"I'll bet al Qaeda subscribes to the New York Times...."
Maybe they work there already.
HOT QUOTES http://www.sperryfiles.com
"We have serious problems with the hiring of language specialists. Background investigations are not being conducted properly, and we're giving people top secret clearance who shouldn¹t have it. And we have espionage cases because of it."
—FBI counterintellence veteran John M. Cole
"I mean, it's like a mole house over there."
—Sibel Dinez Edmonds, former FBI translator, referring to the Middle Eastern translation unit at the Washington field office of the FBI
"I personally know of five Muslim translators, and three out of the five refused to do their work. You can't trust them to translate another Muslim. You'd have to have somebody go over it again. Now that's a huge problem, because most of your subjects in terrorism are Muslim."
—FBI counterterrorism veteran John Vincent, Chicago field office.
"It was a big piece of the puzzle."
—Behrooz Sarshar, former FBI linguist who translated an Iranian informant's tip outlining the 9/11 plot four months before the attacks
"I'm convinced there's more information in the FBI" regarding pre-9/11 tips that were buried or ignored."
—former FBI official I.C. Smith
"Is there anything you are aware of in your background which might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated?"
—Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
"No, ma'am."
—David Hossein Safavian, nominee for top White House position
"Client Name: Abdurahman Alamoudi. Lobbyist Name: David Safavian."
—page 2 of official lobbying registration papers filed September 18, 2000, with the Secretary of the Senate.
"Every terrorist country was represented at the [nuclear weapons] labs, either as post-doctoral workers and students assigned there, or as visitors. Iran, Syria—you name it, we had them from all of those places."
—Ret. Col. Edward McCallum, former head of the Department of Energy's Office of Safeguards and Security under the Clinton administration.
"[Former Energy Secretary] Hazel [O'Leary] said to me, and this is a quote, 'Boy, don't you understand that the Cold War is over, and all these people are our friends now?' And we were talking about security against terrorists and espionage in the same conversation."
—Col. McCallum
"There is a great deal of concern about Iranians throughout the national lab complex. A lot of directives have been issued concerning this issue."
—senior U.S. counterintelligence official involved with nuclear lab security