10 June 2004

Powell "Very Disturbed" by Errors in 2003 Terrorism Report

Revisions will show increase in number of attacks, casualties

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he is very disturbed by errors in the 2003 edition of the department's annual terrorism report, but he indicated that corrections will be made following a thorough review.

During an appearance with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh at the State Department June 10, the secretary was asked how the inaccuracies in the report occurred. "It was a combination of errors both at the new Terrorist Threat Information Center, as they were transitioning into the job and building their organization, and errors prepping the report that, frankly, we didn't catch over here," he said.

Powell pledged to correct whatever should be corrected in the report issued in April and turned aside a reporter's effort to ascribe the problem to political motivations. "I can assure you it had nothing to do with putting out anything but the most honest, accurate information we can," he said.

During the June 10 State Department briefing spokesman Richard Boucher also addressed the department's review of the report. "Base on our review, we have determined that the data in the report is incomplete and in some cases incorrect," he said.

Boucher said State Department officials did not check and verify the data sufficiently.

The Terrorist Threat Integration Center is revising the 2003 statistics. The preliminary review "indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published," the spokesman said.

"As soon as we are in a position to, we will issue corrected numbers, a revised analysis, and revisions to the report," he said.

Following is the text of Boucher's statement:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
June 10, 2004

STATEMENT BY RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN

Correction to Global Patterns of Terrorism Will be Issued

After learning of possible discrepancies in the first week of May, the Department of State and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center initiated a review of the data published in the 2003 edition of "Patterns of Global Terrorism." A May 17th letter from Congressman {Henry] Waxman [Democrat, California] added impetus to our efforts.

The data in the report was compiled by the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which was established in January 2003 and includes elements from the CIA, FBI and Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. Based on our review, we have determined that the data in the report is incomplete and in some cases incorrect. Here at the Department of State, we did not check and verify the data sufficiently.

At our request, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is revising the statistics for calendar year 2003. While we are still checking data for accuracy and completeness, we can say that our preliminary results indicate that the figures for the number of attacks and casualties will be up sharply from what was published. As soon as we are in a position to, we will issue corrected numbers, a revised analysis, and revisions to the report.

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