Top 54 Quotes & Sayings by Gina Haspel

Just to talk a moment about transparency, of course CIA does have a Twitter account.

I'm very proud of the fact that we captured the perpetrator of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I think we did extraordinary work.

I recall my first foreign agent meeting was on a dark, moonless night with an agent I'd never met before. When I picked him up, he passed me the intelligence and I passed him extra money for the men he led. It was the beginning of an adventure I had only dreamed of.

The American people and our allies around the world can rely on CIA's vigilance, excellence, and determination to proudly serve.

Experience is a good teacher.

After 9/11, I didn't look to go sit on the Swiss desk - I stepped up. I was not on the sidelines.

As both a career intelligence officer and as an American citizen, I am a strong believer in the importance of oversight. Simply put, experience has taught us that CIA cannot be effective without the people's trust, and we cannot hope to earn that trust without the accountability that comes with Congressional oversight.

The first boots on the ground in Afghanistan were my colleagues.

I think it is important to recall the context of those challenging times immediately following 9/11. For me, I had just returned to Washington from an overseas posting and I reported for duty on the morning of 9/11. I knew in my gut when I saw the video of the first plane hitting the tower in Manhattan that it was bin Laden.

CIA has learned some tough lessons, especially when asked to tackle missions that fall outside our expertise.

When a very tough, old school leader announced that I was his pick to be Chief of Station in a small but important frontier post, a few competitors complained to me directly 'why would they send you?' I owe that leader much for believing in me at a time when few women were given these opportunities.

I think you will find me to be a typical middle-class American.

I would not restart, under any circumstances, an interrogation program at CIA.

We want our men and women to be closely attuned to the cultures in which they operate and to speak the local language.

In carrying out every aspect of our work, CIA officers are guided by a professional ethos that is the sum of our abiding principles, core values, and highest aspirations. These include service, integrity, excellence, courage, teamwork, and stewardship. Sacrifice, too, is an inescapable part of our mission.

I was born in Kentucky and, while my family has deep roots there, I was an Air Force brat, and we followed my father to postings all over the world.

If we cannot share aspects of our secret work with the public, we should do so with their elected representatives. For CIA oversight is a vital link to the open society we defend. It's a defining feature of the U.S. intelligence community and one of the many things that distinguishes us from the hostile services we face in the field.

We must learn from the past, but we cannot dwell in the past.

My childhood overseas instilled in me an appreciation for foreign languages and cultures, but also a deep understanding of the vital role of American leadership in confronting aggression abroad.

Because of what happened on 9/11, a lot of our resources, our money and our people were dedicated to the terrorism fight.

I joined the CIA in 1985 as an operations officer in the Clandestine Service.

When developing intelligence assessments, initial tactical reports often require additional collection and validation.

Hostile states' use of proxies in war zones to inflict damage on U.S. interests and troops is a constant, longstanding concern.

I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information that I obtained in brush passes, dead drops, or in meetings in dusty alleys of third world capitals.

In general, preliminary Force Protection information is shared throughout the national security community - and with U.S. allies - as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of coalition forces overseas. Leaks compromise and disrupt the critical interagency work to collect, assess, and ascribe culpability.

The change from being undercover to coming out into the open was a bit of an adjustment.

Nothing is more important to those of us at CIA than our obligation to earn the trust of our fellow citizens.

After years of failure, I do think that President Trump has shown a lot of wisdom in reaching out his hand to the North Korean leader and to suggest to them that there might be a different future for the North Korean people.

First of all, CIA follows the law.

I was proud to be the first woman to serve as the No. 2 in the Clandestine Service. It is not my way to trumpet the fact that I am a woman up for the top job, but I would be remiss in not remarking on it - not least because of the outpouring of support from young women at CIA who consider it a good sign for their own prospects.

I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that is immoral, even if it is technically legal.

From my first days in training, I had a knack for the nuts and bolts of my profession.

CIA will continue to pursue every lead; analyze the information we collect with critical, objective eyes; and brief reliable intelligence to protect U.S. forces deployed around the world.

In all of my assignments, I have conducted myself honorably and in accordance with U.S. law.

I don't believe that torture works.

We got valuable information from debriefing of Al Qaeda detainees, and I don't think it's knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that.

Within the Intelligence Community, CIA is the keeper of the human intelligence mission. Technical forms of collection are vital, but a good human source is unique and can deliver decisive intelligence on our adversaries' secrets - even their intent.

A lot has changed since I first arrived at CIA, but our mission remains as relevant and important as ever. And this is what makes our officers excited to come to work each morning, including me.

CIA has been treated with enormous respect and our expertise is valued for what we bring to the table.

I was on the front lines in the Cold War, and I was on the front lines in the fight against Al Qaeda.

I stand on the shoulders of heroines who never sought public acclaim but served as inspirations to the generations that came after them.

I think it's very important, I think for any leader as you go through a career you have to learn the leadership lessons.

Intelligence services all over the world, in order to retain their competitive edge, have to adapt or they won't survive.

We try and be as open as we can, and to protect the secrets that we must protect.

It is very important that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency adhere to the same classification guidelines that all employees must adhere to because there are very good reason for those classification guidelines.

My moral compass is strong.

I wrote a letter to the CIA on my manual college typewriter. I mailed it to CIA with my resume. I didn't have an address. So I just put, 'CIA. Washington, D.C.'

We must constantly learn, adjust, improve, and strive to be better.

As I look back on my first year as Director, I am more in awe of the men and women at CIA than ever before.

I support the higher moral standard that this country has decided to hold itself to.

For me, as for our entire Agency family, the 129 stars on CIA's Memorial Wall are more than just symbols. They are solemn reminders of friends and colleagues who answered their nation's call, and who willingly risked their lives to protect us all.

People often ask CIA Directors what keeps them up at night. Between rogue WMD programs, cyber threats, terrorist organizations, great power rivalries, and other global threats, there's bound to be more than a single reason I'm losing sleep on any given night.

I would not put C.I.A. officers at risk by asking them to undertake risky, controversial activity again.

I know CIA like the back of my hand.