There are very few fighters in the ISIS organization in Iraq and Syria coming from the United States; most of them have either come from a region of the Middle East or from Europe. – Jack Keane
The only people that have ever fought ISIS in Syria is not the regime; it is the Free Syrian Army. – Jack Keane
Despite the obvious intelligence and security failures that contributed to the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, the reality is that in one night, an al Qaeda-affiliated group destroyed a diplomatic post, killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and forced an end to clandestine U.S. activity in the area. – Jack Keane
By the end of 2008, clearly, the al Qaeda and Sunni insurgency had been relatively stabilized. And in the al Qaeda’s mind, they were defeated. They actually said that in many of their transmissions that we were able to pick up. And the Shia militia, largely those trained by the Iranians in Basra and also in Sadr City, had been defeated. – Jack Keane
The thing I have in common with Donald Trump is, about a dozen years ago, we got a ‘Man of the Year’ award in New York City, the Hotel Plaza, from the USO. – Jack Keane
I remember speaking to a sheik who came back into the political system in late 2008, laid down his arms. His troops became part of the Sons of Iraq, the so-called Sunni Awakening. – Jack Keane
The homegrown terrorists are the most significant because any fighter returning from Syria to the United States would likely be identified and detected by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. – Jack Keane
We have a sufficient political class, and the military doesn’t have to get involved in high national office. The days of doing that, post-Civil War and post-World War II, are gone. – Jack Keane
I watched the Bush administration overreact to the Clinton administration, who believed they did too much nation building, sustaining other countries, and that’s why we never put the commitment on Afghanistan and Iraq that should have been in there under their policy leadership. – Jack Keane
President-elect Trump wants to win them if you’re going to be involved in a war. I don’t think he wants to be involved in war, but when we are, he wants to win. – Jack Keane
I’m a New York kid, so when I saw that plane that hit the first building, I suspected it was terrorism – blue sky day. – Jack Keane
I have a close association with Gen. Petraeus… What you get in Dave Petraeus is a very unique officer, a combination of intelligence, extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding. – Jack Keane
Economically, ISIS is making money every day on the black market with their oil fields. But they are also putting money in banks. We know where those banks are. We should go after the banks and the facilitators using them. – Jack Keane
Al Qaeda has overplayed their hand. What the al Qaeda do when they go into a town or village or a neighborhood inside a major city is they get a stranglehold on the people themselves. They force the men to wear beards and the women to be properly costumed and essentially completely covered up. – Jack Keane
ISIS is at war with America, but America is not at war with ISIS – not the president, nor the Congress, and certainly not the American people. – Jack Keane