Political Quotes

On the recordNovember 30, 2010
America's friends and allies are at risk and, therefore, America's national security is at risk. When classified cables identify certain people who have helped us from around the world as we advance the interests of the free world, defend our national security, and the safety of all humankind--when those people are exposed, there are a lot of bad people out there who want to get rid of those kind of people. When sources of information--I will dress it up and tell you exactly what it is; it is called intelligence--when sources of intelligence are betrayed by being made public, by the disclosure, indiscriminately, of thousands and thousands of cables that were marked ``Top Secret'' or marked ``Secret,'' then what we have done is we have started to shackle our arms behind ourselves in our ability to defend ourselves. Why do I say that? Well, look at all the recent attempts at a terrorist act. We were able to avert the terrorist striking because we got the information that he was going to strike before he struck.
Said by
Bill Nelson
Democratic · Florida

Editor's note · Context

The speaker addresses the risks to national security from the exposure of classified documents.

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