http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/politics/11terr.html
"The State Department acknowledged Thursday that it
was wrong in reporting that terrorism declined
worldwide last year, a finding the Bush administration
had pointed to as evidence of its success in
countering terror. Instead, the number of incidents
and the toll in victims increased sharply, the
department said. Statements by senior administration
officials claiming success were based "on the facts as
we had them at the time; the facts that we had were
wrong," Richard A. Boucher, the State Department
spokesman, said.
"When the report was issued April 29, senior
administration officials used it as evidence that the
war was being won. J. Cofer Black, coordinator of the
State Department's Counterterrorism Office, cited the
190 acts of terrorism in 2003, down from 198 in 2002,
as "good news" and predicted the trend would continue.
Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state,
said at the time, "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 on disclosures that some of the findings
were inaccurate. The erroneous report, titled
"Patterns of Global Terrorism," said that attacks
declined last year to the lowest level in 34 years and
dropped 45 percent since 2001, Mr. Bush's first year
as president, when 346 attacks occurred.
"Among the mistakes, Mr. Boucher said, was that only
part of 2003 was taken into account..."
There seem to be some serious competency issues in
several departments of the US government; I didn't
think that it was *that* difficult to find decent
editors or verifiers of facts. Apparently I'm wrong.
Debbi
Was That Miles Or Kilometers? Maru
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