The office of the Director of National Intelligence released its interactive 2014 Counterterrorism Calendar this week on the website of the National Counterterrorism Center. The map provided with the calendar contains an embarrassing error, misspelling the name of the U.S.’s closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, as “Isreal.” The error can be seen by hovering over the tiny country with a computer mouse:
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Israel is included in the map because of the activity of Hamas. Information on that group is available in a pop-up window where the name of the country is spelled correctly:
[img nocaption float=”center” width=”640″ height=”312″ render=”<%photoRenderType%>”]22414[/img]
Despite Israel’s inclusion on the larger map, three other countries are missing [circles added]:
[img nocaption float=”center” width=”640″ height=”378″ render=”<%photoRenderType%>”]22415[/img]
Libya and Tunisia are not labeled or highlighted on the map despite the State Department’s recent designation of Ansar al-Shari’a groups in both countries as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The designations were announced on January 10, and the map was not released until January 14. Also unlabeled on the map is Iran, recognized as one of the leading state sponsors of terrorism in the world.
The following appears in the State Department’s most recent Country Reports on Terrorism:
UPDATE: A spokesman for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) writes: “Thank you (and Mr. Bier) for highlighting the typographical errors associated with our online interactive calendar. We’ve provided these edits to our graphics team who will correct the programming as soon as possible.” He also notes that map was released by NCTC, not the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. NCTC reports to the Director of National Intelligence.
