Patterns of Global Terrorist Statistics Deception?

[paineinthearse]

US law mandates the State Department to print an annual report on the staus of global terrorism. Past reports have born the title "Patterns of Global Terrorism".

But last Monday, Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "the government has decided that the National Counterterrorism Center should compile and publish the statistical data on terrorism that has previously been included by the State Department in our report."

This rasies the question: Is disregard for the law with respect of not publishing a mandated report an indictable or impeachable offense?

AP report from 4/18/2005 on the State Depertment announcement:

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=40430

US State Department to stop publishing terrorism statistics after blunder

Published: 4/18/2005

WASHINGTON - The US State Department said Monday it will stop publishing statistics on terrorism activities after discrepancies were found in figures for the number of attacks and casualties in an annual report. Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "the government has decided that the National Counterterrorism Center should compile and publish the statistical data on terrorism that has previously been included by the State Department in our report."

But he dismissed news reports that the department would do away with its annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, which in mandated by law. "That report is due to Congress by April 30, and we will do that this year," Boucher said, adding that the publication would concern, as it had in the past, the country reports on terrorism.

"That's what the law asks of the State Department, that's what we'll be reporting to Congress," he said. The statistical component of the report would be handled by the National Counterterrorism Center, the government's primary organization for analysis of global terrorism. The State Department report last year on terrorism statistics in 2003 was riddled with errors and then Secretary of State Colin Powell called it "a big mistake". The report had to be corrected and re-released.

The 2004 report had claimed that the number of terrorist incidents has been on the decline over the past three years and that 190 cases reported in 2003, represented the lowest reported total since 1969. US officials at the time trumpeted the report as evidence that the United States was winning the war on terrorism. However, after academics accused the department of mischaracterizing information in the report, it acknowledged that it had underreported the number of terrorist incidents and released an updated version of the terrorism report. Boucher rejected suggestions that the change in the annual report's format of gauging terrorism smacked of politics. "There's no politics in this. There's an attempt to get the best possible information to the Congress and to the American people on what's going on in the world with regard to terrorism," he said. "The people of the United States will get all the facts. The world will get all the facts. We're going to do very thorough reports we do on countries that support terrorism, on countries where terrorism occurs and on foreign terrorist organizations, as we always have in the past. They're going to do the numbers, as they can best do. "Each of us will do what we can do best and put it out and explain it."

In response to the erroneous report, Hep. Henry Waxman released the following statement - http://democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=447&Issue=Global+Terrorism+Report -

State Department Issues Revised Terrorism Data

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 -- New data, released by the State Department to correct serious mistakes in the initial Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 report, shows a major increase in deaths and injuries in terrorist attacks in 2003, with “significant” attacks reaching a 20-year high.

Rep. Waxman issued the following statement:

I commend Secretary Powell for correcting the flaws in the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism report. He has shown strong leadership in admitting there was a mistake and in taking prompt action to fix the errors. This kind of leadership too often has been lacking in this Administration.

The new data shows that significant terrorist attacks – attacks that cause injury, loss of life, and serious property damage – are increasing. In fact, significant terrorist attacks are at a 20- year high. The new data also shows that al-Qaeda is playing an increasing role in international terrorism.

Although the revised report is a major improvement, I believe it continues to undercount worldwide terrorism. It fails to count hundreds of terrorist attacks that have occurred in Iraq against oil pipelines, electricity plants, and other infrastructure and facilities that the U.S. is funding and building. The revised report also appears to undercount other terrorist events, such as potentially hundreds of incidents against U.S. interests in Colombia.

There is a clear message in the new data: measured by the number of incidents, major terrorist attacks are increasing. We need to be smarter and more effective to win the war on terror.

Fact Sheet: State Department Issues Revised Terrorism Data - http://democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20040823105142-93231.pdf

On Tuesday, Reuters reported "The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004"

World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count

Tue Apr 26, 5:03 PM ET

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said on Tuesday. The number of "significant" international terrorist attacks rose to about 650 last year from about 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides briefed on the numbers by State Department and intelligence officials on Monday.

The aides were told the surge partly reflected an increased tally of violence in India and Pakistan related to the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim, and the devotion of more manpower to the U.S. monitoring effort, which resulted in more attacks being counted overall. The State Department last year initially released erroneous figures that understated the attacks and casualties in 2003 and used the figures to argue that the Bush administration was prevailing in the war on terrorism. It later said the number of people killed and injured in 2003 was more than double its original count and said "significant" terrorist attacks -- those that kill or seriously injure someone, cause more than $10,000 in damage or attempt to do either of those things -- rose to a 20-year high of 175.

The State Department last week unleashed a new debate about the numbers by saying it would no longer release them in its annual terrorism report but that the newly created National Counterterrorism Center that compiles the data would do so. A spokesman for the CIA, which is handling media inquiries for the NCTC, last week said no decisions had been made although other officials expected the data to be made public.

Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat, wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday asking her to release the data, which include only international attacks and exclude violence that is classified as purely domestic. "The large increases in terrorist attacks reported in 2004 may undermine administration claims of success in the war on terror, but political inconvenience has never been a legitimate basis for withholding facts from the American people," Waxman said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

more......

Rep. Henry Waxman has posted a chronology of events at the House Government Affairs (minority party) website - http://democrats.reform.house.gov/investigations.asp?Issue=Global+Terrorism+Report

Global Terrorism Report
In April, 2004, The State Department released its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism detailing a decline in international terrorism in 2003. Administration officials called the data “clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight” against terror and “an indication of the great progress that has been made in fighting terrorism.”

Rep. Waxman wrote Secretary of State Powell about the appearance that the decline in terrorism detailed in the report resulted from manipulation of data, not an actual decline in terrorist incidents. The State Department later issued revised data for the annual report which showed a major increase in deaths and injuries from terrorist attacks in 2003, with “significant” attacks having reached a 20-year high in that year. (Last Updated June 22, 2004)

CHRONOLOGY
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Withheld Data Shows 'Dramatic Up-tick' in Terrorist Attacks

The 2004 data dropped from the State Department's annual Patterns of Global Terrorism Report shows that global terror attacks were more than three times higher than the record levels set in 2003, with large increases in attacks occurring in Iraq, Afghanistan, India/Pakistan, and other regions.

Thursday, April 21, 2005
IG Asked to Investigate Withholding of Terrorism Data

Rep. Waxman asks the State Department Inspector General to examine the decision of Secretary Rice to drop the data on the number of international terrorist attacks from the Department's annual report on patterns of global terrorism.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004
State Department Issues Revised Terrorism Data

New data, released by the State Department to correct serious mistakes in the initial Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 report, shows a major increase in deaths and injuries in terrorist attacks in 2003, with “significant” attacks reaching a 20-year high.

Monday, May 17, 2004
Data Manipulation Behind Reported Drop in Terrorism

Rep. Waxman criticizes the Patterns of Global Terrorism report for claiming that terrorism reached a record low in 2003 when the underlying data shows that significant terrorist activity was actually at a 20-year high.

This will be an interesting one to watch.

[Atman]

1. No, impeach every idiot congressman who voted to confirm her

Idiots. Idiots every one...this stuff isn't anything new. They knew Condi was a liar, yet they chose to promote her. Fuck 'em all.

[htuttle]

2. You don't think she made that decision on her own, do you?

The fish rots from the head.

[paineinthearse]

3. Waxman's letter to Rice

http://democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=834

Withheld Data Shows 'Dramatic Up-tick' in Terrorist Attacks

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 -- At a congressional briefing yesterday, Administration officials revealed that the data that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has withheld from this year's Patterns of Global Terrorism report shows a "dramatic up-tick" in terrorist attacks in 2004. The data presented by State Department and National Counterterrorism Center officials showed that there were approximately 650 significant terrorist attacks throughout the world in 2004, more than triple the 175 attacks reported in 2003, the previous 20-year high.

The data revealed approximately 198 significant attacks in Iraq alone in 2004 – nine times the number identified in the previous year. Even this increase may be an underestimate of actual attacks. Many incidents in Iraq that most American would regard as terrorism, such as those directed at U.S. armed forces or resulting in only Iraqi fatalities, do not meet the Department's definition of "international" attacks and were not included.

The officials identified greater global awareness of terrorism as one factor in the rise of counted incidents, emphasizing enhanced efforts to monitor attacks related to the conflict in Kashmir. Yet even if every incident in India and Pakistan is removed from the database, the number of remaining attacks is still twice the total number in 2003. The rise in terrorist attacks in 2004 was by no means isolated to Kashmir and Iraq, with the number of incidents in Afghanistan and in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank having doubled in the past year.

According to the officials conducting the briefing, the 2004 information is the most comprehensive and reviewed data on terrorist attacks ever compiled. The data, the officials stated, was prepared and vetted according to methodology and definitions specified in the statute governing the Patterns of Global Terrorism report specifically for inclusion in this year's report.

Last year, Administration officials cited the annual report as an illustration of the great progress that has been made in fighting terrorism. The discovery that these statements were erroneous and that terrorist attacks were in fact at record levels in 2003 was made only because the State Department under Secretary Colin Powell released the data underlying the report.

Rep. Waxman has called on Secretary Rice to follow the example of her predecessor and release the data. While acknowledging that the large increase in terrorist attacks in 2004 may undermine claims of success in the war on terror, Rep. Waxman writes Secretary Rice that "political inconvenience has never been a legitimate basis for withholding facts from the American people."

Letter to Secretary Rice - http://democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20050426105426-41669.pdf