Posted on 05/01/2007 3:08:26 AM PDT by familyop
Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday.
Among countries, Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East, notably in Iraq, giving material aid and guidance to Shiite insurgent groups that have attacked Sunnis, U.S. and Iraqi forces, it said.
In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department said 14,338 attacks took place in 2006, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3,185 more than in 2005 representing a 28.5 percent increase.
These strikes claimed a total of 20,498 lives, 13,340 of them in Iraq, 5,800 more, or a 40.2 percent increase, than last year, it said.
Despite the grim figures, State Department officials pointed to some successes in the war on terror, including improved counterterrorism cooperation with various nations and the thwarting of numerous plots, notably plans to down trans-Atlantic airliners.
"Serious challenges do remain, there's no question about that," said acting counterterrorism coordinator Frank Urbancic. "This is not the kind of war where you can measure success with conventional numbers. We cannot aspire to a single decisive battle that will break the enemy's back, nor can we hope for a signed peace accord to mark victory."
The report partly attributes the higher casualty figures to a 25 percent jump in the number of nonvehicular suicide bombings targeting large crowds. That overwhelmed a 12 percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.
In Iraq, the use of chemical weapons, seen for the first time in a Nov. 23, 2006, attack in Sadr City, also "signaled a dangerous strategic shift in tactics," it said.
With the rise in fatalities, the number of injuries from terrorist attacks also rose, by 54 percent, between 2005 and 2006, and the number of wounded doubled in Iraq over the period, according to the department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2006.
The numbers were compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center and refer to deaths and injuries sustained by "noncombatants," with significant increases in attacks targeting children, educators and journalists.
"By far the largest number of reported terrorist incidents occurred in the Near East and South Asia," said the 335-page report, referring to the regions where Iraq and Afghanistan are located.
"These two regions also were the locations for 90 percent of all the 290 high-casualty attacks that killed 10 or more people," it said.
The report said 6,600, or 45 percent, of the attacks took place in Iraq, killing about 13,000 people, or 65 percent of the worldwide total of terrorist-related deaths in 2006. Kidnappings by terrorists soared 300 percent in Iraq over 2005.
Afghanistan had 749 strikes in 2006, a 50 percent rise from 2005 when 491 attacks were tallied, according to the report.
However, it also detailed a surge in Africa, where 65 percent more attacks, 420 compared to 253 in 2005, were counted last year, largely due to turmoil in or near Sudan, including Darfur, and Nigeria where oil facilities and workers have been targeted.
As in previous years, the 2006 report identified Iran as the "most active state sponsor" of terror, accusing the Islamic republic of helping plan and foment attacks to destabilize Iraq and derail Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been "linked to armor-piercing explosives that resulted in the deaths of coalition forces" and has helped, along with Lebanon's radical Hezbollah movement, train Iraqi extremists to build bombs, the report said.
Although the designation of Iran is not new, it appears in the report that is being released as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepares to attend a conference of Iraq's neighbors, at which she has not ruled out a meeting with Iran's foreign minister.
The report said that terrorists continue to rely mainly on conventional weapons in their attacks, but noted no let up in an alarming trend toward more sophisticated and better planned and coordinated strikes.
For instance, while the number of bombings increased by 30 percent between 2005 and 2006, the death tolls from these incidents rose by 39 percent and the number of injuries rose by 45 percent, it said.
The report attributed the higher casualty figures to a 25 percent jump in the number of non-vehicular suicide bombings targeting large crowds that more than made up for a slight 12 percent dip in suicide attacks involving vehicles.
Of the 58,000 people killed or wounded in terrorist attacks around the world in 2006, more than 50 percent were Muslims, the report, says with government officials, police and security guards accounting for a large proportion, the report said.
The number of child casualties from terrorist attacks soared by more than 80 percent between 2005 and 2006 to more than 1,800, while incidents involving educators were up more than 45 percent and those involving journalists up 20 percent, the report said.
Twenty-eight U.S. citizens were killed and 27 wounded in terrorist incidents in 2006, most of them in Iraq, where eight of the 12 Americans kidnapped by terrorists last year were taken captive, it said.
They have made a mistake I think in presenting it in this manner. IMHO they should have seperatede the Iraq death toll from the worldwide death toll.
Iraq is a war zone and should not be included in the worldwide numbers. I think the worldwide numbers excluding the Iraq death tolls would indicate the attacks and number of deaths are declining.
So, aside from Iraq, the countries that least support our war on terrorism have increased incidences of terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, the United States has remained terror-free since 2001.
Naaahhhh .... couldn't be ... Bush lied, people died ... everybody knows that !!
This is why Hillery stated lst week that at some point she thinks the US will have to deal with Iran militarly.
It was not a mistake, it was intentional. By counting these as terrorists attacks, it opens up a new line of attacks against Bush.
Harry are you happy?
Obviously you didn’t read the article in the other thread, just the headline. The author is no lefty.
His point was that Bush gave with one hand but took away with another. We may have seen nominal tax relief but the inflation of the money supply and the increase in debt overshadows any tax relief provided.
Don’t worry, our government will just inflate its way out of debt and us out of our pensions and investments so you can still think they have taken less.
You are WRONG. Do you run three businesses? Do you have over thirty employees?. Do you actually have to use the Tax Code every day? Probably not... or you would know that your rant is full of crap! Supply side works. Reagan knew it and practiced it... but that is not good enough for the libetine.
LLS
Yes, actually, I own and manage 3 businesses with a total of 28 employees, grossing over 3 million in sales per year.
I can tell you that I am still paying about 35% of my payroll costs as taxes - fed, state, local, SS - even for $12 per hour employees.
I am also a trained economist. You need to read up on monetary theory - Friedman, von Mises, Rothbard and the like - before you go spouting about how I am wrong.
Tax receipts are up, not down, and spending is up even more.
The federal budget spending is up 40-some% over 2000. With our floating dollar, the larger the deficit the more money is in the money supply and the higher inflation goes as a result. Simplified, unless the increase in dollars in the money supply is offset by increases in productivity, the value of assets declines in real terms. The DOW at 13,000 ? In real terms, it hasn’t yet hit the same high as it was in 2000. But you feeel good about it anyhow, right ?
Rant ? Look at your own post. Take a chill pill and do some studying before inserting foot into mouth.
The true inflation rate and the debasement of the currency is the killer in the end, regardless of a few points shaved off tax rates.
Funny, cause in 1941 & 1942, German attacks on US personnel were up, too.
ITS CALLED WAR, AP!!!!!
You do KNOW that the deficit has been constantly shrinking, we are at full employment and you are paying LESS in taxes today than in 2000? Real income is up, and American wealth is higher today that at any point of our history. Denial is not just a river in Egypt!
BTW, I have become rich under Bush! All of my employees drive late model vehicles and live in their own homes. Blue collar workers have more disposible income to save and spend in “Persuit of Happiness”... many pay CASH! It was not so under ‘toon!
LLS
News You Won’t Hear: Terrorism Is Down Almost Everywhere
Posted by Matthew Sheffield on May 1, 2007 - 01:39.
http://newsbusters.org/node/12431
Turkish, Pakistani and Afghan leaders sign a pact to fight terrorism
Good news is no news, at least when it comes to the war on terrorism.
On Monday evening, the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism showing a number of interesting findings, including steep declines in terrorist attacks and murders in many regions of the globe. That has not been the lede story in America’s liberal media, however. Instead, they’ve chosen to focus their attentions on how terrorism has increased in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
That’s not entirely unjustified. Both of those countries have significant amounts of American troops in them (although I doubt that the left-wing French or German press, say, is covering this any differently). What has been unacceptable, however, is the American press’s complete ignoring of the rest of the State Department’s numbers.
Instead of saying that terrorism has increased markedly in Iraq (the truth), the media are extrapolating beyond that to claim that, as Reuters puts it, “U.S. sees sharp rise in global terrorism deaths.”
Once you get past the lede of these Reuters and Associated Press pieces, you’ll discover the small detail that the increase in terrorism was almost entirely due to Iraq. Nowhere in either piece do you learn the fact that aside from the Middle East (which does not include Afghanistan according to State), the number of terrorist attacks worldwide is down from a year ago by over 300 incidents. The number of deaths from terrorism was only up 14 percent.
In other words, the Bush administration’s idea that making Iraq the “central front in the war on terror” seems to be working. According to the State report, terrorism in South Asia is down by 10 percent from a year ago. In Europe, it’s down 18 percent. In Central and South America, terrorism-related deaths are down 54 percent.
These aren’t the kinds of facts you’ll hear on the evening news or read in your local newspaper. But they’re all in the report. I crunched the numbers (click here for OpenDocument data file, requires free OpenOffice suite) based on the raw data provided by State Department’s National Counterterrorism Center.
Sadly, most Americans will never know these facts. I guess they’re what you might call inconvenient truths.
N.B. Get your own numbers to crunch at the NCTC’s Worldwide Incidents Tracking System here
Headline = last ditch effort by enemy + enhanced by actions of Dems in Congress.
Uh huh, right. I can read the numbers on my tax returns and do percentage calculations too. I am paying more total dollars today than I ever did. It’s called progressive taxation and it hits those who make more money.
You do know we have progressive federal tax rates, right ?
And wealth ? What is that calculation based on ? The stock market and real estate values ? You might want to hold your hat there. The stock market is valued, in real terms, less today (at 13,000+) than it was in early 2001, and so are many real estate markets.
Nice try. You are living in inflated values land spurred by an inflated dollar, hence the devaluation of the dollar re foreign currencies.
You are really lost. Yes, the more you make the more you pay... but the top rate is far below that when ‘toon was in office... and it is far below the pre Reagan Tax Cuts that cut the top rate from 72%! reid and peloser have plans to return things to that rate. I will close all three businesses and retire if that happens. I am not alone... and the US economy will fold if that happens nationwide... which it will. Do you just like to argue?
LLS
“So, nearly half the terrorist attacks in the report occurred in Iraq, undoubtedly many more were also in Afghanistan. So, the conclusion is terrorism is up, even though half the attacks are directly in a hot war zone. That’s a bit like saying there was more Japanese attacks than in 1942 in December of 1941 because we were fighting them at Midway.”
I love the way you avoid the fact that tax receipts are up, as is spending. Avoid everything I post, ten ask if I only like to argue. No, I like to debate people who have reading comprehension skills.
Bush did not cut taxes, he cut tax RATES. Is that simple enough for you yet ?
The article argued that Bush did not cut taxes - the entirety of your posts have whistled past the point.
When anyone cuts rates enough to reduce tax receipts, then taxes will have been cut. Get it ?
No! You do not understand that cutting taxes ALWAYS increases revenue due to increased economic activity. You are a waste of time. Find someone else without a life to play with. I need to make MONEY!
LLS
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