| “International terrorism” | “involving citizens or territory of more than one country” | Comment: previously applied definition that resulted in hundreds of incidents per year. While useful in an era of state sponsored terrorist attacks, it does not accurately capture today's threat when the perpetrator and victim are often from the same country. |
| “Terrorism” | “premeditated politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets” | Comment: definition used for Country Reports 2005. A much broader definition in the statute that includes attacks in which perpetrator and victim are from the same country. Avoids the problems of the “international terrorism” definition and increases the count of incidents by many thousands per year. |