Terror Attacks Increased Sharply Last Year, Democrat Reports

A few months ago I remembered reading a thread titled:
RAND - Global Terror Incidents Plummet %66

and saying to myself, that doesn't sound right, I think they're forgetting Iraq, Well it seems others may agree with me. The official U.S. count excluded many Iraqi attacks since they were not international, but was it justified to leave those out? Terrorism is becoming one of the most ill-defined words ever, every tom, dick and harry have their own meaning for what terrorism really is. A war on terrorism can never be won, when the definition of the word isn't even clear.
Terror Attacks Increased Sharply Last Year, Democrat Reports

WASHINGTON (AP) - Terror attacks worldwide more than tripled last year, with much of the increase traced to incidents in Iraq, according to government figures released Tuesday by a senior House Democrat.
Based on a briefing federal officials gave congressional aides, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said there were about 650 significant terror attacks last year. He said that was more than three times the record 175 tallied by the government in 2003.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his staff circulated to the media, Waxman said the 2004 figure may be underestimated significantly. Many incidents that most Americans would regard as terror attacks were excluded from State Department data, he said, because they did not meet the department's definition.

Waxman has been critical of State Department reporting on terrorism. Last week, he accused Rice of denying Congress and the public important information about the number of incidents.

"There appears to be a pattern in the administration's approach to terrorism data: Favorable facts are revealed while unfavorable facts are suppressed," Waxman said in a letter to the department's acting inspector general, Cameron R. Hume, demanding an investigation.

Last year, the department reported a decline in significant incidents of terror in 2003 and then issued a corrected report showing an increase. The falloff had been used by senior Bush administration officials to bolster President Bush's claim of success in countering terrorism.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said last week that the department is "committed to being responsive to Congress and to contributing to an informed public debate."

Waxman said Russ Travers, deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told congressional aides during a briefing Monday that more than 100 attacks in Iraq were not counted because they were not considered to be international attacks.

[edit on 4-26-2005 by worldwatcher]