Who Was Behind 9/11?

International Poll: No Consensus On Who Was Behind 9/11 - World Public Opinion

On September 11, 2001, 19 young men from foreign countries effected the horrific Attack on America.


The attackers, three groups of 5 and one group of 4, hijacked American planes which had taken off from American airports, and flew them into iconic American buildings. The sole exception was the group which attempted to hijack Flight 93, which was overcome by a counter-attack by passengers on the plane.

That airplane augured into a field near Shanksville, PA. Its target was never definitively identified, although some suggested that it was intended to destroy a Federal Building in Washington, D.C. -- perhaps either the White House or the Capital Building.

We will never know for certain, but one thing is sure: the successful attacks turned the Twin Towers in New York City into smouldering grey heaps of rubble and billowing clouds of concrete dust; and one quadrant of The Pentagon into a funeral pyre.

On this, the 7th anniversary of the vicious and cowardly surprise attack, we know only a few certifiable facts. Primary among these facts is the identity of the perpetrators, who were all fanatics of the radical Wahhabi [cf] sect of the Muslim religion, and their motivation was to deal a blow to the United States of America, which they considered "The Great Satan". (And you can believe as much of Wikipedea as you like.)

But a recent poll by worldpublicopinion.org suggest that not all -- in fact, not even half -- of the World Community accepts this interpretation of events as fact.

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.

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.

In fact, in some countries less than a third of the polled residents believe that Islamists were behind the attack.

Some do believe that Al Queda was the villain. A large number believe that the United States Government deliberately destroyed its own public buildings for a variety of nefarious reasons (which do not explain the failure of Flight 93 to cause destruction to the American infrastructure).

A significant number think that Israel was the author of the American Tragedy, presumably to encourage Americans to 'hate' Islaam.

A varying percentage of polled respondents said they "Don't Know' (DK), and a smaller fraction suggested that "other" agencies were to blame.

On this sad day, there remains (in Europe and the Middle East) a large number of people who think the United States Government has pursued some arcane agenda and slaughtered almost 3,000 (and it could easily been ten times as many fatalities) of its own citizens for the sole purpose of discrediting Islam.

And even more people, world-wide, are unconvinced by the evidence of the religion of the authors ... they just "Don't Know" (DK) if that's significant.


H/T: Geek with a .45 -- see the comments section