John Ashcroft

People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn't matter whether they're priests or ministers or atheists.

The path we have chosen is constitutional.

What we learned on September 11 is that the unthinkable is now thinkable in the world.

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed.

We have to think outside the box, inside the Constitution, find ways to do things that will elevate our security, reduce the risk of the incidence of terrorist attack.

There is no priority higher than the prevention of terrorism.

The way the terrorist is trained to operate, especially the suicide terrorists, makes punishment and the threat of punishment far less valuable to those who would prevent the crime.

The Patriot Act allows and provides a basis for an exchange of information.

The new rule says that the FBI has the right to go to public places on the same terms and conditions as other members of the public for counter-terrorism purposes.

The liberties and freedoms which we hold dear and we recognize and cherish and respect guide the way we gather information in the United States.

The FBI has long been a part of the security for the nation's banks because bank robberies have been a priority.

Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate.

Prior to September 11, we thought the world beyond our shores was one world of risk and the world in our continent was another world of risk.

The Internet provides very serious challenges to our ability to keep from children the kinds of things that are destructive to them.

Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution.

Nothing remains great without a capacity to change and to accommodate the conditions of a changing world.

It doesn't help to wait until something happens and then prosecute the offenders, especially if it's the idea of the offender to extinguish himself in the commission of the crime.

If necessity is the mother of invention, it's the father of cooperation. And we're cooperating like never before.

I don't play full court anymore. I just play half-court.

An FBI agent ought to be able to surf the net and look for sites that instruct people how to make bombs.

All of us want to have meaning in our lives and want to feel like we're doing something that makes a difference. I believe we're doing that in the Justice Department.

Agents need to be free to pursue investigations in ways that they haven't. There have been restraints that a reformed FBI needs to make sure we don't impose.

The FBI. is a massive culture. It's been a culture that served America well, and it's been focused on prosecution. But what we need in terms of terrorism is prevention.

The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say 'well done'.

It's a different world.