Terrorism Report

Here is some more on the report formerly known as "Patterns of Global Terrorism." The linked article has some interesting information.

Waxman called for Rice reconsider her decision to withhold the statistical part of the report.

The State Department had to revise its 2003 report because it had underreported the number of attacks. (Full Story)

Members of Congress and the public found the errors, Waxman wrote, "only because the underlying data on terrorist attacks was available for scrutiny."

"In effect, your decision to withhold the data this year eliminates this vital check on the veracity of the administration's claims," Waxman wrote.

That is a very good point. And he was responded to in saying that the stats would be released in June. But why the wait? It sounds a bit fishy, but as long as they get released the scrutiny will get done.

Waxman is off on this though.

Waxman also complained that the 2004 numbers could be "a significant underestimate." Many incidents "that most Americans would regard as terrorist attacks" were not reported because they didn't meet "the strict State Department definitions of an international" event, including insurgent attacks resulting in only Iraqi fatalities.

Brennan said that terrorist attacks by perpetrators against people of their own nationality were not part of the current statistics, but would be included in the future.

What is the State Department supposed to do? Take a poll to see what Americans feel a terrorist attack is? Or should they make a decision in house to define what they mean by "terrorist attack" publish that definition and use it in the report? I don't like the tact of changing the report from year to year. It makes comparisons very difficult, and makes trending near impossible.

They should also have separate entries for domestic terrorism and international terrorism. In many cases, domestic terrorism never leaves the country, and for that reason should be viewed as a separate information point.

I didn't get any real information from this article on why the threat to the US was still considered High from terrorists. I suppose the report gives some details there. Sigh. Guess reading it is the only way to find out.