Bushista spokesmen deny manipulating the figures
U.S. Count of Terrorism Deaths Off by Hundreds
Mon Jun 21, 2004 09:24 PM ET
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several hundred more people died from international terrorist attacks last year than the 307 fatalities the State Department originally reported, a U.S. official said on Monday.
The official, who asked not to be identified, spoke as the department prepared to release revised terrorism figures after its embarrassing June 10 announcement that its original count of last year's attacks and deaths was wrong.
The admission dented the claim by President Bush's administration that Washington is winning the war on terrorism, an argument key to his re-election campaign.
The U.S. official said the department would revise up its figure on the number of deaths last year by "several hundred" but he said the figure would not exceed the 725 fatalities reported in 2002.
He said the number of international terrorist attacks for 2003 also would rise to the "ballpark" of 200, above the 190 the department reported in its "Patterns of Global Terrorism" annual report on April 29 and the 198 it counted for 2002.
