THE ROVING EYE
It's terror when we say so
By Pepe Escobar
Front Page
Apr 23, 2005
The Bush administration's iron-clad spin is that it is winning the "war on terror". Then comes a problem: the recently created (by a George W Bush executive order) National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) states there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. So what does the State Department do? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice orders the "sanitation" of this year's version of "Patterns of Global Terrorism", a report regularly issued by the State Department.
The NCTC was created on a recommendation by the 9-11 Commission. Now it has the responsibility of analyzing and integrating all US intelligence on terrorism. By law, Congress and the Senate must receive "Patterns of Global Terrorism" by April 30 every year, detailing what Washington considers terrorism activity country by country. This year, there will be not be a complete "Patterns of Global Terrorism", but a simple report without any data. The NCTC will be in charge of the details. According to US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, this data will be released, but no date has been set.
It would be naive to assume that Rice's decision on the report was disclosed by US mainstream media. Once again the information had to be found on the Internet, through Larry C Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst writing for the online journal The Counterterrorism Blog.
According to Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, "This is the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world. It should be unthinkable that there would be an effort to withhold it - or any of the key data - from the public. The Bush administration should stop playing politics with this critical report.
" It's politics, stupid
Waxman seems to forget that the fiercely loyal Rice would never allow the disclosure of sensitive information bound to contradict her boss - thus the flood of denials from State Department officials, who blame the shelving on dubious NCTC "methodology". The NCTC reported 624 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004, compared with 175 in 2003 - the year of the Iraq invasion and the bombing of the United Nations building in Baghdad.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD23Aa01.html
It's terror when we say so
By Pepe Escobar
Front Page
Apr 23, 2005
The Bush administration's iron-clad spin is that it is winning the "war on terror". Then comes a problem: the recently created (by a George W Bush executive order) National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) states there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. So what does the State Department do? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice orders the "sanitation" of this year's version of "Patterns of Global Terrorism", a report regularly issued by the State Department.
The NCTC was created on a recommendation by the 9-11 Commission. Now it has the responsibility of analyzing and integrating all US intelligence on terrorism. By law, Congress and the Senate must receive "Patterns of Global Terrorism" by April 30 every year, detailing what Washington considers terrorism activity country by country. This year, there will be not be a complete "Patterns of Global Terrorism", but a simple report without any data. The NCTC will be in charge of the details. According to US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, this data will be released, but no date has been set.
It would be naive to assume that Rice's decision on the report was disclosed by US mainstream media. Once again the information had to be found on the Internet, through Larry C Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst writing for the online journal The Counterterrorism Blog.
According to Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, "This is the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world. It should be unthinkable that there would be an effort to withhold it - or any of the key data - from the public. The Bush administration should stop playing politics with this critical report.
" It's politics, stupid
Waxman seems to forget that the fiercely loyal Rice would never allow the disclosure of sensitive information bound to contradict her boss - thus the flood of denials from State Department officials, who blame the shelving on dubious NCTC "methodology". The NCTC reported 624 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004, compared with 175 in 2003 - the year of the Iraq invasion and the bombing of the United Nations building in Baghdad.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD23Aa01.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 5:27 PM
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