Michael Leiter Quotes

We're not going to have a perfect batting average and it's important that Americans understand that.

The language of North Korea is always bombastic. But what has really changed is the acceleration of their nuclear program, the likelihood that they have more and more weapons, and the acceleration of the testing of ballistic missiles in very, very aggressive ways towards Japan.

We need additional funding for more U.S. combat brigades in Europe. NATO needs to continue to modernize. It is starting to show with the Russians but these exercises are central to show that the alliance is firm, especially as the E.U. starts to have some weakness on the economic front.

I think we have started accelerating over the past years. It's a modernization of NATO. It's at air, it's at sea, it's undersea, it's in cyber. Estonia in 2007, hit by Russian cyber-attacks. So what you see there with those exercises are critical.

I think the refugee problem is Europe is vastly worse than we have in the United States.

I think the vetting we have for refugees is vastly better than the Europeans have.

We have a Muslim population which is better off economically, better engaged, and less drawn to the fight in ISIS. But as we've seen in places like California and elsewhere, we still have a threat, even if smaller.

They [ French] still have an open border in Europe. And they have a Europe which doesn't have an integrated intelligence system like we do in the United States.

You have the intelligence front and the engagement front. On the intelligence front, the French are better than many of their European counterparts. But they are really challenged in two specific ways.

We can't be French and Muslim at the same time. And that's exactly what ISIS wants that population to think.

Banning the burkini doesn't produce terrorists. But it does make the people who are already alienated, who are already disenfranchised, I many cases, economically disenfranchised in a place like France in many of those neighborhoods, and make them say, ah, ISIS's message is true and real.

When you do have really tapped out resources that cover so many investigations, it can help you move through and discard some faster.

I don't think bulk data collection was an enormous factor here, because generally, that deals with overseas calls to the United States. But what bulk data collection did was make the process more efficient. So there were no silver bullets there.

You've got a huge American population, you've got a small, small, small subset that is radicalized, and you have an even smaller subset that actually takes action. And you can't cover everyone who has some contact, someone bad. What you need is offense overseas, defense at home with intelligence and law enforcement, and really deep engagement with these communities.

ISIS, in some cases like Paris, may actually try to direct. But what it's really trying to do is inspire. So its directed activities are these inspired attacks.