State Dept. Terrorism Report Begone!

Not really an arms control issue, but this is “just f*cking ridiculous”:http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11407689.htm, if true.

Jonathan Landay writes:

The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government’s top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism.

Last year, the number of incidents in 2003 was undercounted, forcing a revision of the report, “Patterns of Global Terrorism.”
But other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s office ordered “Patterns of Global Terrorism” eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush’s administration’s frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism.

Which of those explanations sounds more compelling to you?

Wait, there’s more:

bq. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that the publication was being eliminated, but said the allegation that it was being done for political reasons was “categorically untrue.”

Bull.

Shit.

_Late Update_: Boucher says they will publish the report by 30 April, “sans statistical annexes”:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2005/44770.htm.

2 thoughts on “State Dept. Terrorism Report Begone!

  1. Michael Roston

    Paul –
    There are also voices in the State Department that want to get rid of the annual reporting on human rights. So much for creating accurate, non-ideological reporting on what goes on in the world that can serve as a baseline for more politicized concepts to be compared against.

    For an example of the anti-HR report movement, see Diplomad.

    -MR

    Reply
  2. SM

    Also take a look at this CQ article about what terrorist groups are being omitted from DHS lists of terrorist groups:

    Animal Rights Groups and Ecology Militants Make DHS Terrorist List, Right-Wing Vigilantes Omitted

    Reply

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