Gijs de Vries Quotes

• 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.

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Security, Services

• 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.

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Foreign, Ministers

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Democracy

  Tags in Muslims, Terrorism

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Muslim, Organisation

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Intelligence

  Tags in Agency, Judicial, Authority

• 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.

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Risk

  Tags in Afghanistan, Terrorist

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Muslim, Forces

• 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.

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Optimistic, Radical, Fundamentalism

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Intelligence, Work

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in International, Phenomenon

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Information

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Terrorists, Europe

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Technology

  Tags in Development

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Domestic, Terrorism

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Data, Protection

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Familiar, 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.

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Military, Conflict, Human Rights

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Poverty, Terrorism

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Indiscriminate, Attack

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

  Gijs de Vries

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Islamists, Fundamentalism, Community

Gijs de Vries (33)

Birth:	22nd February, 1956
Nationality:	Dutch
Profession:	Politician

About

Gijs M. de Vries was born in New York City, New York, USA. He is a Dutch Democrats 66 politician. He was deputy Interior Minister between 1998 and 2002. He was the European Union's anti-terrorism co-ordinator from 25 March 2004 to March 2007. As of September 2008, he was the chairman of the European Security Research and Innovation Forum. From 1984 to 1998, he was a member of the European Parliament for three consecutive terms. He earned a B.A. degree in Political Science from University of Leiden. He served as a lecturer in Political Science at University of Leiden from 1981-84.

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