Leon Panetta

we believed that Iran was furnishing new, more deadly weapons to militant groups targeting U.S. troops in Iraq.

The best signal we can send to the Taliban is that we're going to continue to fight them and that we're going to continue to be there and that we're not going anywhere.

U.S. forces will redeploy from Iraq by the end of this year.

We must preserve capabilities that are most important to protecting our vital interests, and we must avoid hollowing out the force and breaking faith with the men and women who are fighting for us.

I want to caution strongly against further cuts to defense as we go through that, particularly with the mechanism that's been built into the agreement called sequester.

Any future security relationship would be fundamentally different from the one we have had since 2003.

The United States supports a reconciliation process that is Afghan-led, politically inclusive within Afghan civil society, and has the support of Afghanistan's neighbors and the international community.

It is unacceptable to me that the Department of Defense cannot produce a financial statement that passes all financial audit standards. That will change. I have directed that this requirement be put in place as soon as possible. America…

Leon Panetta will be the next secretary of defense. The Senate approved Panetta's nomination in a unanimous vote of 100-0.

America's next Pearl Harbor is likely to be a cyber attack.

No, the DOD has not changed its policy and does not intend at this time to include other lenders within the coverage of the regulation.

So you give this fierily speech at the Republican convention. How long did it take before you talked to each other?

Obviously, there was some valuable information that were derived through those kinds of techniques.

We have a visual on Geronimo.

To be frank, I don't think he had a lot of time to say anything. It was -- it was a fire fight going up that compound.

Leon Panetta told 'Time' magazine today flat out, we didn't tell the Pakistanis because we didn't trust that they wouldn't tip bin Laden off is stunning.

Leon Panetta told 'TIME' magazine flat out, we didn't tell the Pakistanis because we didn't trust that they wouldn't tip bin Laden off is stunning.

Well, I'm sure the concern is that just the nature of the photos themselves are such that it could, in fact, be used to try to develop the revengeful nature of what al Qaeda is all about and try to inspire them to take even further action…

I believe some U.S. military personnel would be appropriate to support Iraq's continuing needs and enduring U.S. national interests.

The United States' focus in Afghanistan is to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaida and to ensure Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven from which terrorists attack the United States.

I can assure our forces and their families that my commitment, and the commitment of our military leadership, is to ensure they have the resources and training they need to carry out their missions.

As we end the U.S. troop presence in Iraq this year, according to the agreement with the Iraqi government, the overall deployment demands on our force are decreasing significantly.

The ability to detain them in a place where we can then interrogate them, that process works very well.

This is not a monolithic organization.

I really do think that the cyber area is the battleground of the future.