“[A] counterterrorism official said that one reason for the larger number of attacks documented in 2005 is that more analysts have been assigned to count and track terrorist incidents.”

The Administration also tried this argument last year.

Additionally, in the AP’s reporting of this issue, we get another quote recycled from last year:

When asked about the reported increase in attacks generally, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that the methodology had changed so there was no common baseline. “Technically, you could say that there might be a larger number of incidents from one year to another, but it’s comparing apples and oranges,” he said.

Compare with the following, from July 6, 2005:

The National Counterterrorism Center’s interim director, John Brennan, called a new database that was to go online today “the most comprehensive U.S. effort to date to track terrorist incidents worldwide.” But he cautioned that comparing the new tally to previous ones was comparing apples to oranges.

Hmmmm…just noticed that both last year’s and this year’s pieces were written by Katherine Shrader. I may have to track her down and see what’s up.