Gijs de Vries
Gijs de Vries
Gijs M. de Vriesis a Dutch Democrats 66politician. He was deputy Interior Minister between 1998 and 2002, and 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...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth22 February 1956
al arguably terrorists
Terrorists have failed in what is arguably al Qaida's most important objective - to trigger revolutions.
allies appeal bin gone great home people personal physical polls rejected risk stay
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.
important als revolution
Terrorists have failed in what is arguably al Qaida's most important objective - to trigger revolutions.
disrupted series several states
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.
resistance
We're still stymied by the old stand-off between those who wish to fight terrorism and resistance fighters.
attacks war
Indiscriminate attacks on civilians ought, under all circumstances, to be illegal in war as in peacetime.
foreign integrated ministers outside picture provided threat
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.
against remain
We remain vulnerable. There is no such thing as 100 percent security against terrorism.
draw failed mass strength terrorists trigger
Terrorists have failed to trigger mass conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe. We should draw strength from that fact.
moderate strengthen
Our strategy should be to strengthen the hand of moderate Muslims.
attraction europe freedom radical remain seen
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.
world majority violent
The violent radicals do not legitimately represent the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims.
borders terrorism motivated
We are familiar with terrorism. But indiscriminate, cross-border, religiously motivated terrorism is new.
ideas funny-travel standards
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.