Terrorism's Up, But Who's Counting? [1]
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton [2] on
For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. government will not be publishing Patterns of Global Terrorism [3], a Congressionally-mandated report from the U.S. Department of State intended to provide a full and complete record of countries and groups involved in international terrorism. Last year, the Bush administration was embarrassed when the report tallied 175 significant terrorist attacks - the highest number in two decades, contradicting the administration's claim that it is winning the war on terrorism. According to U.S. intelligence officials, this year's numbers are far worse - 625 attacks, or nearly four times the amount of last year's embarrassment. In a State Department briefing [4], spokesman Richard Boucher said the department plans to issue a different report, with the statistics omitted. The numbers would be released someday, Boucher said, but "I don't know when."