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  1. #1
    Phero Pharaoh a.k.a.'s Avatar
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    Default losing the "war on terror"

    visit-red-300x50PNG
    Of

    course it’s never been about making the world a safer place, but just for the record...

    Bush administration

    eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report

    By Jonathan S. Landay

    Knight Ridder

    Newspapers

    WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international

    terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than

    in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

    Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt

    decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may

    have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism.

    Last year, the number

    of incidents in 2003 was undercounted, forcing a revision of the report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism."

    But

    other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office ordered "Patterns of

    Global Terrorism" eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the

    Bush's administration's frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism.

    "Instead of dealing with

    the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public,"

    charged Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the

    decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal.

    Rep. Henry Waxman,

    D-Calif., who was among the leading critics of last year's mix-up, reacted angrily to the decision.

    "This is

    the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world. It should be unthinkable that there would be

    an effort to withhold it - or any of the key data - from the public. The Bush administration should stop playing

    politics with this critical report."

    A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity

    because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed that the publication was being eliminated, but said the

    allegation that it was being done for political reasons was "categorically untrue."

    According to Johnson and

    U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the issue, statistics that the National Counterterrorism Center provided

    to the State Department reported 625 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004.

    That compared with 175 such

    incidents in 2003, the highest number in two decades.

    The statistics didn't include attacks on American

    troops in Iraq, which President Bush as recently as Tuesday called "a central front in the war on terror."



    http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11407689.htm
    Give truth a chance.

  2. #2
    Phero Pharaoh a.k.a.'s Avatar
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    Default

    OK. My mistake. The report WILL be

    published by the state department, but annual statistics on terrorism activities will be included in some other

    report. (???)

    “WASHINGTON -- The United States state department said on Monday it will stop publishing annual

    statistics on terrorism activities after discrepancies were found last year in figures for the number of attacks and

    casualties.

    Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said "the government has decided that the National

    Counterterrorism Centre should compile and publish the statistical data on terrorism that has previously been

    included by the state department in our report."

    But he dismissed news reports that the department would do

    away with its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report, which is mandated by law.

    "That report is due to

    Congress by April 30, and we will do that this year," Boucher said, adding that the publication would contain, as it

    had in the past, the country reports on terrorism.

    "That's what the law asks of the state department,

    that's what we'll be reporting to Congress," he said.



    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0419-10.htm

    Guess I'll have to wait and see what

    all this really means.
    Give truth a chance.

  3. #3
    Doctor of Scentology DrSmellThis's Avatar
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    Default

    So they're marginalizing the

    report rather than eliminating it? Suppressing information and critical opinions regarding terrorism and war is the

    MO of this administration, in any case.

    625 in 2004 vs. a previous high of 175 in 2003, not counting

    attacks against troops in Iraq? -- a truly remarkable failure!
    DrSmellThis (creator of P H E R O S)

  4. #4
    Moderator belgareth's Avatar
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    Default

    Are you really surprised? From

    the terrorist's point of view, we are the enemy. Especially in Iraq. Can you blame them for calling us invaders?

    What would you be doing if you felt your country was being invaded? Right or wrong in our eyes, you can't expect

    them to not fight back. If I were in their shoes I would be doing much the sme thing.
    To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

    Thomas Jefferson

  5. #5
    Moderator Mtnjim's Avatar
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    Default

    The "War on Terror" and the "War on

    Drugs" are simply being used as tools of control and expediency by the past few administrations. If a few innocent

    Blacks in the inner cities or Iraqis are injured, killed or have their lives destroyed, so what as long as the

    administration gets the control it wants. Neither of these "wars" will ever be won; it would put people out of work

    and take away funding and control.
    Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.
    --Lazarus Long

  6. #6
    Moderator belgareth's Avatar
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    No argument here.

    Your tax

    dollars at work serving your best interests...right?

    And people wonder why I don't trust ANY administration or

    portion of our government..
    To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

    Thomas Jefferson

  7. #7
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    Bel,
    are you a libertarian?

  8. #8
    Moderator belgareth's Avatar
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    Not really. Most of their

    candidates are better than any mainstream but there are parts of their philosophy I cannot accept. I have a strong

    dislike for party politics in general. Most of my mistrust of our government has come from watching us get lied to

    and cheated, time and again. I wonder at others who blithley continue to believe that minor changes will fix the

    massive problems. It's kind of like trimming somebody's toenails while they are in cardiac arrest.
    Last edited by belgareth; 04-19-2005 at 06:46 PM.
    To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

    Thomas Jefferson

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