He’s not wrong about that. He just doesn’t know the full story. He doesn’t have the security clearance to know what I know, what Carolyn knows. If he did, he’d have a different take. He’d know about the threat to our country, a threat like none we’ve ever faced.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Duncan says of his decision to stop an attack intended to kill the leader of a powerful terrorist group that he knows how bad that action looks. However, Duncan has classified information that Rhodes does not have that explains why Duncan acted the way he did. Because of the nature of the information, Duncan is not able to tell Rhodes or the others why he stopped the fatal attack on Suliman.

You’re at risk of internal bleeding,’ she says. ‘Bleeding in the brain. You could have a stroke. Whatever it is you’re dealing...
-- Deborah (chapter 5)