Third of Americans suspect 9-11 government conspiracyWed Aug 2, 2006 17:53
Scripps Howard News Service - Aug 1, 2006
http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll
Third of Americans suspect 9-11 government conspiracy
By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal
officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to
stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East,
according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the
federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they
"personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government
appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories
about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job" _ the common
phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet _ quickly have
become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the
federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's
assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.
Seventy percent of people who give credence to these theories also say
they've become angrier with the federal government than they used to
be.
Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is "very likely" or
"somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action
to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in
the Middle East."
"One out of three sounds high, but that may very well be right," said
Lee Hamilton, former vice chairman of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also called the 9/11
commission.) His congressionally appointed investigation concluded
that federal officials bungled their attempts to prevent, but did not
participate in, the attacks by al Qaeda five years ago.
"A lot of people I've encountered believe the U.S. government was
involved," Hamilton said. "Many say the government planned the whole
thing. Of course, we don't think the evidence leads that way at
all."
The poll also found that 16 percent of Americans speculate that
secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the real
reason the massive twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Conspiracy groups for at least two years have also questioned why the
World Trade Center collapsed when fires that heavily damaged similar
skyscrapers around the world did not cause such destruction. Sixteen
percent said it's "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that "the
collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives
secretly planted in the two buildings."
Twelve percent suspect the Pentagon was struck by a military cruise
missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists.
That lower percentage may result from an effort by the conservative
Washington-based Judicial Watch advocacy group to debunk the claim.
The group filed claims under the Freedom of Information Act and got
two fill loops released from Pentagon security cameras.
"Some people claim they can't see anything, but I see a plane hitting
the Pentagon at incredibly high speed," said Judicial Watch President
Tom Fitton. "I see the nose of the plane clearly entering the frame of
one video and the tail of the plane entering the Pentagon in the other
video."
Many conspiracy Web sites have posted the video loops and report the
films are inconclusive or were manipulated by the government.
"Some folks will never be convinced," Fitton said. "But I'm hoping
that these videos will dissuade reasonable people from falling into a
trap with these conspiracy theories."
University of Florida law professor Mark Fenster, author of the book
"Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture," said the
poll's findings reflect public anger at the unpopular Iraq war,
realization that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass
destruction and growing doubts of the veracity of the Bush
administration.
"What has amazed me is not that there are conspiracy theories, but
that they didn't seem to be getting any purchase among the American
publi...il the last year or so," Fenster said. "Although the Iraq
war was not directly related to the 9/11 attacks, people are now
looking back at 9/11 with much more skepticism than they used to."
Conspiracy-believing participants in the poll agree their suspicions
are recent.
"I certainly didn't think of conspiracies when 9/11 first happened,"
said Elaine Tripp, 62, of Tabernacle, N.J. "I don't know if President
Bush was aware of the exact time it was going to happen. But he
certainly didn't do enough to stop it. Bush was so intent on having
his own little war."
Garrett Johnson, 19, of Manassas, Va., said it was "well after the
fact" before he started questioning the official explanation of the
attacks. "But then people I know started talking about it. And the
Internet had a lot to do with this. After reading all of the different
articles there, I started to think we weren't being told the truth."
The Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University has tracked the
level of resentment people feel toward the federal government since
1995, starting shortly after Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal
building in Oklahoma City. Forty-seven percent then said they,
personally, feel "more angry at the federal government" than they used
to. That percentage dropped to 42 percent in 1997, 34 percent in 1998
and only 12 percent shortly after 9/11 during the groundswell of
patriotism and support for the government after the attacks.
But the new survey found that 77 percent say their friends and
acquaintances have become angrier with government recently and 54
percent say they, themselves, have become angrier _ both record
levels.
The survey also found that people who regularly use the Internet but
who do not regularly use so-called "mainstream" media are
significantly more likely to believe in 9/11 conspiracies. People who
regularly read daily newspapers or listen to radio newscasts were
especially unlikely to believe in the conspiracies.
"We know that there are a lot of people now asking questions," said
Janice Matthews, executive director of 911Truth.org, one of the most
sophisticated Internet sites raising doubts about official
explanations of the attacks. "We didn't have the Internet after Pearl
Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin or the Kennedy assassination. But we live
in different times now."
Matthews' Web site averaged 4,000 "hits" a day last year, but
currently has at least 12,000 visits every 24 hours. The site,
according to its online policy statement, is dedicated to showing the
public that "elements within the U.S. government must have
orchestrated or participated in the execution of the attacks for these
to have happened the way in which they did."
Participants in the poll were asked to respond to "several serious
accusations that some people have made against the federal government
in recent years." Five conspiracy theories were described and
participants were asked if each was "very likely, somewhat likely or
unlikely."
The level of suspicion of U.S. official involvement in a 9/11
conspiracy was only slightly behind the 40 percent who suspect
"officials in the federal government were directly responsible for the
assassination of President Kennedy" and the 38 percent who believe
"the federal government is withholding proof of the existence of
intelligent life from other planets."
The poll found that a majority of young adults give at least some
credence to a 9/11 conspiracy compared to less than a fourth of people
65 or older. Members of racial and ethnic minorities, people with only
a high school education and Democrats were especially likely to
suspect federal involvement in 9/11.
The survey was conducted by telephone from July 6-24 at the Scripps
Survey Research Center at the University of Ohio under a grant from
the Scripps Howard Foundation. The poll has a margin of error of 4
percentage points.
[Thomas Hargrove is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. Guido
H. Stempel III is director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at
Ohio University.]
=======================================
Email address of reporters and journalists working with major media outlets in the US and around the world.
Wolf Blitzer
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?2
Aaron Brown
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?3
Anderson Cooper
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?5
Lou Dobbs
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?7
Jeff Greenfield
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?8
Larry King
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?73
Judy Woodruff
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?18
Paula Zahn
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?19
Christiane Amanpour
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?1
Inside Politics
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?6
Crossfire
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?7
Wolf Blitzer Reports
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?8
Newsnight With Aaron Brown
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?13
The Capitol Gang
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?26
Paula Zahn Now
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?11
Larry King Live
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?12
Anderson Cooper 360
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?10
Lou Dobbs Tonight
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?9
ABC News
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAmerica/GMA_email_form.html
World News Tonight
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsTonight/WNT_newemail_form.html
Nightline
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/Nightline/Nightline_email_form.ht
ml
20/20 Downtown
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/Downtown/2020/Downtown_email_form.html
20/20
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/2020/2020friday_email_form.html
Primetime
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/2020/Primetime_email_form.html
World News Now
http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/WorldNewsNow/wnn_email_form.html
World News Sunday
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/WorldNewsSaturday/weekend_wnt_email_for
m.html
LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-dcbureau,0,4392320.htmlstory
- Interview: Blogger from Lebanon...Beirut stinks! — Wed Aug 2 15:32
- AUDIO CLIPS: 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes — Wed Aug 2 18:33
- 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes — Wed Aug 2 15:50
- Third of Americans suspect 9-11 government conspiracy — Wed Aug 2 17:53
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
