GregsOpinion.com

The Bush Administration doctoring State Department figures for political gain? Color me shocked.

(emphasis mine)

Several State Department officials vehemently denied their report was swayed by politics. "That's not the way we do things here," said one senior official. (where's a laugh track for this site when I need it?)

...

Waxman said a State Department official blamed the Nov. 11 cutoff on a printing deadline.

Waxman said the steep overall decline in terrorism claimed by the State Department was based mostly on a 90% drop in "nonsignificant" attacks in two years, without providing any detail as to how or why such a decrease occurred.

Waxman asked Powell to provide by June 1 details on international terrorist attacks dating back to 1995, an explanation of procedures used in defining terrorist acts and information on whether political appointees played a role in writing or editing the report. He said he hadn't heard back.

Internationally, he added, "it feeds into the notion that the U.S. is just not a credible voice on important issues of terrorism."

A just-issued Congressional Research Service report has concluded that the statistical errors are just the latest in a series of problems that the "Patterns" report has faced in recent years.

The congressional study said that the State Department report ? despite the perception of its objectivity ? was unduly influenced by political and economic considerations.

Also, it said the department had failed to take into account the shift from state sponsorship of terrorism to Al Qaeda's use of a far-flung network of affiliates and cells. Though some might question the findings, the congressional report noted that the State Department appeared to be using outdated criteria to determine what constituted a terrorist incident.