Are we safer?

A report card on the war on terror.

November 18, 2007|David Cole and Jules Lobel, David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and Jules Lobel, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, are the authors of "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror."

We have more than six years of experience with the Bush administration's war on terror, and there has not been another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. But can the administration take credit for that? Here's a report card on what the administration's counter-terrorism strategy has achieved, and what it has cost. The figures are drawn from official government sources, reliable news accounts, institutional reports and our own continuing review of data.

Worldwide

Number of terrorist attacks (footnote 1)

2001

1,732

2005

4,995

2006

6,659

In Iraq

Average daily number of insurgent attacks

(footnote 2)

July 2003 16

May-July 2007

161.6

At Home

Number of "terrorism or terrorism-related" convictions and guilty pleas (with an international connection) claimed by the Justice Department as of June 2006 (footnote 3): 261

Number of those cases actually involving attempted terrorist activity (footnote 4): 2

Minimum number of foreign nationals preventively detained in anti-terrorism initiatives in the U.S. in the first two years after 9/11 (footnote 5): 5,191

Number of those convicted of terrorist crimes today (footnote 6): 0

Number of U.S. foreign residents who complied with domestic registration program targeting immigrants from Arab and Muslim countries (footnote 7): 83,519

Number of those convicted of terrorist crimes today (footnote 8): 0

Number of foreign nationals the Justice Department claims to have deported in connection with 9/11 investigations (footnote 9): > 515

Number of those deemed to be connected to terrorism (footnote 10): 0

Number of Al Qaeda cells discovered in the U.S. since 9/11 (footnote 11): 0

Guantanamo and 'Black Sites'

Number of people detained at Guantanamo since Jan. 2002 (footnote 12): 775

Number of detainees released (footnote 13): 470

Number of detainees tried for any crimes (footnote 14): 0

Number of people estimated to have been detained in CIA "black sites" -- secret prisons outside the U.S. (footnote 15): > 100

Number of those detained who have been charged or convicted of any crime (footnote 16): 0

Cost of Iraq War and Homeland Security

Estimate of Iraq war cost in 2003 (dismissed by President Bush as unrealistically high) (footnote 17)

$100 billion to $200 billion

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