Cofer Black Quotes

A collection of quotes by Cofer Black.

Cofer Black is a former CIA operative and diplomat who played a significant role in counterterrorism efforts. Though born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1950, his career took him to various locations worldwide. Black is recognized for his key involvement in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, particularly during the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the subsequent war on terror post-9/11. Additionally, he served as the ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department. N/A

I was an intelligence officer, not a policy-maker.

I was an intelligence officer, not a policy-maker.

We worked to develop our own operations to advance U.S. coun

We worked to develop our own operations to advance U.S. counterterrorism objectives by penetrating terrorist safe havens and collecting intelligence that would inform policy and enable our own operations.

Al Qaeda is not the organization now that it was before. It

Al Qaeda is not the organization now that it was before. It is under stress organizationally. Its leadership spends more time trying to figure out how to keep from getting caught than they do trying to launch operations.

The plan we developed to deal with al Qaeda depended on deve

The plan we developed to deal with al Qaeda depended on developing sources of human and technical intelligence that could give us insights into his plans at the tactical level. This is easy to say but hard to accomplish.