[Peace-discuss] People we should be talking to

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The anti-war movement should address these opinions and build upon 
them, instead of ignoring them.  It was said at the beginning of the 
last century in Europe that anti-Semitism was the socialism of fools: 
today conspiracism may be principally foolish anti-imperialism -- we 
should try to show the flies the way out of this particular fly-bottle. 
  --CGE]


<http://www.newspolls.org/story.php?story_id=55>

HEADLINE: "Anti-government anger spawns 9/11 conspiracy belief"
WRITER/REPORTER(s): Thomas Hargrove and Guido H. Stempel III

SOURCE: Scripps Howard News Service

DATE: August 2, 2006

BODY: 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 public 
until 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.

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