Rep. Waxman asked the State Department Inspector General Cameron R. Hume today to examine the decision of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to drop the data on the number of international terrorist attacks from the Department's annual report on patterns of global terrorism.

In April, 2004, The State Department released its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report, claiming that the data showed that terrorism attacks were at an all-time low in 2003. Administration officials called the data "clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight" against terror.

In fact, an analysis by Rep. Waxman revealed that the exact opposite was true: significant terrorism attacks actually reached a 20-year high in 2003. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell later issued revised data for the annual report which showed a major increase in deaths and injuries from terrorist attacks in 2003, with "significant" attacks having reached a 20-year high in that year.

This week, press accounts have reported that Secretary Rice has taken a different approach from her predecessor, deciding to withhold data regarding terrorist events from the annual terrorism report for 2004.