CONDOLEEZZA RICE CLOSES DOOR ON TERRORISM! ©

No this title does not tell the tale that you might suppose; we have not closed the door on international terrorism, only the reporting of it. We have not conquered the problem; we have only restricted information concerning it.

The State Department, under the auspices of Condoleezza Rice has abruptly decided not to release its annual report on international terrorist incidents. In the past twenty years, two volumes were routinely published. One was for public review, and another for classified personnel only. Now, there will only be one report available and it will not be widely released.

Why might this be? Some State Department officials say that the job is no longer theirs. The National Counter-Terrorism Center, an organization created by Congress, on the recommendation of the independent 9/11 Commission, now calculates these numbers. Therefore, the State Department argues that the job is no longer theirs and they need not be involved.

However, according to several Intelligence community sources, this is not the true reason or rationale for the decision. They say that this move is political. The Secretary and her Department do not wish to be embarrassed by their own statistics. They do not have a palatable way to explain recent reports. In 2004, there were 625 attacks; while in 2003, there were only 175. How would the Secretary defend this? After all, the President claims that we are making progress in our War-on-Terrorism.

How would she justify this twenty-year high! What would Miss Rice say when asked why this number does not include insurgent attacks in Iraq? It may be argued that the methodology differs from year to year; however, it has not changed in the past two decades. Suggestions for change were proposed, but not adopted. In each year, the same sound techniques were used.

It seems, just as access to all information from this Whitehouse does. The doors are closed, reports are sealed, secrecy is the mantra, and the message is missing.

It is official, Knight-Ridder Newspapers,
GOODBYE PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM? (updated 4/16) by Larry C. Johnson
The story, On the Media, Sunday April 24, 2005, See No Terror, Hear No Terror
More on the story, Condi kills 19-year annual U.S. terrorism report by by SusanHu, DailyKos
The story behind the story, General Accounting Office statistic on Terrorism.
The story resulting from the story, The Mercury News,
Representative Waxman demands probe of State Department terrorism reports, by Barry Schweid