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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (8133)	12/30/2005 10:43:56 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541299

Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis Look on the bright side. At the time of invasion, the number was much, much higher.

To: epicure who wrote (8133)	12/30/2005 11:13:18 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541299

My Dad's one of the people who is firmly convinced that Saddam and the 9/11 hijackers were in cahoots. He's a dentist, not a dummy. I pointed out that Bush and other top members of the Bush administration have stated repeatedly and publicly that this was not the case, and he said, sarcastically, throwing down the trump card, "well, if that's true, why did we invade Iraq?" Thought you'd find that . . . interesting. (My response: "Good question. Good question.")

To: epicure who wrote (8133)	12/31/2005 9:56:52 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 541299

Two days after 9/11, 78% of Americans thought Saddam had something to do with the attacks according to a WASHINGTON Post poll.... ....On Sept. 13, 2001, a Time/CNN poll found that 78 percent of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to have been personally involved in 9/11. ....By September 2002, a CBS News poll found that the percentage of the public that believed that Saddam was personally involved in 9/11 had dropped to 51 percent. By March of 2003, just prior to the invasion of Iraq, the CBS poll found that number had dropped to 45 percent... ....October [2004] the CBS News poll showed that 33% of those polled, including 25% of Democrats polled, still believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11th attacks. ....The polling data instead indicate that this belief [that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack] took root in public opinion directly after 9/11 and has diminished but not disappeared even in the face of evidence to the contrary..... Post Hoc Polling Data, Ergo Blame Bush Media Blog Stephen Spruiell Reporting Several readers have written in to comment on an exchange between FNC's Chris Wallace and Sen. Carl Levin on Sunday in which Wallace called out Levin for taking President Bush's pre-war statements about Iraq and al-Qaeda out of context. (Political Teen has the video) thepoliticalteen.net I was glad to see someone actually hold Levin accountable for this, but Wallace missed an opportunity to correct Levin on another point during this exchange: <<< WALLACE: Senator, if I can ask a question here, he specifically was asked at one point if there was any evidence that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, and he said no, there wasn't. And again, because — you know, we can go into all of these things, but that specific quote there where you say he couldn't distinguish between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein — he wasn't saying that they were linked at all. He was saying one was as bad as the other, and when he said in that same answer something about that Saddam Hussein would like to use a terrorist network, he wasn't saying that they would like to use Al Qaida. So you're making a link there that the president never made. LEVIN: He made the link so strong that the majority of the American people believed, when we went into Iraq, that Saddam Hussein had actually attacked us on 9/11. Where do you think the American people got that impression from except from their leaders? >>> When Levin is shown what Bush actually said (see video link above), he resorts to the rather weak argument that if public opinion polls showed that a majority of Americans believed that Saddam was personally involved in the 9/11 attacks, then the Bush administration must have caused that impression. Let's look at what the polls actually say. On Sept. 13, 2001, a Time/CNN poll found that 78 percent of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to have been personally involved in 9/11. On Sept. 16, 2001, Dick Cheney said this on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert: <<< MR. RUSSERT: Do we have evidence that he's harboring terrorists? VICE PRES. CHENEY: There is — in the past, there have been some activities related to terrorism by Saddam Hussein. But at this stage, you know, the focus is over here on al-Qaida and the most recent events in New York. Saddam Hussein's bottled up, at this point, but clearly, we continue to have a fairly tough policy where the Iraqis are concerned. MR. RUSSERT: Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation? VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. >>> By September 2002, a CBS News poll found that the percentage of the public that believed that Saddam was personally involved in 9/11 had dropped to 51 percent. By March of 2003, just prior to the invasion of Iraq, the CBS poll found that number had dropped to 45 percent — not a "majority" as Sen. Levin claimed. The argument to which Levin and others resort when shown the administration's actual statements in context — e.g. "polls show the public believed Saddam was behind 9/11, therefore the Bush administration must have misled the public" — contains a classic logical fallacy. What the polls really show is that the public's first instinct after 9/11 was to suspect Saddam — most likely because of his well-known pursuit and use of WMDs, his support of Palestinian suicide terrorism and his hatred of the United States. As the evidence against that thesis came out, the public's suspicion of Saddam's involvement waned but never fully subsided. Indeed, last October the CBS News poll showed that 33 percent of those polled, including 25 percent of Democrats polled, still believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11th attacks. The Bush administration's PR team is good, but I don't think it's that good. The polling data instead indicate that this belief took root in public opinion directly after 9/11 and has diminished but not disappeared even in the face of evidence to the contrary. (Big hat tip to George at Seixon.com. If you haven't read his vivisection of David Shuster's reporting on pre-war intelligence, do so as soon as you can.) media.nationalreview.com media.nationalreview.com whitehouse.gov pollingreport.com datanation.com seixon.com seixon.com washingtonpost.com