Powell blames new data collection system
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| Thu, 06-10-2004 - 2:27pm |
Thursday, June 10, 2004 · Last updated 10:53 a.m. PT
Powell blames new data collection system
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP DIPLOMATIC WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said his department understated the number of terror attacks last year because of errors by a new data collection system rather than any attempt to make the Bush administration look good.
"Errors crept in, and frankly we did not catch them," Powell said of the report the State Department issued in April that showed a falloff in the number of attacks worldwide in 2003.
Powell said a revised report would be issued and the department would provide a complete explanation.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said this week the administration had refused to address his allegation that the findings were manipulated for political purposes. Waxman had written Powell asking for an explanation.
"No," Powell said when asked Thursday by a reporter whether the findings had been shaded to make President Bush's counterterrorism strategy look good.
Political concerns "had nothing to do with putting out the most accurate information we had," Powell said after escorting President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to his limousine after they met for about a half-hour.
When the annual report was issued April 29, senior administration officials held it up as evidence the war against terror was being won.
J. Cofer Black, who heads the State Department's counterterrorism office, cited the existence of only 190 acts of terrorism in 2003 as "good news" and predicted the trend would continue this year.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said at the time, "Indeed, 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 in light of disclosures some of the findings in "Patterns of Global Terrorism" were inaccurate and understated.
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Poor old Powell seems to be the one playing the excuse game for this admin. again.
Yeah, my first thought...Powell believed the report...my second thought...I wonder who threw the wrench in the system.
from: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/33433.htm
Press Statement
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 10, 2004
Correction to Global Patterns of Terrorism Will be Issued
After learning of possible discrepancies in the first week of May, the Department of State and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center initiated a review of the data published in the 2003 edition of “Patterns of Global Terrorism.” A May 17th letter from Congressman Waxman added impetus to our efforts.
The data in the report was compiled by the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which was established in January 2003 and includes elements from the CIA, FBI and Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. Based on our review, we have determined that the data in the report is incomplete and in some cases incorrect. Here at the Department of State, we did not check and verify the data sufficiently.
At our request, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is revising the statistics for calendar year 2003. While we are still checking data for accuracy and completeness, we can say that our preliminary results indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published. As soon as we are in a position to, we will issue corrected numbers, a revised analysis, and revisions to the report.
2004/652
Released on June 10, 2004
•••••••••••••••••••••••
It's also interesting that although the report is published by the State Department, it was compiled for the first time ever by TTIC (Terrorist Threat Integration Center) which is a new entity created by the Bush Administration and Homeland Security Department to monitor threats and coordinate info. Until 2003, the report was compiled by the CIA. TTIC is comprised of elements from the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, and the DOD.
from:
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Terrorist_Threat_Integration_Center
Terrorist Threat Integration Center
In comments made at a September 16, 2003, Department of State briefing, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tom Ridge said that the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) "'was created to ensure that all members of the federal government's Intelligence Community have access to the same information ... The job of the new Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is to make sure we get this information out to our agents on the borders and all those who can put it to use on the front lines -- and to get it there fast.'"
The TTIC and the also newly created Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IA/IP) unit "allows DHS to analyze information and take specific action to protect critical infrastructure." Together, they "were designed to enhance intelligence fusion -- to bring together all terrorist information in one place, enabling America's best intelligence analysts and investigators from multiple departments to work as a team to put together the pieces of the puzzle."
According to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the combined "knowledge of the FBI, Department of Justice, Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State's TIPOFF program is a long-desired goal that is now reality. We are gratified that the State Department's TIPOFF program, which contains over 100,000 names of potential terrorists, will form the basis for both the TTIC and TSC databases."
Ironically, the TTIC was blamed for embarrassing inaccuracies in the 2003 "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report. The report claimed terrorist attacks declined 45% and minor terrorism events declined more than 90% since 2001, and was touted by the Bush administration as proof that America is winning the "War on Terrorism." At its April 2004 release, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the report "clear evidence that we are prevailing." Upon questioning from Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, however, it was revealed that those numbers are wrong. The corrected report will show an increase in significant terrorist incidents, according to experts. Waxman remarked that the terrorist incident data "manipulation may serve the Administration's political interests." One State Department official called the report's errors "clerical," and likely due to the recent transfer of responsibility for generating the report from the CIA to the TTIC.
>"TTIC is comprised of elements from the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, and the DOD."<
Ahhh that explains things. ;)
>""were designed to enhance intelligence fusion* -- to bring together all terrorist information in one place, enabling America's best intelligence analysts and investigators from multiple departments to work as a team to put together the pieces of the puzzle." "<
Shouldn't that be "intelligence confusion" *?
>"contained the feeling that it was done deliberately"<
Yes the
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0784F7E4-0361-4D6E-BF42-240F7CD3C751.htm
"Boucher said the department learned of the report's errors in the first week of May and began an investigation. He said a letter dated 17 May from Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and frequent critic of the administration, spurred its efforts.
"The State Department did not publicly acknowledge the report's errors until they were reported in the media.
"Boucher said the State Department asked the Terrorist Threat Integration Centre to review the numbers and would publish revised figures when they were available."
_____________
Without Waxman and the press we might still believe GWB's war was effective in decreasing terrorism. An interesting pattern--let the people beware.
Edited 6/11/2004 12:30 pm ET ET by hayashig
I think that's interesting since it's the first year that department's with political appointees, such as the DOD and Homeland Security have a hand in the report. Since he's trying to say the inaccuracies were not politically motivated, he can't bring up the new way the numbers were compiled.
>"chose instead to take the heat for just being wrong"<
This pattern is getting familiar. If, God forbid, Bush gets in again I don't think Powell will be serving another four years.
>"inaccuracies were not politically motivated"<
Though that is possible..... it took a persistant
And that's just it...if it was a simple mistake, why not just admit it?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/ap.asp?category=1152&slug=Powell%20Terror%20Report
Monday, June 14, 2004 · Last updated 6:36 a.m. PT
Powell: Terrorism report a 'big mistake'
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- A State Department report that incorrectly showed a decline last year in terrorism worldwide was a "big mistake," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "Very embarrassing. I am not a happy camper over this. We were wrong," the secretary told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Powell said Sunday that he was working with the CIA, which helped to compile the data, to determine why the errors got into the report. He said he planned a meeting on the issue Monday and that the intelligence agency was working through the weekend in preparation.
"I'm not saying it is responsible until I sit down with all of the individuals who had something to do with this report: CIA, my department, members of my department, other agencies that contributed to it," Powell said.
"It's a numbers error. It's not a political judgment that said, `Let's see if we can cook the books.' We can't get away with that now. Nobody was out to cook the books. Errors crept in," he told ABC's "This Week."
He pledged to release a corrected report as quickly as possible.
"I am regretful that this has happened. And we're going to get it fixed, we're going to get it corrected, and that's the best I can do," Powell said.
A leading House Democrat, Rep. Henry Waxman of California, had challenged the findings, contending they were manipulated for political purposes. The conclusion that terrorism was on the decline was used to boost one of President Bush's chief foreign policy claims, success in countering terror.
Waxman asked Powell for an explanation and the secretary called last week to say the mistakes for unintentional.
"He says it wasn't politically motivated so I will accept that," Waxman said after their conversation. Still, the lawmaker said, "We are still left with the fact that this report is useless until it is corrected."
The April report said attacks had declined last year to 190, down from 198 in 2002 and 346 in 2001. The 2003 figure would have been the lowest level in 34 years and a 45 percent drop since 2001, Bush's first year as president.
The report also showed the virtual disappearance of attacks in which no one died.
"There's a new terrorist threat information center that compiles this data under the CIA. And we are still trying to determine what went wrong with the data and why we didn't catch it in the State Department," Powell said Sunday.
"It's a very big mistake. And we are not happy about this big mistake," he added.
The department has said that one of the mistakes was that only part of 2003 was taken into account.
When the annual report was issued April 29, senior administration officials used it as evidence the war was being won under Bush.
"We weren't saying terrorism has gone away. The report clearly says terrorism is a main problem facing the world today. We've got to continue going after terrorists," Powell said.
"But based on the data we had within the report, there was a suggestion that the number of incidents had dropped and it was the lowest since 1969," he added. "That turns out not to have been correct. We were wrong. We will correct it."
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