The international study was conducted between July 15 and Aug. 31 among 16,063 respondents in 17 nations. Out of all the countries polled, Turkey had the largest number of people citing the US government as the perpetrator of the attacks, followed by Mexico at 30 percent. Thirty-nine percent in Turkey pointed to al-Qaeda as the attacker.
The public opinion survey found that majorities in only nine countries believe that al- Qaeda was behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. On average, 46 percent of respondents from the 17 nations say al-Qaeda was behind the attacks, while 15 percent say the US government was the real perpetrator, followed by Israel (7 percent) or some other source (7 percent). One in four people say they have no idea.
The poll was conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a collaborative research project involving research centers from around the world and managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. Margins of error range from +/-3 to 4 percent.
The survey also found that nations in the Middle East were more inclined to point to a perpetrator other than the terrorist group al-Qaeda. In Egypt 43 percent say Israel was behind the attacks, as do 31 percent in Jordan and 19 percent in the Palestinian territories. The US government is named by 36 percent of Turks and 27 percent of Palestinians. The numbers who say al-Qaeda was behind the attacks range from 11 percent in Jordan to 42 percent in the Palestinian territories.
The 17 participating locations were China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, the Palestinian territories, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine. The surveyors shared the following other points about the study in their press release: "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."
"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," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.
The only countries with overwhelming majorities citing al-Qaeda are the African nations of Kenya (77 percent) and Nigeria (71 percent). In Nigeria, a large majority of Muslims (64 percent) also say al-Qaeda was behind the attacks (compared to 79 percent of Nigerian Christians). The pollsters also observed that there was a strong correlation between beliefs about Sept. 11 and respondents' attitudes about the United States. Those with a positive view of US influence in the world, the study said, are more likely to cite al-Qaeda (on average 59 percent) than those with a negative view (40 percent). Those with a positive view of the United States are also less likely to blame the US government (7 percent) than those with a negative view (22 percent).
New York police transformed since Sept. 11 attacks
Nearly seven years after terrorists took down the World Trade Center's twin towers, New York police officials have embarked on an ambitious plan to secure the new development that is finally sprouting at the lower Manhattan site.
But a repeat of the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001 is only one of a long list of worries that have prompted the New York Police Department to spend the last several years reinventing itself as an intelligence and homeland security agency.
The largest US police department, with about 37,000 officers, has spent tens of millions of dollars -- much it from federal grants -- on an array of high-tech security measures designed to thwart threats potentially more daunting than another attack on a downtown skyscraper. It has also assigned 1,000 officers to counterterrorism duty, including 10 detectives posted around the globe who collect and share intelligence.
Overall, it is an effort unmatched by any other city in the United States, and perhaps the world.
"We've made major changes in this organization since Sept. 11," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a recent interview. "I think they're working. But it's still very much a work in progress." David Cohen -- a former CIA official brought aboard after Sept. 11 to head the NYPD's intelligence division -- said the department has identified more than a dozen serious plots against the city in the past seven years that were either interrupted or abandoned, including some that haven't become public.
Among those that have come to light: a planned cyanide attack on the subways by al-Qaeda operatives that authorities say was called off in 2002; another aborted al-Qaeda plot to destroy the iconic Brooklyn Bridge in 2003; a local scheme to blow up a midtown subway station in 2004, resulting in the arrest and conviction of a Pakistani immigrant; and a plot to bomb underwater train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan, which was broken up in 2006 by several arrests overseas.
For terrorists, attacking New York City "is marbled into their thought process," Cohen said. "If you want to get into the major leagues in the terrorism business, you come here." New York AP
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World
