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State Dept. Won't Release Terror Statistics

by TChris

The State Department seems to have a new philosophy: if you can't do the job right, don't do it at all.

The State Department said on Monday it will stop releasing annual statistics on terrorism deaths after officials botched last year's count, leaving the intelligence community to publish and explain the data.

TalkLeft discussed last year's misleading report here.

The National Counterterrorism Center is now tasked with compiling and releasing the data. When it will do so is unknown.

Critics suggested the State Department might be removing the data from its terrorism report because they could show a rise in attacks and deaths and raise questions about the Bush administration's claims to be winning the war on terrorism.

Former intelligence official Larry Johnson said in a Web log he believed the State Department was dropping the data because the 2004 statistics would show a sharp increase in the number of "significant" international terrorist attacks to at least 655 from about 172 in 2003.

"For Secretary of State Rice these numbers are a disaster," Johnson wrote. "It is tough to argue we are winning the war on terrorism when the numbers in the official government report will show the largest number of incidents" since the State Department began reporting on such events.

Rep. Henry Waxman admonishes the administration for hiding the numbers, and urges it "to provide the facts -- not propaganda or political spin." Voice, meet wilderness.

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