As inequality grows, the basic bonds of social fraternity are fraying - as we discussed in regard to Occupy Wall Street. As tensions increase, people will become more willing to engage in protest. But that moment is not now.

We have to decide why terrorism is a new threat. There has always been terrorism.

The work of a generation is beginning here, with your hearings, and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.

The government would assert that individuals who are aware of serious wrongdoing in the intelligence community should bring their concerns to the people most responsible for that wrongdoing, and rely on those people to correct the problems that those people themselves authorized.

After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power - the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government - for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism.

As I said before, [patriotism] is distinct from acting to benefit the government - a distinction that's increasingly lost today.

A given order may at any given time fail to represent those values, even work against those values. I think that's the dynamic we're seeing today.