Quotes from Gijs de Vries

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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