Powell blames new data collection system

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Registered: 03-23-2003
Powell blames new data collection system
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Thu, 06-10-2004 - 2:27pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Powell%20Terror%20Report


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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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 06-14-2004 - 11:12am
<>

ITA I also wonder if Bush is re-elected, will the unfolding evidence impeach him? The more we dig, the more we find. Just how much has GWB buried in secrecy? Not very democratic of him. :-)

Avatar for car_al
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Registered: 03-25-2003
Tue, 06-15-2004 - 6:40am
<>

Unfortunately, when so much that the administration claimed as fact has proven to be speculation or "wishful thinking", trust becomes a serious issue. It seems odd to me that anyone paying attention to world events could see that the original numbers didn't make sense and yet those compiling them didn't think to wonder how they could be so far off. It's pathetic that they grasp at anything to vindicate their war policy.

C

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 06-15-2004 - 8:45am

>"It seems odd to me that anyone paying attention to world events could see that the original numbers didn't make sense"<


That's exactly why the 'mistake' appears intentional.

cl-Libraone~

 


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Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 06-15-2004 - 10:58am

Note the last paragraph...


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Cheney%20Terrorism


Monday, June 14, 2004 · Last updated 9:08 p.m. PT


Cheney claims al-Qaida linked to Saddam


By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


ORLANDO, Fla. -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had "long-established ties" with al Qaida, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.


The vice president offered no details backing up his claim of a link between Saddam and al Qaida.(me:


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 06-15-2004 - 11:40am
<>

No proof necessary. This fits in the catagory of "say it often enough and people will believe it is fact". I don't think anything would be acceptable as proof because the believers will just say its left-wing distortions. Sneaky how these things work. How can you prove something doesn't exist, when people believe it does. Don't they believe Saddam has WMD out there someplace. Without reason you have devotion.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Tue, 06-22-2004 - 9:18pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1152&slug=Terror%20Report


Tuesday, June 22, 2004 · Last updated 5:43 p.m. PT


U.S. amends report to show rise in terror


By BARRY SCHWEID
AP DIPLOMATIC WRITER


WASHINGTON -- Significant acts of terror worldwide reached a 21-year high in 2003, the State Department announced Tuesday as it corrected a mistaken report that had been cited to boost President Bush's war on terror.


Incidents of terrorism increased slightly during the year, and the number of people wounded rose dramatically, the department said.


J. Cofer Black, who heads the department's counterterrorism office, said the report, even as revised, showed "we have made significant progress" in the campaign against international terror.


The corrected report shows that the Bush administration is "playing fast and loose with the truth when it comes to the war on terror," said Phil Singer, spokesman for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. The administration "has now been caught trying to inflate its success on terrorism," he said.


In all, the department recorded 208 incidents of terror last year, compared with 205 in 2002.


There were 175 "significant events" in 2003, which Black said was the highest number since 1982.


Americans were victims in 1 percent to 1.5 percent of all the attacks, and Muslim militants were responsible for most of them, he said.


About half the casualties resulted from 11 incidents in seven countries, and all were the result of Islamic terrorists, Black said.


The department also reported a decline in the number of people killed, to 625 last year from 725 during 2002. The department reported in its April report that 307 people had been killed last year.


"The numbers were off," Secretary of State Colin Powell said, and "we have identified how we have to do this in the future." He also said the initial report was not designed "to make our efforts look better or worse."


The findings had been used by senior administration officials to bolster Bush's claim of success in countering terror.


Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, for instance, declared in April the report provided "clear evidence that we are prevailing in this fight."


On Tuesday, Powell said Armitage did not have correct information and also had not claimed that the war on terror was won. "It is not won," Powell said. "It continues."


"We should have caught errors in the draft," Black said at a news conference. "It was an honest mistake, not a deliberate deception."


Thirty-five U.S. citizens died in international terror attacks last year. The deadliest was a suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May that counted nine Americans among the 26 victims.


The report did not include U.S. troops killed or wounded in Iraq, or attacks by resistance fighters against American troops, "because they were directed at combatants." Attacks in Iraq against civilians and unarmed military personnel were included.


In all, 3,646 people were wounded worldwide in terror attacks last year, the report said. This represented a sharp increase from the 2,013 wounded in 2002.


In April, the department had said that 1,593 people were wounded in 2003, a sharp decline from the previous year.


The initial report was issued April 28. On June 10, in response to inquiries by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and several analysts, the State Department acknowledged the findings were inaccurate. Powell attributed the errors partly to a new data system and said there was no attempt to manipulate the figures to buttress Bush's stature.


Powell telephoned Waxman that day, and the congressman said he accepted the explanation.


Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., was sharply critical Tuesday.


"Funny things happened on the way to the printer," he said. "Unfortunately, this is not the first, second or third instance, for that matter, of a Bush Cabinet secretary having to rewrite a report from their own department."


Emanuel cited inaccurate reports on racial disparities in health care, misleading estimates of the Medicare prescription drug bill and the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed mercury emissions rules.


And Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who had questioned the initial report, said Tuesday the new version omitted terrorist attacks committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she said the administration thereby "continues to deny the true cost of the war and refuses to be honest with the American people."

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