Unclassified terror report has no stats; classified version cites spike

Special to WorldTribune.com:

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. READ MORE

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. ...