President Bush's Global War on Terrorism: Current Status Report

President Bush's Global War on Terrorism: Current Status Report

  by
Susan B. Glasser

April 27, 2005

Read here full article by Susan Glasser in Washington Post

Edited article

According to U.S. government figures, the number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled in 2004, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks.

The State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week. The State Department announced last week that it was breaking with tradition in withholding the statistics on terrorist attacks from its congressionally mandated annual report.

Critics said the move was designed to shield the government from questions about the success of its effort to combat terrorism by eliminating what amounted to the only year-to-year benchmark of progress.

Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003.

Terrorist incidents in Iraq also dramatically increased, from 22 attacks to 198, or nine times the previous year's total.

Terrorist attacks doubling over the previous year in Afghanistan, to 27 significant incidents,

In Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, the attacks rose to about 45, from 19 the year before.

Also occurring last year were such deadly attacks as the seizure of a school in Beslan, Russia, by Chechen militants that resulted in at least 330 dead, and the Madrid train bombings that left nearly 200 dead.

The State Department did not disclose to the aides the overall number of those killed in incidents last year.

Larry C. Johnson, a former senior State Department counterterrorism official, said his count shows it was well over 1,000. Johnson said, "Last year was bad. This year is worse."

The State Department said the data would still be made public by the new National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which prepares the information.

They are deliberately trying to withhold data because it shows that as far as the war on terrorism internationally, we're losing." said

Top aides from the State Department and the NCTC acknowledged for the first time the increase in terrorist incidents, calling it a "dramatic uptick."

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) wrote to Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice to release the data.

Waxman said that "the large increases in terrorist attacks reported in 2004 may undermine administration claims of success in the war on terror, but political inconvenience has never been a legitimate basis for withholding facts from the American people."

According to Hill aides, the State Department's acting counterterrorism chief, Karen Aguilar, said that Rice decided to withhold the statistics on the recommendation of her counselor, Philip D. Zelikow. He was executive director of the Sept. 11 commission that investigated the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Under the standards used by the government, "significant" terrorist attacks are defined as those that cause civilian casualties or fatalities or substantial damage to property.

Attacks on uniformed military personnel such as the large number of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq are NOT included.

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