Political Quotes

“I will support the nomination of GEN David Petraeus to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Over the many years that he has served our country, he has proven himself time and again as a man of integrity, who will act in the best interests of the nation and--in this new position--the men and women of the CIA. As one of the finest military leaders of our time, General Petraeus has been instrumental in the fight against Islamic extremism, playing key roles as Commanding General in Iraq and Afghanistan and as the Commander of U.S. Central Command. He has developed great expertise and deep knowledge of the threats we still face in South Asia and the Middle East. He will now take that expertise and knowledge to the CIA, where he will use different tools to face those and many other national security challenges around the world. Despite my support for the general, I would be remiss if I did not add that I am concerned about a statement he made in answer to a question I asked during his Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on June 23, 2011. General Petraeus has been on the record time and again explaining that torture does not fit with American values, that it creates new enemies, and perhaps most importantly, that it isn't effective. Yet he did not give a simple answer at the hearing when I asked him whether he sees torture any differently in a CIA context than in a military context.…”