[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 22, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H4650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   FINAL DRAFT OF ``PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM'' REFLECTS THE FACTS

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, finally, today, the State Department will 
release the complete and authoritative report on the ``Patterns of 
Global Terrorism,'' a correction requested by our colleague, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).
  The original report issued by Secretary Powell claimed terrorist 
incidents hit their lowest level in 34 years; but, in fact, terrorist 
attacks were at their highest in 20 years. A funny thing happened on 
the way to the printer.
  Unfortunately, this is not the first, second, or even the third time, 
for that matter, that a Bush Cabinet Secretary is having to rewrite a 
report from their own department. Time and again, Bush Cabinet 
Secretaries have been forced to abandon their own report after public 
scrutiny.
  Whether it is a State Department report on terrorism, inaccurate 
reports published by Health and Human Services on racial disparities in 
health care, the cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill, or the 
EPA's mercury report, each time one thing in common happens: the first 
draft reflects the administration's ideology and political objectives, 
and the rewrite reflects the facts.
  The final draft reflects the facts, and as Ronald Reagan used to say, 
facts are a stubborn thing.
  It appears that a pattern exists of either gross incompetence or 
gross political manipulation, and neither is worthy of a Cabinet 
Secretary.
  Mr. Speaker, today we welcome Secretary Powell's report in coming 
clean on the true facts on the war on terrorism.

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