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.
John Ashcroft

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.
John Ashcroft

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

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

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

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.
John Ashcroft

It's a different world.
John Ashcroft

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

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

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


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.
John Ashcroft

Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate.
John Ashcroft

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

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.
John Ashcroft

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

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.
John Ashcroft

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.
John Ashcroft

The path we have chosen is constitutional.
John Ashcroft

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

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.
John Ashcroft