edward Snowden

The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.

Edward Snowden

I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.

Edward Snowden

I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.

Edward Snowden

We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.

Edward Snowden

I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things.

Angela Merkel

We need trust among allies and partners. Such trust now has to be built anew.

Ray McGovern

I would have never thought that I would hear myself saying that the president of the United States is afraid of the CIA. But he is. He's afraid of the NSA as well. How else to explain that the National Intelligence director, who lied under oath to his senate overseers on the 12th of March 2013, is still the director of National Intelligence?

Stephen Colbert

If anybody needs anything else at their tables, just speak slowly and clearly into your table numbers. Someone from the NSA will be right over with a cocktail.

Sushma Swaraj

If Pakistan NSA wants to come he is welcome. But talks will only be on terrorism. No scope for expansion of agenda.

Rand Paul

I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged. At the very least, we should debate. We should debate whether or not we are going to relinquish our rights, or whether or not we are going to have a full and able debate over whether or not we can live within the Constitution, or whether or not we have to go around the Constitution.

Rand Paul

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Patriot Act was rushed to the floor. Several hundred pages. Nobody read it ... But people voted because they were fearful and people said there could be another attack and Americans will blame me if I don't vote on this.

Rand Paul

Some in Washington say that you have to trade your liberty for security.

Sherrod Brown

The president overstepped his authority when he asked the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans' international phone calls without obtaining a warrant.

Michele Bachmann

Was the leaker in question, Ed Snowden, was he a traitor?

Eoin Colfer

Foaly: Anyone see you come in here? Holly: The FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, MI6. Oh, and the EIB. Foaly: The EIB? Holly: (smirking) Everyone in the building.