Lee Hamilton

I view comprehensive immigration reform as a necessary, fundamentally necessary thing to protect our National security.

We must constantly assess our vulnerabilities and anticipate new lines of attack; not become complacent, but remain vigilant and resolute.

This is a no-brainer. The people at the site of a disaster... all have to be able to communicate with one another.

You are undermining the effectiveness of homeland security.

If we have intelligence that in Yemen or in Somalia there are groups that are plotting against the United States or our allies in some way, then I think we have to get our brains together and figure out the best way to do it.

The President is the only one who can make those lines clear, and the President is the only one who could make it happen.

The only really effective independent oversight of the intelligence community can come from the Congress.

I think the Afghanistan experience should tell us not to ignore these countries as difficult as it may be.

The DNI would be the central powerful driver of the intelligence community. I do not think he has been.

I'm certainly for accountability in government. And if a person clearly did not do their job, they ought to pay a penalty for that.

The urgent task--a prior task to accountability--is to correct the flaws that have been discussed here.

Hiring and firing is a national security issue.

It is our view that the U.S. Government has made significant positive strides to correct the shortfalls that were obvious on September 11.

The approach that you are mentioning--in other words, trying to make us spend more and more by way of defense--is part of their strategy.

Somebody has to knock heads together to get over this mind-set of 'I can have the information, you cannot.'

I think it's very important for a President to be able to know, 'With whom do I consult on this question?'--and not just do it hit or miss because Senator Kerry or Senator Lugar are key players.

Today, a President can commit military forces, really, without congressional involvement.

When you have this incompetent, when you have unauthorized work, when you have shoddy facilities, when you have money that is squandered, there are very, very few things that hurt our effort more in trying to succeed in Iraq than that kind…

What's happened? Iran has become the most powerful country in the region. It continues to support terrorist organizations. It's continuing to develop its nuclear potential. How can anyone say today that our policy towards Iran is working…

We're going to have to talk with Iran. There's no country in the world that has caused us more heartburn over a period of decades than Iran.

We're saying that, no matter what Iraq does, we're going to act on our own. In other words, we're not going to give the Iraqis a veto power over what we do or do not do.

We're pulling out of there. We're pulling our combat forces out there. And we're going to do it gradually. We're going to do it carefully and deliberately, but we're coming out of here, in the combat sense.

I don't think we're losing. I don't think we're winning. I just think we're engaged right in the middle of the war.

A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces would likely result in a bloodbath.

You cannot look at this area of the world, and pick and choose among the countries that you're going to deal with.