The Arctic is an important area of policy, and I know you have been looking at it.

There is no low-hanging fruit. There is no easy solution to it.

When the proxy forces run into trouble, Russian forces step in to right the balance.

I hope that Congress can find a more realistic and responsible solution to sequestration.

Putin does understand weakness, and takes advantage of it.

If you build a doomsday machine, you've got to tell people you have it.

isn't it a net-zero immigration from Mexico at this point?

We should have--it's one of the few large institutions I know of that doesn't have an operating budget and a capital budget.

the Russians are making huge moves in the Arctic with regard to new bases, with regard to new airfields, new Arctic command, claiming territory over huge swaths of the Arctic.

Graham Allison, from Harvard, called it the 'Thucydides Trap,' wherein 12 of 16 instances in world history where you had a rapidly rising power confronting an established power ended in war.

the Arctic is emerging as an enormously important and strategic area.

I would like to see a little more detail about how you are going to tackle that.

This government spends over $70 billion a year on intelligence. And I hate hearing the word 'surprise' in any hearing.

This has to be inclusive.

By definition, a contingency account is not a contingency account if you are spending it for base budget purposes.

This is like General Robert E. Lee losing J.E.B. Stuart before the Battle of Gettysburg. As I remember, General Lee's comment was 'I am blind.' That is what we are talking about.

Yes, we need to be intellectually honest that anything we do--anything we do--is going to provoke a Russian response.

I think you can argue that a lot of the problems we're having in Iraq now are because of the Maliki government's failure to be inclusive.

If we aren't able to avoid the sequester, are American lives being put at risk?

I generally meet with CIA personnel around the world, and I have found them to be uniformly patriotic, intelligent, passionate about their work on behalf of this country.

Inaction is also an action, and the Russians will react to it.

I certainly hope you will counsel the White House to think seriously about what I would consider a modest additional investment to maintain the tremendous gains that have been had.

the key to stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into this country, is to make their countries more attractive places to live.

What people don't realize is, two-thirds of the Federal budget isn't subject to sequestration.

I don't want to return to the post-September 11 days when we had a lot of intelligence capability, but they weren't talking to each other.