In the news...

NYT has this today about the State Department's major revision of its report on global terrorism stats from 2003. The initial, incorrect stats suggested a major drop in terrorist attacks and resulting deaths around the world from the previous year, and have already been used to the political advantage of the Bush Administration. Here's the particularly interesting nugget from the story:

Mr. Powell attributed this to "a data collection and reporting error." Some State Department defenders have pointed out that the report made no effort to hide its raw data. The original report listed what it deemed "significant terrorist incidents" in a 17-page appendix, whose final entry is dated Nov. 11.

The Web site of the Democratic Party's Policy Committee says deadly attacks on coalition forces in Iraq should have been included in the total.

The State Department has said that most of those attacks do not meet its definition of terror: "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience."

So, when President Bush and other high-level rascals repeatedly refer in blanket terms to opposition forces in Iraq as terrorists, they're clearly misusing the term, perhaps for political purposes? Is that what you're saying, State Department? I say good call. (Incidentally, the fact that the Dems would characterize attacks against uniformed members of an invading army as acts of terror adds to the ample evidence that their party is completely intellectually bankrupt.)