Powell Announcing Rise in Casualties, Incidents, From Terrorism

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB8Q8Q5SVD.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell is prepared to announce a sharp increase last year in victims of terrorism worldwide, correcting findings that were used to bolster President Bush's claim of success in countering this scourge of violence.

A revised State Department report ready to be released shows a dramatic increase in both the number of deaths and other casualties, as well as a less dramatic boost in incidents, a senior department official said Monday.

Still, the revised report shows that international cooperation and a heightened awareness of the terror threat were bringing positive results, said the official, who agreed to discuss the still-unreleased report only on condition of anonymity.

The initial report was issued in April. On June 10, the State Department acknowledged the findings were inaccurate. Powell attributed the errors partly to a new data system and said there was no attempt to manipulate the figures to buttress Bush's argument.

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[Mithras61]

1. I wonder...

"Still, the revised report shows that international cooperation and a heightened awareness of the terror threat were bringing positive results, said the official, who agreed to discuss the still-unreleased report only on condition of anonymity."

I wonder what he means by positive.. perhaps "I'm positive that we're having an impact" or (more likely, imho) "The so-called war on terror is doing exactly what we expected and wanted."

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

9. I own Halliburton stock...

so the War on Terror is showing positive results.

[Mithras61]

11. Good Point! n/t

[Rose Siding]

2. This is going to make an important headline

It is the clearest and most understandable yet of Bush's failure. It may damage the myth of his "strength" on terrorism.

[Jacobin]

3. Gee, I wonder how much these goofballs are paid to

read the forking newspaper and count the bombs and bodies.

They weren't even good at attempting to downplay the increase in attacks, since they were caught immediately

This administration is beyond putrid.

[Caution]

4. the reuters article give the actual numbers

625 people in 2003, more than double the 307 in 2002.

Good job georgie boy. Very effective war on terror.

What a joke. And that is worldwide deaths by the way. 625. out of well over 5 billion. Spent in Iraq alone? $200 billion. Spent in Africa on Aids by Bush? $10 billion. Over ten years. AIDS deaths in 2003? 3 million. Yes that's right 3 million people dies of AIDS in 2003 and 625 died of terrorism. Total money spent on the so called war on terror since 9/11 is approximately $350 billion (if you include the war to own iraqi oil fields in that figure). Wake up. terrorism sucks but it's really not that big of a deal. It should be dealt with certainly but that $200 billion spent in Iraq could have cured AIDS and saved quite literally tens of millions of lives.

[Caution]

5. bump

come on folks. this is easily the most important piece of news today. they cut the damn numbers in half and lied to us about this and were flat out caught on it.

[Cocoa]

12. are there any books they WON'T cook?

[Kadie]

6. So, what they are saying is

International cooperation and heightened awareness is positive, but the terrorism numbers are up. Hey folks, look at the positive here, it could have been a whole lot worse!

Our last report was a boo boo, oh not just a little boo boo, but we were so wrong that we are having to flip the numbers in the opposite direction.

Up is down, down is up.

[PaDUer]

7. They're priming the people..

so their "draft" goes smoothly in hopes of getting support. They don't care if our kids come home in boxes! Sickos! Let THEM go fight their own shit they created!

[kskiska]

8. They're getting desperate!!!!

This must be good news.
:eyes:

[phillybri]

10. I don't know how you can positively spin this...

...but I'm sure the Bushies will try!:grr: