| State Department to republish Patterns of Global Terrorism report
At a press briefing State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “In the first week of May, we learned of discrepancies in the data that was published in the 2003 edition of the Patterns of Global Terrorism report. And at that time, we immediately initiated a review with the Department here in this building, as well as with the Terrorist Threat Information Center. “On May 17th, we got a letter from Congressman Waxman that added further impetus to our efforts. The data that we published in the report on April 29th was compiled by the Terrorist Threat Integration, which was established in January 2003. It includes elements from the CIA, the FBI, Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. Based on our review subsequently to all this coming to light, we determined that the data in the report are incomplete and, in some cases, incorrect. When we got the data here at the State Department, I have to say we obviously did not check it thoroughly enough or verify the conclusions that had been reached because of the apparent change in the numbers. And so we got the wrong data and we didn't check it enough. I think that's the simplest explanation for what happened. “There was no attempt at manipulation or political distortion. But we did walk down a road that was the wrong one. “At our request, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is revising the statistics for calendar year 2003. We're still, at this point, checking data for accuracy and completeness. I would say that our preliminary results indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published in the Patterns of Global Terrorism report. As soon as we are able to, we will provide you with corrected numbers, with a revised analysis and with revisions to the report.”
•Date:
11th June 2004 •Region: N.America •Type:
Article •Topic: Terrorism |
