Terrorism Report - NCC Circumvents State Dept.

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) has released the statistics behind the Country Report on Terrorism, formerly published as "Global Patterns of Terrorism."

The change was not limited to the name. For the first time, the State Department report does not include statistics on actual terrorist activity around the globe.

No matter, though. The Christian Science Monitor reports that the NCC has circumvented the State Department released the statistics. The numbers verify what has been reported, that terrorism activity around the world tripled in 2004 from the year before. Congressman Henry Waxman had previously released the figures.

Despite claims by an official spokesman that the 2004 methodology was different than that of 2003, Waxman says this is not the case, reportedly.

From the Monitor's daily update:

A spokesman for the State Department admitted that there had been a "dramatic uptick" in terrorism, and said the government will provide the public with "all the information it needs for an informed debate." Knight Ridder reported Wednesday that senior NCC officials said that the high total was "a result of changes in methodology and urged reporters not to compare this year's terrorism numbers with previous ones."

"The numbers can't be compared in any meaningful way," said John Brennan, acting head of the center, which compiled the statistics. He said his agency had revamped the process of counting terrorist attacks after last year's embarrassment in which the State Department withdrew its first report and admitted it had significantly understated what turned out to be a record number of attacks.

Knight Ridder reported in mid-April that the Bush administration planned to withhold the terrorist-attacks statistics. But it became harder for the Bush administration not to make the data public, the BBC reported Wednesday, after Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman last week released the figures, which he had received in a congressional briefing.

CNN reports that, contrary to Mr. Brennan's statement above, Mr. Waxman said officials told the congressmen "that the methodology and definitions used to vet the data were identical to last year's [controversial report]."

Looking at the bigger picture, media reports say the NCC study indicates the battle against international terrorism remains "formidable." While Al Qaeda remains the main enemy, it has grown much weaker. But freelance terror operations, "either affiliated with Al Qaeda or inspired by its goals," have become a much greater threat.