The Global War on Terror is making the world a safer place, despite the more than 11,000 terrorist attacks recorded worldwide last year that killed 14,602 people, according to the US State Department, which released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism on April 28. (Click on the graphic at right for a summary of 2005 statistics.) Among State’s conclusions, “Al Qaeda is “not the organization it was four years ago,” but the terrorist group “remains adaptive and resilient.” State attributes a “sharp rise” in the number of 2005 terrorist incidents compared to 2004 (some 3,000) to the “broader statutory definition of terrorism” required by Congress. (The report is here; State’s briefing on the report is here.)
The Space Force recently awarded SpaceX $739 million to launch nine missions for the Space Development Agency and National Reconnaissance Office over the next three years. Five of the awarded launches will be to build out SDA’s constellation of missile warning and tracking satellites in low-Earth orbit.
