Ronald Kessler Quotes

“Because of the terrorist threat, the FBI and CIA have become as important as the military in preserving our freedom. Yet while thanking our military is standard practice in American life, no one thinks of thanking the FBI, the CIA, or the rest of the intelligence community for keeping us safe since 9/11.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Love him or hate him, no one has been able to figure out Donald Trump.”

— Ronald Kessler

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, decisions made by President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev could have plunged both countries into thermonuclear war.

— Ronald Kessler

When 'The Washington Post' ran the first national story about FBI profiling in 1984, no one outside of law enforcement recognized the term.

— Ronald Kessler

As the Marine One helicopter lifts off from the White House, the Prowler team watches for snipers. The team also responds to any threat that may arise at the White House itself.

— Ronald Kessler

“Rather than use the term 'profiling,' the profilers prefer to say they engage in criminal investigative analysis. That is because, besides developing profiles, the analysts offer a range of other advice, including personality assessments and interview techniques tailored to a particular offender.”

— Ronald Kessler

“The media are always on the lookout for possible sightings of D.B. Cooper, the man who parachuted from a plane with $200,000 in ransom money in November 1971. But the truth is, the mystery man wearing dark sunglasses almost certainly died during the jump, according to the FBI agents on the case at the time.”

— Ronald Kessler

“As you can tell from the titles of my books, I like to probe secret organizations, secret subjects. And this sometimes gets me into trouble.”

— Ronald Kessler

“If FBI agents can't be trusted to wiretap within the law, why trust them to carry weapons or make arrests?”

— Ronald Kessler

In the sweep of history, George W. Bush will be seen as one of our greatest presidents because of the decisions he made to keep us safe after 9/11.

— Ronald Kessler

“In typical Washington fashion, nothing gets reformed until a disaster happens.”

— Ronald Kessler

“My mother, Minuetta Kessler, was a concert pianist and composer who performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.”

— Ronald Kessler

“'Newsmax' lets me work with other media.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Pension funds, endowments, and private investors trust Mitt Romney's former company Bain Capital enough to hand it billions of dollars in assets.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Since 9/11, the U.S.A. Patriot Act has torn down the invisible wall that was perceived as preventing the FBI and CIA from sharing information.”

— Ronald Kessler

“When I was doing interviews at the FBI, my tape recorder battery died. They gave me a new one, and I said, 'Of course, this is bugged?'”

— Ronald Kessler

Agents who have left the Secret Service to join other federal law enforcement agencies report that training in firearms and counterterrorism tactics in those agencies in many cases far exceeds the quality of what the Secret Service offered.

— Ronald Kessler

Complex man that he was, J. Edgar Hoover left nothing to chance. The director shrewdly recognized that building what became known as the world's greatest law enforcement agency would not necessarily keep him in office.

— Ronald Kessler

“Despite constant vilifying by the media and congressional threats to take away the tools needed to uncover plots, FBI agents and CIA officers work silently around the clock and risk their own lives to keep us safe.”

— Ronald Kessler

“'Fox lies' has become a favorite mantra of the Left, yet there is a reason Fox News blows away the other cable networks in ratings and is more trusted as a news source than any other television network.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Hiking taxes on the so-called wealthy would help send us into a recession because so many small businesses report their income on individual tax returns. If taxes are raised, they will be less likely to be able to hire new workers and make new capital investments.”

— Ronald Kessler

“I have one anecdote about the FBI breaking into an embassy in Washington, and under Hoover, they had this sort of ruse whereby they didn't want to recommend a break-in that might be a big flap and cause all kinds of problems.”

— Ronald Kessler

“I like a challenge. The fact that these are secret organizations, and also very important organizations that can engage in abuses that are so important to our national security - all that attracts me.”

— Ronald Kessler

I sat next to Carl Bernstein throughout Watergate, and Woodward would come over, and they would argue everything out, so I was really tuned into what happened.

— Ronald Kessler

“If Madison Avenue advertising executives were to pick a song that would best represent America, the last one they would choose is 'The Star Spangled Banner.'”

— Ronald Kessler

In a series of articles beginning on Oct. 2, 1966, I wrote about the long-forgotten history of the Liberty Tree. To call attention to how obscure the site had become, I interviewed waitresses at the Essex Delicatessen below the plaque on Washington Street. None knew what the Liberty Tree was.

— Ronald Kessler

“In the case of the FBI, I revealed that William Sessions, the FBI director, had been engaging in abuses of all kinds, and I exposed that. And that led to his dismissal by President Clinton.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Incredibly, whenever I have proposed the theory that half of government workers could be cut, current and former federal employees I know have all agreed.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Lacking a profit motive, workers in the government by and large have a different work ethic from those in private industry. When they could make one call, federal workers take a meeting. When they could find an answer on the Internet, they form a study committee. Instead of appointing one supervisor, they appoint five.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Like Jon Voight, Pat Boone, Kelsey Grammer, and Gary Sinise, Clint Howard is one of the few courageous enough to identify himself publicly as a conservative.”

— Ronald Kessler

“On a regular basis, to appease White House or campaign staffs, Secret Service officials order agents to ignore basic security rules and let people into events without being put through a magnetometer or metal detector.”

— Ronald Kessler

“One of my books, called 'Moscow Station,' revealed that a KGB archivist had defected from Russia to the FBI. And I knew that he was safe, and revealing this would not jeopardize him. But nevertheless, the FBI started a leak investigation.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Only when you are self-employed do you fully realize how much more efficient you become when your output directly correlates with how much money you make.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Should Hillary Clinton run for president, voters who ignore the difference between the image she seeks to project and the reality will have only themselves to blame if her presidency turns into a disaster.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Tact ops is a unit which breaks into homes and offices to plant bugging devices. They get into mafia hangouts, they go into embassies, they go into terrorist hangouts, and they describe themselves as court-sanctioned burglars.”

— Ronald Kessler

“The 9/11 commission recommended the appointment of a national intelligence director with budgetary authority to better coordinate the work of the intelligence community and resolve differences.”

— Ronald Kessler

“The colonists' first protest against the British unfolded on Aug. 14, 1765 at the Liberty Tree. A magnificent elm towering over the other trees nearby, the Liberty Tree stood at the corner of what is now Washington and Essex Streets in downtown Boston.”

— Ronald Kessler

The truth is that no internal reviews or congressional hearings will change the Secret Service's broken management culture. It needs better leadership.

— Ronald Kessler

To become a Secret Service agent, applicants must pass a polygraph exam. But after being hired, agents are never required to undergo regular lie detector testing again.

— Ronald Kessler

To reform the Secret Service, the agency needs a director from outside the agency who will be immune from that culture and not beholden to entrenched bureaucrats within the agency.

— Ronald Kessler

“Voters who disregarded Richard Nixon's involvement in the questionable ethics issue that led to his Checkers speech should not have been surprised when he orchestrated the Watergate cover-up as president.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Walk around any shopping mall, and you will see stores and restaurants opened six months ago and are - that are now closing. In the life of a company, eight years is an eternity.”

— Ronald Kessler

“Whatever they do, criminals and non-criminals act in particular ways. Some writers, for instance, use computers, others pen and paper. Some write in the morning, some at night. Each writer has a distinct style, with variations in grammar, sentence structure, and voice.”

— Ronald Kessler

“When I interviewed profilers in 1984 in the basement of the FBI Academy at Quantico, VA., there were just four of them - Roger Depue, John Douglas, Roy Hazelwood, and Robert Ressler.”

— Ronald Kessler

“With the selection of Acting Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy as the director, President Obama has guaranteed that the agency will continue to lurch from one shocking security failure to another.”

— Ronald Kessler