WASHINGTON — The State Department's forthcoming report on global terrorism will not
contain statistics on attacks, U.S. officials said. Instead, the statistics will be compiled by
the new National Counterterrorism Center, established by Congress in 2004.
Officials said the unclassified version of the new report would not contain
statistics on global terrorism. A classified version of the report has been
circulated in Congress, and congressional staffers said the study showed a
significant increase in terrorism in 2004.
In 2004, the department withdrew the terrorism report amid severe
criticism that it had failed to account for numerous attacks. The
department, months after insisting that 2003 marked a decline in terrorism,
issued a new report that showed an increase in attacks, Middle East Newsline reported.
They said the center would decide whether and when to release these
statistics.
"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," department
spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday. "So these are the people who are
going to take responsibility for doing it, putting it out and explaining it
to you."
"They're [National Counterterrorism Center] going to have to figure out
when they can publish these statistics and they will do so," Boucher, who
did not confirm an increase in terror attacks in 2004, said. "I don't know
when, no. They will tell you that."
Boucher said the decision not to release a terrorist report with
statistics was taken over the last month. He said the decision was approved
by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after a study by the department's
counselor Philip Zelikow. Boucher also said he did not know when the State
Department would release its portion of the report to the public.
"I don't have a precise date yet for when our report's going to be done,
when our country practice report is going to be done," Boucher said.
Critics said the State Department was working with the Bush
administration to present a distorted image of global terrorism. They said
that a report without statistics could not be disputed.
"The administration owes it to the American people to say along with the
report what's it based on," Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, who
exposed the errors in last year's report, said. "Is the State Department
going to rely on actual terrorism data in the report? And if so, why is it
going to hide this data?"
