The "errors" just KEEP COMIN!
U.S. Wrongly Reported Drop in World Terrorism
By The Associated Press
Friday 11 June 2004
Washington - The State Department acknowledged Thursday that it was wrong in reporting that
terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding the Bush administration had pointed to as evidence of
its success in countering terror.
Instead, the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said.
Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had
them at the time; the facts that we had were wrong," Richard A. Boucher, the State Department
spokesman, said.
When the report was issued April 29, senior administration officials used it as evidence that the war
was being won. J. Cofer Black, coordinator of the State Department's Counterterrorism Office, cited the
190 acts of terrorism in 2003, down from 198 in 2002, as "good news" and predicted the trend would
continue. Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, said at the time, "You will find in these
pages clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight." His office did not respond Thursday to a
request for a statement on disclosures that some of the findings were inaccurate. The erroneous
report, titled "Patterns of Global Terrorism," said that attacks declined last year to the lowest level in
34 years and dropped 45 percent since 2001, Mr. Bush's first year as president, when 346 attacks
occurred.
Among the mistakes, Mr. Boucher said, was that only part of 2003 was taken into account.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Thursday that the errors were partly the result of new
procedures for collecting data. "I can assure you it had nothing to do with putting out anything but the
most honest, accurate information we can," Mr. Powell said said.
"Errors crept in that, frankly, we did not catch here," he said of the report, which showed a decline
in the number of attacks worldwide in 2003.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said this week that the administration
had refused to address his contention that the findings were manipulated for political purposes. Mr.
Waxman wrote to Mr. Powell in May asking for an explanation.
Mr. Boucher said the department was preparing a reply. "We wanted to make sure that we give the
congressman the best and most accurate picture of what we know and what's going on as we can," he
said.
"When we are sure we have the new facts, the right facts, we will prepare an appropriate analysis
and give you our assessment at that moment," Mr. Boucher said.
He said the errors began to become apparent in early May. "We got phone calls from people who
were going through our report and who said to themselves, as we should have said to ourselves: 'This
doesn't feel right. This doesn't look right.' And who started asking us questions," he said.
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