Seventeen country opinion poll on who was responsible for Sept. 11 events...

[JackRiddler]

ACTUAL SURVEY QUESTION AND TABULATED RESULTS IN PDF
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/sep08/WPO_911_Sep08_quaire.pdf

Q1. As you know, on September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked. Who do you think was behind the 9/11 attacks?

(Open-ended responses were coded according to list below.)
Al Qaeda/Bin Laden/Islamic extremists
The US government
Israel
Other Arabs/Saudis/Egyptians
Other
DK/NS

GRAPHIC OF RESULTS:


ARTICLE
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/535.php?nid=&id=&pnt=535&lb=

International Poll: No Consensus On Who Was Behind 9/11
September 10, 2008

Questionnaire/Methodology (PDF)
Press Release (PDF)

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations finds that majorities in only nine of them believe that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

(Photo: Tamara Beckwith)

In no country does a majority agree on another possible perpetrator, but in most countries significant minorities cite the US government itself and, in a few countries, Israel. These responses were given spontaneously to an open-ended question that did not offer response options.

On average, 46 percent say that al Qaeda was behind the attacks while 15 percent say the US government, seven percent Israel, and seven percent some other perpetrator. One in four say they do not know.

Given the extraordinary impact the 9/11 attacks have had on world affairs, it is remarkable that seven years later there is no international consensus about who was behind them," comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Even in European countries, the majorities that say al Qaeda was behind 9/11 are not overwhelming. Fifty-six percent of Britons and Italians, 63 percent of French and 64 percent of Germans cite al Qaeda. However, significant portions of Britons (26%), French (23%), and Italians (21%) say they do not know who was behind 9/11. Remarkably, 23 percent of Germans cite the US government, as do 15 percent of Italians.

BRIEF ANALYSIS:

1) Excluding the DK's, the usual ratio seems to be 3 to 1 ratio of "al Qaeda" to "the US government."

2) Why wasn't the question posed in the United States?

3) Based on the PDF, only this one question was posed. Why? I also see no evidence of trying to gather info on the demographics.

4) What if they had included a follow-up question asking, "Do you believe al-Qaeda is largely the product of US intelligence operations?" Or what if they had followed up the first question with specific questions like,

"Do you believe the US investigations were adequate?"

"Do you believe American officials knew in advance what would happen and intentionally allowed it to happen?"

"Do you believe ________ (US or Qaeda or other candidate) was involved in orchestrating the attacks?"