Banning the burkini doesn't produce terrorists. But it does make the people who are already alienated, who are already disenfranchised, I many cases, economically disenfranchised in a place like France in many of those neighborhoods, and make them say, ah, ISIS's message is true and real.
Michael LeiterThe language of North Korea is always bombastic. But what has really changed is the acceleration of their nuclear program, the likelihood that they have more and more weapons, and the acceleration of the testing of ballistic missiles in very, very aggressive ways towards Japan.
Michael LeiterThey [ French] still have an open border in Europe. And they have a Europe which doesn't have an integrated intelligence system like we do in the United States.
Michael LeiterWe need additional funding for more U.S. combat brigades in Europe. NATO needs to continue to modernize. It is starting to show with the Russians but these exercises are central to show that the alliance is firm, especially as the E.U. starts to have some weakness on the economic front.
Michael LeiterI don't think bulk data collection was an enormous factor here, because generally, that deals with overseas calls to the United States. But what bulk data collection did was make the process more efficient. So there were no silver bullets there.
Michael Leiter