Gijs de Vries Quotes

» We still lack a global definition of terrorism.

» We're still stymied by the old stand-off between those who wish to fight terrorism and resistance fighters.

» Indiscriminate attacks on civilians ought, under all circumstances, to be illegal in war as in peacetime.

» Europe has a long and tragic history of mostly domestic terrorism.

» We are familiar with terrorism. But indiscriminate, cross-border, religiously motivated terrorism is new.

» We remain vulnerable. There is no such thing as 100 percent security against terrorism.

» Terrorists always have the advantage of surprise.

» Terrorists have failed in what is arguably al Qaida's most important objective - to trigger revolutions.

» Terrorists have failed to trigger mass conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe. We should draw strength from that fact.

» Ultimately, freedom and democracy are stronger than fear and tyranny.

» In the fight against terrorism, national agencies keep full control over their police forces, security and intelligence agencies and judicial authorities.

» The European Borders Agency in Warsaw has been created to help border forces in Europe cooperate more.

» We have an integrated picture of the threat from outside and from within that is provided not only to our foreign ministers but also to our justice and interior ministers.

» There are no automatic links between poverty and terrorism. Among millions of poor people in the world, only a few turn to terrorism.

» In situations of military conflict, civil strife, lawlessness, bad governance, and human rights violations, terrorists find it easier to hide, train and prepare their attacks.

» The violent radicals do not legitimately represent the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims.

» It's important that we work very closely with moderate Muslim forces locally, nationally and internationally.

» In intelligence work, there are limits to the amount of information one can share. Confidentiality is essential.

» If information ends up in the wrong hands, the lives of people very often are immediately at risk.

» If you combat an international phenomenon, it is indispensable to share information internationally.

» If you exchange information internationally, you must strengthen data protection. Those are two sides of the same coin.

» The central role in the fight against terrorism is with national authorities.

» There is a series of sectors which could be severely disrupted by terrorist attacks, particularly if they were to happen in several member states simultaneously.

» I remain optimistic. What we've seen in Europe and the rest of the world is that freedom has a much stronger attraction than radical fundamentalism.

» You can't get closer to the heart of national sovereignty than national security and intelligence services.

» Police forces collect information to be used in a public court to get people convicted. Security services gather information that does not necessarily lead to people being prosecuted and in many cases needs to remain confidential.

» The idea is to have global standards. There is so much travel that if you just had a regional standard, it would probably ultimately have to be changed.

» I have never come across a technology that doesn't change. This is inevitable. You have to adapt your systems as technology develops.

» The majority of the world's Muslims do not believe that terrorism is a legitimate strategy or that Islam is incompatible with democracy.

» The key to tackling Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism from the Islamist community is in the hands of moderate Muslims.

» Our strategy should be to strengthen the hand of moderate Muslims.

» Look at Iraq; look at Afghanistan, where at great personal physical risk people have gone to the polls and have rejected the appeal from Bin Laden and his allies to stay at home.

» Muslim organisations tend to have a low level of organisation. The communities in Europe are quite diverse.

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