Periodically, The Spokesman-Review will devote this space to an editorial from another newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. The following commentary, which does not necessarily reflect the views of The Spokesman-Review’s editorial board, appeared Tuesday in the Tri-City Herald.

Secretary of State Colin Powell frankly admitted that his department screwed up a report that incorrectly claimed terrorism declined last year.

“It’s a numbers error,” Powell said. “It’s not a political judgment that said, ‘Let’s see if we can cook the books.’ We can’t get away with that now. Nobody was out to cook the books. Errors crept in.”

Apparently, a switch in the way terrorism attacks were calculated worldwide gave a false impression that attacks were down. It isn’t so.

It does boggle the mind how the agency could get something so basic so wrong, but Secretary Powell’s quick admission that data coming out of his department were faulty should serve as a reminder to others in the Bush administration that admitting error is not always a sign of weakness.

Sometimes, it’s an admirable sign of strength.