One in Three in Poll Still Think Saddam Was Involved in 9/11

By E&P Staff
Editor and Publisher
Sep. 24, 2006

NEW YORK A New York Times/CBS survey released two days ago drew fairly wide attention for some of its big-issue results, concerning the president's approval rating, the party most favor in the November elections, what should be done about Iraq, and so forth.

But, as always, drilling deep into the questions -- available in PDF form -- proves especially valuable.

Who could guess, for example, amid pundit claims that most Americans favor harsh treatment of detainees abroad to help the war on terror, that 56% in the poll say that torture is always wrong and only 35% say it might "sometimes" be acceptable? By 63% to 32% they favor following international agreements on torture and not our own rules. And 49% want public criminal charges for terrorists as opposed to 46% favoring secret military proceedings.

One of the more amazing results, though much in line with other surveys, is that almost one in three still say that Saddam Hussein "was personally involved" in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Two other national polls in recent weeks found much the same, or even a higher number, with upwards of two in three Republicans holding this view.

The Times/CBS finding that 31% still feel this way is remarkable in that a good deal of attention has been paid to this issue this month, around the fifth anniversary of the attacks, with President Bush himself stating, more or less clearly, that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. Yet that 31% figure is actually 2% higher than in Feburary -- and matches a result from 2004.

Other deeply buried results: 52% say that the Iraqis want the U.S. to leave Iraq; and only 42% feel that the terrorist threat to the U.S. would increase if we left Iraq right now.

Was this a Democrat-weighted poll? Some 7% more said they voted for Bush over Kerry and professed Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 2-1.