Harper's Index for October 2004Posted on Wednesday, November 10, 2004.

Days since the U.S. government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed : 0 [U.S. Department of Homeland Security ]

Years of “elevated” or “high” terror alerts since then : 2 [U.S. Department of Homeland Security ]

Aid that U.S. leaflets dropped on Fallujah in July threatened to freeze if insurgent attacks continued : $102,000,000 [Coalition Press Center (Baghdad) ]

Number of insurgent attacks in Fallujah in the week before and after the leafletting, respectively : 21, 36 [Coalition Press Center (Baghdad) ]

Compensation the U.S. government has paid Iraqis for wrongful deaths, injuries, and property damage since 2002 : $4,475,643 [Coalition Press Center (Baghdad) ]

Total “death gratuities” the U.S. government has paid since then to survivors of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq : $11,436,000 [Air Force Personnel Center (Randolph AFB, Tex.)/Harper’s research ]

Total amount Ohio’s crime-victims compensation fund has paid the survivors of one U.S. soldier killed in Iraq : $5,656.77 [Ohio Attorney General (Columbus) ]

Maximum percentage income- and corporate-tax rate under laws made for Iraqis by the Coalition Provisional Authority : 15 [International Trade Administration (Washington) ]

Days a House committee postponed July hearings on antidepressants while its chair considered a pharmaceutical-lobbyist job : 50 [Congressman Jim Greenwood’s Office (Washington) ]

Number of the 5 Republicans investigating Rep. Tom DeLay on ethics charges who have taken donations from his PAC : 4 [Federal Election Commission (Washington) ]

Number of Ohio election boards being sued over erroneously informing parolees that they may not vote : 21 [Prison Reform Advocacy Center (Cincinnati) ]

Number of banks robbed in Davenport, Iowa, while John Kerry and George Bush gave speeches there on August 4 : 3 [Davenport Police Department (Davenport, Iowa) ]

Estimated number of right-wing Jewish extremists Israel monitors as potential threats to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon : 300 [Consulate General of Israel (N.Y.C.) ]

Years after leaving his post during the Vietnam War that a Connecticut man was arrested for desertion in July : 34 [Bridgeport Park Police (Bridgeport, Conn.) ]

Minimum number of Guantánamo detainees who boycotted their military tribunals in August : 13 [U.S. Department of Defense ]

Average number of kidnappings per week in Iraq since March : 5 [The Brookings Institution (Washington) ]

Number of non-Iraqis detained there by U.S. forces in the last year : 400 [Coalition Press Center (Baghdad) ]

Ratio of the minimum number of beheadings by the Saudi government last year to those by Saudi terrorists so far this year : 50:1 [U.S. State Department/Amnesty International (N.Y.C.) ]