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Revised 2003 Terrorism Report Doubles Death Count By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department released new terrorism data yesterday that more than doubles the number of deaths from terrorism in 2003 than was shown in a report released earlier this year (see GSN, June 18). The department in April released the 2003 version of its annual Patterns on Global Terrorism report, which stated that the number of terrorist acts continued to decline last year to 190 incidents. The April report also said that 307 people were killed in terrorist attacks last year, “far fewer” than the 725 deaths reported in 2002; and that terrorists injured 1,593 people last year, down from 2,013 in 2002. While the Bush administration at the time trumpeted the report as evidence of success in the war on terrorism, two U.S. academics charged that the State Department had misreported the number of terrorist incidents that occurred last year. Earlier this month, the department acknowledged that errors had occurred in the April report and pledged to release revised information. The new terrorism data released yesterday by the State Department states that 208 terrorist incidents occurred last year, a “slight increase” over last year’s published total. The new data also shows that in 2003 there were 175 “significant events,” which are defined by the State Department as those resulting in death, serious injury or more than $10,000 worth of damages, according to State Department counterterrorism coordinator Cofer Black. The 2003 significant event total is the highest reported since 1982, Black said during a briefing yesterday to release the new terrorism information. In addition, the new data shows that 625 people were killed in terrorist attacks last year, more than double the number included in the April report; and that 3,646 people were wounded in terrorist attacks last year, which is a “sharp increase” from the number of wounded included in the April report. The revised data credits the increase to “numerous indiscriminate attacks during 2003 on ‘soft targets.’” John Brennan, head of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which had been responsible for accumulating the terrorism information, said yesterday he took “personal responsibility” for the incorrect April report. “There was insufficient review and quality control throughout the entire data compilation, drafting and publication process, including the inaccurate and incomplete database numbers provided by TTIC. I assume personal responsibility for any shortcomings in TTIC’s performance and I regret any embarrassment this issue has caused the department or the secretary,” Brennan said. Outdated equipment also led to the errors in the April report, Black said. “We’ve got to update our equipment. And I think we will be able to develop a product that’s more meaningful,” he said. Black also reiterated yesterday the State Department’s stance that political motivations were not behind the incorrect report. “I want to be very clear: We here in the Counterterrorism Office, and I personally, should have caught any errors that marred the Patterns draft before we published it. But I assure you and the American people that the errors in the Patterns report were honest mistakes, and certainly not deliberate deceptions as some have speculated,” Black said. The State Department also continued to defend the bulk of the information in the report, saying it correctly demonstrated successes such as a decrease in state sponsorship of terrorism, Libya’s decision to renounce terrorism and Sudan’s increased antiterrorism cooperation. “The report is mostly a narrative document which goes through patterns and trends of terrorist activities in countries throughout the world and what progress those countries have made and what the pattern looks like within that country. On balance, it is a good report. The narrative is sound and we’re not changing any of the narrative,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said during yesterday’s briefing. Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, praised Powell yesterday for working to correct the erroneous information. “He has shown strong leadership in admitting there was a mistake and in taking prompt action to fix the errors. This kind of leadership too often has been lacking in this administration,” Waxman said in a press statement. In late May, Waxman sent a letter to Powell bringing to his attention the criticisms made by Princeton University economics professor Alan Krueger and Stanford University political science professor David Laitin of the information contained in the April report.
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