| Summary: | The article looks at how the United States Departmnet has handled the issue of terrorism as of September 2004. As the war on terrorism continues, statistics on terrorist attacks are becoming as important as the unemployment rate. Yet the terrorism reports produced by the U.S. government do not have nearly as much credibility as its economic statistic, because there are no safeguards to ensure that the data are as accurate as possible and free from political manipulation. Practices used to collect and disseminate vital economic statistics could offer the state Department valuable guidance. The department rarely relies on high-qualiy, objective data or on modern diagnostic tests to distinguish meaningful treads fron chance associations. Adopting safeguards against bias, both statistical and political, would enable Congress to better public to assess the government's foreign policy achievements. Over time, the reports have become glossy advertisements of washington's achievements in combating terrorism, aimed as much at the public and the press as at congressional overseers. The state Department has rightly emphasized that the threat of terrorism remains serious, but a close examination of its data helps put the magnitude of the threat in perspective.
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