Rudy Giuliani

We are not going to finesse our way out of this.

The stronger we are and the more direct we are, and more honest we are and the tougher we are, the less likely they are to attack us.

The more euphemistic we are, the weaker they think we are.

The preparation that Boston undertook, I believe, in November on a terrorist exercise, on an exercise and planning, absolutely saved lives this spring.

The preparations they do to be ready for a terrorist attack makes them better able to deal with a hurricane or a tornado.

If we don't have control, if we don't have reasonable control of our borders, then, you know, everything else kind of falls apart.

A civilized country controls its border.

I find his going back to Russia, a startling event, particularly since he sought asylum in the United States.

If they think they will be criticized if they make a mistake, unduly criticized, they are going to back off quickly.

At the same time, we don't want to trample on people's civil liberties, because if you have a citizenry that is very alert to that and you have a police department that is very sensitive to it, they are going to occasionally make mistakes.

The reality is this is a very difficult balance, right? We want an alert group of citizens who are reporting to us information that they see that is suspicious.

This guy is an enemy combatant, should not be Mirandized, should not be treated; this is not a law enforcement situation going on.

So it would seem to me that the FBI should have communicated with the local police, Boston, Cambridge, whatever, all of them to get help, not just to let them know.

The breakdown comes about if you really ask the FBI, they will say, we can't trust the local police.

What I do know is that if you ask me what does the new strategy have to be to deal with this new threat of isolated, individual, smaller groups, the emphasis on State and local law enforcement becomes critical here.

I agree with you that our inability to define the threat because of political correctness, I think, poses a danger to the safety of Americans.

In assessing our level of danger from and our defenses against terrorism, both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have continually warned us...

The level of cooperation today is light-years ahead of what it was when I first got involved in law enforcement...

If you train them to detect terrorism, they are going to do a better job of detecting possible muggers, murderers, rapists.

It seems to me that that is a perfect analysis of how you can focus DHS, which, after all, is in the scheme of things in Washington a new agency.

The only way we can stop them is if we stopped being a democracy.

The reality is what we do is only at the margins of what they do to us.

Although the numbers are different--you know, in a large attack, more people die; in a smaller attack, less people die--both of them are enormously destabilizing.

I have given him great praise and told him personally I thought it was a real act of leadership in doing that.

My major objection to President Obama's change has been in his unwillingness to describe it as a war on terror.