Leon Panetta

the statutory BRAC process is a fair, objective, and proven process for closing and realigning bases in the United States.

If Congress does not provide us with needed support, DOD's new Defense Strategy Guidance will be at risk.

Iran is of great concern. We have common cause with Israel, we have common cause with the international community with regards to the concerns about Iran.

All servicemembers, regardless of sexual orientation, are entitled to an environment free from personal, social, or institutional barriers.

U.S. military assistance to Egypt remains an important demonstration of our commitment to supporting Egypt.

Our strategic relationship with Egypt is one of the most important in the region.

Asking for a 2013 round is aggressive; but given the magnitude of the cuts we are making in force structure, we cannot afford to wait.

sequestration would have a devastating effect on the Defense Department overall

We've gone through a nuclear review and presented options to the President. But let me be very clear that these options are in no way unilateral.

On the issue of Israel, I can assure you that we view the relationship with Israel as an essential relationship; essential to their security, essential to our security, and essential to the security of that region.

Let me be clear, you cannot take a half a trillion dollars out of the defense budget and not increase the risks.

It is a crazy, nutty tool that, frankly, cannot be restructured.

It is going to impact on compensation. It is going to impact on training and equipment. It is going to impact on personnel. It is going to impact on every area of the budget. And it is mindless. It does not make sense.

What we need to see is the administration saying, here is an alternative and something besides your budget.

I do not see the administration coming up and saying, we may not have been as active as we could have been during the supercommittee time period in which we could have prevented sequestration.

We need a fifth-generation fighter, and the F-35 is that.

This has to be a bipartisan effort to detrigger sequestration.

We sat around a table in Tom Foley's office and worked through a deficit reduction package that included all of the elements.

This is a responsibility we all have. It is not just my responsibility. It is yours as well.

I do not think you should detrigger sequester on the backs of our civilian workforce.

I hope to God that all else does not fail, and, I know that everybody is concerned, particularly these days, that somehow that may still be allowed to happen.

Sequester doubles the numbers of cuts, does it through that crazy formula, and guarantees that we are going to hollow the force and devastate our national security.

I think it is incumbent on the Congress to try to come together with an approach that gets rid of sequestration.

There's a growing likelihood that Israel could strike in, say, April, May, or even June.

There's a growing likelihood of an Israeli strike.