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  • WEDNESDAY JUNE 9 2004 8:22 PM

The War on Terrorism Bubble

Submitted by s5

Edited by legionnaire

Oops, did we say that terrorism fell to a 20 year low in 2003? We actually meant a 20 year high. The State Department recently admitted that their report on terrorism for 2003 was based on underreported numbers, and doesn't include any terrorist attacks that took place after November 11th, 2003.

The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism to acknowledge that it understated the number of deadly attacks in 2003, amid charges that the document is inaccurate and was politically manipulated by the Bush administration.

When the most recent "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report was issued April 29, senior Bush administration officials immediately hailed it as objective proof that they were winning the war on terrorism. The report is considered the authoritative yardstick of the prevalence of terrorist activity around the world.

...

[T]he State Department report listed 190 terrorist attacks in 2003, including 169 "significant" ones. But Waxman said a review showed the report stopped counting terrorist incidents on Nov. 11, leaving out several major attacks, including bombings of two synagogues, a bank and the British Consulate in Turkey that killed 62 and injured more than 700.

Waxman said a State Department official blamed the Nov. 11 cutoff on a printing deadline.


Keep an eye out for this report. If the revised numbers are as bad as they're shaping up to be, it will be further evidence that the war in Iraq has made the world less safe.

(Thanks Kevin Drum)

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Comments
Yuriel

Yuriel

I'm lost
January 2004

JUN 09, 2004 09:55 PM

And this surprises me how much ladies and gents
---drumroll---

0!

thats right.
frown
It just goes to show you how well these 'compassionate conservatives' handle their foreign affairs. Piss on the world eh? skull

Keith

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK
August 2002

JUN 09, 2004 10:28 PM

Should we expect any different from the George W. Bush Terrorist Recruitment Academy?

I'd glad someone is better than me at editorializing these things.


[Edited on Jun 09, 2004 by Keith]

dempsey

dempsey

Seattle, WA
June 2003

JUN 09, 2004 10:34 PM

As I was explaining to someone last night:
"I left this country for two years, and when I came back it was an entirely different place. And it pisses me off!"

(i lived in australia from 2000 to 2002)

mydeconstruction

mydeconstruction

Broomall, PA
April 2003

JUN 09, 2004 11:33 PM

One cannot have a war on an idea, a word... a country, a group of people, yes... drugs, terrorism, no.

KungFuVooDoo

KungFuVooDoo

I'm lost
May 2004

JUN 10, 2004 12:38 AM

WHAT a PRINTING DEADLINE??!!!

There may be a few other deadlines ignored in the recent debacles.
Thanks for keeping accountability on the forefront, and the link.
“deadline for an April report” should not be Nov.
The whole thing skinks of crap. As if.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Vote people.

Tightening a spring never relieved the tension.

alhim

alhim

Bridgeville, PA
January 2003

JUN 10, 2004 01:05 AM

Any ideas on when the new report will be out?

bean

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

JUN 10, 2004 01:24 AM

Wait, where are all the cries of "liberal media bias" now? Where are the Bush supporters on this one? What? Can't find a way to somehow claim that underreporting terrorism statistics and using that bogus report as a claim of progress in the war on terrorism somehow makes us safer? Come on, surely one of you can attempt to spin this.

Or...maybe, just maybe, the Bush administration might actually be using grossly inaccurate statistics to pull some sort of good news (however artificial and plainly false) out of their collective ass to prop up the public's impression of his success in fighting terrorism in an election year that has brought very little in the way of good news.

But I'm sure none of you will actually admit that.

[Edited on Jun 10, 2004 by bean]

Pearl

Pearl

SUICIDEGIRL

California, USA

JUN 10, 2004 02:11 AM

Yet another friendly reminder to vote on Nov. 2!

lostarchitect

lostarchitect

Brooklyn, NY
January 2004

JUN 10, 2004 02:17 AM

Pearl said:
Yet another friendly reminder to vote on Nov. 2!




pearl, i will do whatever you tell me to do.

like a zombie. an evil, evil zombie.

wink

ecky

ecky

United Kingdom
November 2003

JUN 10, 2004 03:15 AM

Pearl said:
Yet another friendly reminder to vote on Nov. 2!



for someone other than bush or kerry i hope! smile

stockula

stockula

Anchorage, AK
May 2003

JUN 10, 2004 03:39 AM

ecky said:

Pearl said:
Yet another friendly reminder to vote on Nov. 2!



for someone other than bush or kerry i hope! smile



Opposing Bush and his policies does not make one safe from terrorism, it seems. Remember, the US was attacked at least four times by al-Qaeda before you ever heard of George W. Bush, including a foiled assaassination attempt on Clinton and the Pope in the Phillipines in 1995.

Attack on Metro 'foiled by raids'
(Filed: 10/06/2004)

Islamic militants arrested in a series of raids across Europe were planning a suicide attack on the Paris Metro, according to their arrest warrant.

The 27-page Italian judicial document included transcribed telephone conversations in which the suspects discussed the Metro system, security arrangements and a "martyr" referred to as Mohamed.

The warrant, seen by the Reuters news agency, was used to detain Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", a former Egyptian army explosives expert believed to be one of the masterminds of the Madrid commuter train attacks.

Those blasts killed 191 people and wounded 1,900.

Spanish police arrested six more people in the north of the country yesterday in connection with the sale of explosives used in the March 11 train bombings.

The Italian arrest warrant quotes members of the group as saying they planned a rehearsal for an attack in Paris using SMS mobile phone technology. The Milan prosecutor's office said the method was similar to that used in the Madrid bombings, when bombs were triggered using mobile telephones.

Ahmed and another man were arrested in Italy. Belgian police, acting on information from Italy, arrested 15 people they said were preparing for an attack.

In 1995, eight people died and around 200 people were injured in a wave of attacks by Algerian Islamist militants on the Paris Metro. Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the blasts.

Last month the French authorities launched an anti-terrorist exercise simulating an attack on the Metro.

[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/10/wmetro10.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/06/10/ixportal.html

[Edited on Jun 10, 2004 3:40AM]

TheFuckOffKid

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

JUN 10, 2004 04:54 AM

stockula said:
Opposing Bush and his policies does not make one safe from terrorism, it seems.



And supporting them has ....oh never mind, it's only stockula. surreal

Michael_DeSade

Michael_DeSade

Seattle, WA
OLD SKOOL

JUN 10, 2004 05:00 AM

TheFuckOffKid said:

stockula said:
Opposing Bush and his policies does not make one safe from terrorism, it seems.



And supporting them has ....oh never mind, it's only stockula. surreal



Who has exactly one more vote than you do in this particular matter.

Thhhpppt! wink

ARRR!!!

Michael_DeSade

Michael_DeSade

Seattle, WA
OLD SKOOL

JUN 10, 2004 05:15 AM

eh, I was just messin' with the Kid.

ARRR!!!

TheFuckOffKid

TheFuckOffKid

NEWSWIRE

Australia

JUN 10, 2004 05:16 AM

Sadistic_Bastard said:
Who has exactly one more vote than you do in this particular matter.



Are you saying I should lend him some brain cells come election time so he can make a somewhat ssensible decision?

I'll fax him a few. wink

Ttthhhpt!

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