"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

"After 9/11, they just grabbed a bunch of Arab people off the street and said, 'Oh, we'll do the background checks later.'"
—former FBI superviser and counterterrorism agent Manny Johnson

"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.

"Care needs to be taken at this point in time as to their religious background and political views. Loyalty to the United States is the sine qua non for any translator or analyst."
—FBI counterterrorism veteran Donald Lavey "Our presence in North America gives us a unique opportunity to monitor, explore and follow up. We should be able to infiltrate the sensitive intelligence agencies or the embassies in order to collect information and build close relationships with the people in charge in these establishments."
—from Islamic spy charter seized from Sami al-Arian¹s home in Florida

"These people [federal investigators and prosecutors] think Sami al-Arian is an idiot. But Sami al-Arian is a very smart man."
—FBI agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, who refused to secretly tape-record alleged terror co-conspirator Sami al-Arian, as well as other fellow Muslims under investigation

"We are recruiting Muslims as special agents. We have been very active in pushing more for Muslim Americans to consider a career with the FBI."
—FBI Director Robert S. Mueller

"The bureau is against—has been and will be against—any form of profiling [of Arabs or Muslims]."
—FBI Director Robert S. Mueller

"I don't know if Mueller knows what he's doing, or if he's lost. All I know is the CYA culture and the PC culture are still bad there" at FBI headquarters."
—former FBI counterintelligence agent Tom Bloch

"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.

"Most of the manpower in the war on terrorism is coming from new agents fresh out of classes. They have no idea how to investigate a criminal case, and they're going to crack terrorism cases? C'mon. Yet that's who we're sticking in our terrorism squads. No one knows the problem we're in."
—FBI counterterrorism veteran John Vincent.

"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

"A series of lies."
—Chris Butler, spokesperson for GOP operative Grover Norquist, founder of the Islamic Institute, referring to charges Norquist is in bed with Islamists and helping them run influence operations against the federal government

"Grover has worked on Republican outreach with Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Hindus, and Evangelicals."
—Butler in response to questions over why Norquist started an Islamic lobbying group with a stated goal of "promoting the appointments of Muslims to positions of influence."

"Don't have your guy come down there and tell me we can't pull more than three Arab guys out of line for additional security screening, and then tell us after 9/11 that we should have thrown five guys like that off our planes."
—Edmond L. Soliday, former United Airlines vice president of security operations, referring to the transportation secretary's civil-rights attorney

"PC is still tying our hands in fighting terrorism. And I think the American people will lose their resolve, and we'll continue to waste billions of dollars on CTX [bomb-scanning] machines and other weapons-screening equipment rather than profile passengers, and the political correctness will win."
—Edmond L. Soliday, former United Airlines vice president of security operations

"There's always anxiety. You never know if there's an insurgent over there."
—Charlotte S. Needham, who lives across the street from the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center just outside Washington, a Saudi Wahhabi mosque run by members of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood that gave aid and comfort to 9/11 hijackers

"I went on hajj with this terrorist!"
—Hale Smith, formerly Abdul Haleem, who roomed in Saudi with Anwar Aulaqi, the Dar al-Hijrah imam who privately ministered to some of the hijackers

"Before prayer, Muslims are required to wash their faces, hands, and feet with clean water. This washing is normally performed in a restroom sink. The time it takes to perform the washing and the prayer is usually about fifteen minutes. Employers must work out a reasonable arrangement for those employees to pray."
—workplace guide for American employers published by the Council on American-Islamic Relations

"Islam is part of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition."
—John L. Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington

"The truth is, the residents of Skyline Towers cheered that very day as the Trade Center fell. The people in these buildings are animals."
—former tenant of Pentagon-area apartments popular with Saudi diplomats and Muslim immigrants