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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (263264)	6/12/2002 10:18:48 AM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 769667

In Poll, Americans Back Security Agency, New FBI Powers By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, June 11, 2002; Page A13 washingtonpost.com Most Americans support President Bush's plan to create a massive federal department to oversee homeland security, and a majority also favor giving the FBI broad new powers to investigate terrorism, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey found that seven in 10 Americans -- including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and political independents -- approve of the proposed Department of Homeland Security, which Bush described Thursday in a televised address. More than six in 10 also said they favor giving the FBI expanded authority to monitor public places as part of a broad effort to crack down on terrorism -- even though an equally large majority says such power likely would intrude on the privacy rights of individuals. Taken together, the survey suggests the president retains the confidence of a nation willing to accept a larger federal bureaucracy and some loss of personal freedoms in exchange for increased security from terrorism. At the same time, most Americans remain critical of the way federal intelligence agencies handled information about terrorist threats before Sept. 11. But they give high marks to the FBI and CIA for their performance since the attacks. The public is divided on whether the federal government knew enough in advance to prevent the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. Slightly more than four in 10 -- 42 percent -- said intelligence agencies had enough information to stop the attacks "if they'd been able to pull it together," while 53 percent said the intelligence was "too vague and incomplete," the survey found. A total of 1,004 randomly selected adults were interviewed Friday through Sunday for the survey. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The latest Post-ABC poll found that Bush's overall job approval rating remains strong. More than three in four Americans -- 77 percent -- say they approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents. Bush's proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security also has been greeted with bipartisan support. Overall, 69 percent of those interviewed said they approved of the president's plan, a view shared by more than six in 10 Democrats and independents and nearly nine in 10 Republicans. Three in four said the proposed department would improve the government's ability to prevent future terrorist attacks, though most expected only a modest improvement. By a 64 percent to 32 percent ratio, survey respondents said they supported new FBI guidelines that give agents broad authority to monitor public places such as libraries, churches and Internet chat rooms. This support was strong among Republicans, Democrats and independents. At the same time, six in 10 said the change in FBI policy "intrudes on the privacy rights of individuals," at least somewhat. But 79 percent said it was more important for the FBI to investigate possible terrorist threats than to avoid any invasion of personal privacy. The survey also found 71 percent of Americans remain critical of the way U.S. intelligence agencies handled information about possible terrorist threats before September 11. But nearly as many -- 67 percent -- said those agencies now do a good job analyzing and sharing information -- a confident view shared by majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents.