User:Corleonebrother/9/11 opinion polls

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Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, a minority of people have expressed doubts about the official account of events. There have been a number of 9/11 conspiracy theories suggesting that members of the US Government may have deliberately covered-up and falsified events, in order to hide negligence or even complicity.

A number of 9/11 opinion polls have been carried out to try and establish roughly how many people do or do not believe the official account. Additionally, some polls seek to establish what those who doubt the official account suppose actually took place and who was responsible. As well as showing that some members of the public believe the US government is responsible, some polls have shown that a significant minority believe that Saddam Hussein may have been involved.

The size, form and quality of polls naturally varies considerably, as does the range and specificity of questions asked. They range from large, formal polls such as those conducted by Zogby, to smaller, informal polls of limited scope, and internet polls. This article presents some of the polls which have been carried out reported in the mainstream news media. The questions here relate specifically to doubts about the official story, and in all cases were part of a group of questions dealing with wider issues, usually of a political nature.

Contents

[edit] Zogby polls

The polls that have received the most widespread media attention are those conducted by Zogby International. The Zogby polls have been sponsored by organisations within the 9/11 Truth Movement including 911truth.org.

The first one was conducted in August 2004, on the eve of a Republican National Convention, on 808 randomly-selected residents of New York State. It found that 49 percent of New York City residents and 41 percent of New York state citizens believe individuals within the US government "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act".[1] The margin of error for this poll was 3.5 percent.

The second major Zogby poll on 9/11 was conducted in May 2006. It was a telephone interview of 1,200 randomly-selected adults from across the United States, consisting of 81 questions, with a 2.9 percent margin of error.[2] Some of the questions asked include the following:

"Some people believe that the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks, saying there has been a cover-up. Others say that the 9/11 Commission was a bi-partisan group of honest and well-respected people and that there is no reason they would want to cover-up anything. Who are you more likely to agree with?"
  • Responses: 48% No Cover-up / 42% Cover-up / 10% Not sure
"World Trade Center Building 7 is the 47-story skyscraper that was not hit by any planes during the September 11th attacks, but still totally collapsed later the same day. This collapse was not investigated by the 9/11 Commission. Are you aware of this skyscraper's collapse, and if so do you believe that the Commission should have also investigated it? Or do you believe that the Commission was right to only investigate the collapse of the buildings which were directly hit by airplanes?"
  • Responses: 43% Not Aware / 38% Aware - should have investigated it / 14% Aware - right not to investigate it / 5% Not Sure
"Some people say that so many unanswered questions about 9/11 remain that Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success. Other people say the 9/11 attacks were thoroughly investigated and that any speculation about US government involvement is nonsense. Who are you more likely to agree with?"
  • Responses: 47% Attacks were thoroughly investigated / 45% Reinvestigate the attacks / 8% Not Sure

[edit] Newsweek Magazine polls

The Newsweek Magazine poll "What America Knows", conducted Princeton Survey Research Associates International, regularly asks American citizens a wide range of questions relating to world events past and present and a number of more trivial questions of general knowledge.[3] On four occasions the following question has been asked:

"Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

[edit] New York Times / CBS News polls

The first poll carried out by the New York Times and CBS News was conducted in May 2002, long before the 9/11 Commission was formed. The same questions were asked again in October 2006 just after the fifth anniversary of the attacks. This poll was conducted by telephone on 983 randomly-selected citizens of the United States, with a margin of error is 4%.[4] One of the questions was the following:

"When it comes to what they knew prior to September 11th, 2001, about possible terrorist attacks against the United States, do you think members of the Bush Administration are telling the truth, are mostly telling the truth but hiding something, or are they mostly lying?"
  • May 2002 responses: 65% said they are hiding something, 21% said telling the truth, 8% said they are mostly lying, 6% not sure.
  • October 2006 responses: 53% said they are hiding something, 28% said they are mostly lying, 16% said telling the truth, 3% not sure.

[edit] Scripps Howard poll

This poll from July 2006, sponsored by Scripps Howard and conducted by Ohio University, surveyed 1,010 randomly-selected citizens of the United States, with a margin of error of 4 percent.[5] It made some statements relating to some of the 9/11 conspiracy theories and asked respondents to say whether they thought that the statements were "very likely", "somewhat likely", "somewhat unlikely" or "very unlikely" to be true.

"Federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them".
  • Responses: 36% said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely"
"The collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings".
  • Responses: 16% said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely"
"The Pentagon was struck by a military cruise missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists".
  • Responses: 12% said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely"

[edit] Other polls

A poll reported in the Washington Post in September 2003 found that nearly 70 percent of respondents believed Saddam Hussein was probably personally involved in the attacks.[6]

In September 2006 an Ipsos-Reid poll found that 22 percent of Canadians believe "the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden and were actually a plot by influential Americans."[7][citation needed]

In May 2007 a was conducted by Pew Research Center on over 1000 American Muslims was reported in the New York Post. It found that 40 percent agreed that "Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks", while 28 percent disagreed. Of the 28 percent that disagreed, a quarter believe that the US government is responsible.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals. Zogby (2004).
  2. ^ A word about our poll of American thinking toward the 9/11 terrorist attacks (May 24, 2006).
  3. ^ NEWSWEEK Poll Conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International June 23, 2007
  4. ^ [http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13469}
  5. ^ Third of Americans suspect 9-11 government conspiracy. Scripps News (2006).
  6. ^ Bush: No Saddam Links To 9/11 CBS News
  7. ^ One in 5 Canadians sees 9/11 as U.S. plot: poll. Reuters (September 11, 2006).
  8. ^ Time Bombs in our Midst New York Post May 23, 2007

[edit] See Also