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

Leon Panetta

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Leon Panetta
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: June 28
Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Lawyer
Political Scientist
Politician
Monterey
California
Leon Edward Panetta
Realized
Decisions
Decision
Death
Make
Life
People
Cia
Suddenly

More quotes by Leon Panetta

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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.
Leon Panetta
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You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.
Leon Panetta
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Go forward, knowing that you are greater than the challenges of your time.
Leon Panetta
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These days, it takes only seconds - seconds - for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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The most important thing we can do is prosecute the offenders, deal with those that have broken the law and committed this crime. And if we can do that then we can begin to deal with this issue and send a signal this is not a problem that we are going to ignore in the United States military.
Leon Panetta
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Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.
Leon Panetta
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Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.
Leon Panetta
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I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened. We have not seen them able to conduct any kind of organized attack to regain any territory that they've lost. We've seen levels of violence going down.
Leon Panetta
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One of the principal qualities that you need as national security adviser is trust, the trust of the president. And that depends on truth and it depends on honesty.
Leon Panetta
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I want you and the people of Israel to know a few things that have not and will not change. The United States stands firmly with Israel, and we have a rock solid commitment to the security of Israel and to the security of its citizens.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.
Leon Panetta
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Al Qaeda still remains a threat.
Leon Panetta
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Clearly, Russia has lied to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. They have clearly violated the cease-fire agreements.
Leon Panetta
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The last thing I want to do is to make the mistakes of the past.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the US military stands for.
Leon Panetta
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I don't engage in hypotheticals.
Leon Panetta