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I was given a White House - well, you will have to ask the White House that. But I asked to attend the White House briefing because I was, you know, because I wanted to report on the activities there.

The Obama administration has provided almost no public information about the NSA's compliance record.

From the moment I walked into the White House, it was as if I had no privacy at all.

Experts always know everything but the fine points. When I took my citizenship exams, no one there knew how the White House came to be called the White House.

Every president thinks that all information that comes to the White House is their private preserve after they all promise an open administration on the campaign trail, but some are more secretive than others. Some want to lock down everything.

I was never invited to the White House.

I got as much information as I could, so I wouldn't look stupid, but this is a post 9/11 world and there's only so much you can do with the FBI in terms of research.

So with the end of the Cold War, it became increasingly obvious that there was no basis upon which any decision was being made, not in the White House, and certainly because of that, not in the Congress.

I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president was important.

My literal responsibility as director of the CIA with regard to covert action was to inform the Congress - not to seek their approval; to inform.