STATEMENT BY RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN[Emphasis added.] Also note that the Department of State passed the buck about responsibility for the errors: It wasn't us, it was elements from the CIA, FBI and Departments of Homeland Security and Defense.The Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 Report was issued in April 2004. I decided to read the chapter on the Middle East; I wanted to see which attacks in Iraq qualify as terrorism. (Roadside bombings by Iraqi insurgents--probably yes. Bombings of wedding parties--probably not.) But alas, Iraq is dismissed with this:
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.
the regime of Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein was ousted from power by a US-led Coalition conducting Operation Iraqi Freedom, marking an important advance for the global war on terrorism.Iraq rates another mention as one of the state sponsors of terrorism in another section of the report. [It is odd that this section is not at the globalsecurity.org website. Or am I not seeing the link on the index page?] So I search for Iraq's paragraph:
Iraq[Emphasis added.] So, it appears that neither insurgent attacks on Coalition forces nor Coalition attacks on civilians are classified as terrorism.
(Note: Most of the attacks that have occurred during Operation Iraqi Freedom do not meet the longstanding US definition of international terrorism because they were directed at combatants, that is, American and Coalition forces on duty.
Attacks against civilians and against military personnel who at the time of the incident were unarmed and/or not on duty are judged as terrorist attacks.)
On 7 May 2003, President Bush suspended, with respect to Iraq, all sanctions applicable to state sponsors of terrorism, which had the practical effect of putting Iraq on a par with nonterrorist states. Although Iraq is still technically a designated state sponsor of terrorism, its name can be removed from the state sponsors list when the Secretary of State determines that it has fulfilled applicable statutory requirements, which include having a government in place that pledges not to support acts of terrorism in the future.
In 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom removed Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist regime from power and liberated Iraq. Since then, however, Iraq has become a central battleground in the global war on terrorism. Former regime elements, who have been conducting insurgent attacks against Coalition forces, have increasingly allied themselves tactically and operationally with foreign fighters and Islamic extremists, including some linked to Ansar al-Islam, al-Qaida, and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi. The line between insurgency and terrorism has become increasingly blurred as attacks on civilian targets have become more common. By end of the year, Coalition forces had detained more than 300 suspected foreign fighters.
Extremists associated with al-Qaida claimed credit for several suicide car bombings, including attacks in October against the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and three Baghdad police stations and an attack in November against an Italian military police base in Nasiriyah. Al-Qaida associate Abu Mus'ab al- Zarqawi -- accused of working with Ansar al-Islam -- emerged as a key suspect in the deadly bombing of Jordan's Baghdad embassy in August.
After Coalition strikes destroyed Ansar al-Islam's base in northern Iraq in late March, Ansar al-Islam members fled across the border and regrouped in Iran. Counterterrorist operations suggest many of those fi ghters have since reentered Iraq and are active in anti-Coalition activities. In September, suspected members of Ansar al-Islam were arrested in Kirkuk carrying 1,200 kilograms of TNT.
In November, Coalition forces killed two unidentified, high-ranking members of Ansar al-Islam during a raid on a terrorist hideout in Baghdad.
Updated 11 June 2004 7:50 am CDT
