New figures show dramatically higher terrorism casualties last year than the State Department listed in an April report that U.S. officials heralded as evidence of progress in the battle against terrorism, says the Washington Post. The statistics show that 625 people died in terrorist attacks last year, not 307 as first reported. The new listings disclose a larger number of incidents deemed “significant” by government analysts than at any time since U.S. authorities began issuing figures, in 1982.
John Brennan, a 23-year CIA veteran who oversaw the report, blamed antiquated computers and personnel shortages for the errors and denied suggestions that the administration purposely fabricated the figures. “Anyone who might assert the numbers were intentionally skewed is mistaken,” said Brennan, director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC). The revised data show more people killed by terrorists last year than at any time since 1998, apart from 2001, when the Sept. 11 hijackings caused 2,973 deaths. Terror bombings and shootings injured 3,646 people around the world — more than in any year in the past six.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60660-2004Jun22.html