Leon Panetta's Quotes

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel's interests to strengthen it by... continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You know, one thing I've learned over 40 years is that when you have jobs in Washington, you do it day by day and that's what I'm doing as secretary of defense.

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

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.

After every major conflict - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts.

It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people.

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.

Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head.

Frankly, my fundamental beliefs have not changed.

I don't engage in hypotheticals.

I don't think I should penalize people who were doing their duty.

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

I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.

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

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

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

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

I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not big on commissions.

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

In this century, the 21st century, the U.S. recognizes our prosperity and our security depends even more on the Asia-Pacific region.

Iran is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

My whole life has been dedicated to public service.

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

Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the U.S. military stands for.

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