Nation & World News
Misrepresentations help gather support for war
A study finds misconceptions
about the war in Iraq led to
popular support of the effort
By Frank Davies
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — A majority of
Americans have held at least one of
three mistaken impressions about the
U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to a new
study released Ihursday, and those mis
conceptions contributed to much of
the popular support for the war.
The three common mistaken im
pressions are that:
• U.S. forces found weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq.
• There's clear evidence that Iraqi
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President Saddam Hussein worked
closely with the Sept, 11 terrorists.
• People in foreign countries gener
ally either backed the U.S.-led war or
were evenly split between supporting
and opposing it.
Overall, 60 percent of Americans
held at least one of those views in
polls reported between January and
September by the Program on Inter
national Policy Attitudes based at the
University of Maryland in College
Park, and the polling firm, Knowl
edge Networks based in Menlo
Park, Calif.
"While we cannot assert that these
misconceptions created the support
for going to war with Iraq, it does ap
pear likely that support for the war
would be substantially lower if few
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346-4363 346-4191
er members of the public had these
misconceptions," said Steven Kull,
who directs Maryland's program.
In fact, no weapons of mass de
struction have been found in Iraq.
U S. intelligence has found no
clear evidence that Saddam was
working closely with al-Qaida or
was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks. Gallup polls found large
majorities opposed to the war in
most countries.
PIPA's seven polls, which included
9,611 respondents, had a margin of er
ror from 2 to 3.5 percent.
The analysis released Thursday
also correlated the misconceptions
with the primary news source of the
mistaken respondents. For example,
80 percent of those who said they re
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lied on Fox News and 71 percent of
those who said they relied on CBS
believed at least one of the three
misconceptions.
The comparable Figures were 47
percent for those who said they re
lied most on newspapers and maga
zines and 23 percent for those who
said they relied on PBS or National
Public Radio.
The reasons for the misconcep
tions are numerous, Kull and other
analysts said.
They noted that the Bush admin
istration had misstated or exaggerat
ed some of the intelligence findings,
with Bush himself saying in May:
"We found the weapons of mass de
struction ... alnd we'll find more as
time goes by."
The Bush administration has also
been a factor in persistent confusion.
Last month, for example, Bush
said there was no evidence that Sad
dam was involved in the Sept. 11 at
tack after Vice President Dick Ch
eney suggested a link. Cheney, in a
"Meet the Press" interview, had de
scribed Iraq as "the geographic base
of the terrorists who had us under
assault now for many years, but
most especially on 9-11."
Why some news audiences had
more accurate impressions than oth
ers was less clear. To review the study,
go to http://www.pipa.org
(cj 2003, knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
CIA leak investigation
could extend beyond
White House staffers
Politicians are calling
for Attorney General
John Ashcroft to distance
himself from the probe
By Shannon McCaffrey
and William Douglas
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — The criminal
probe into the leak of a CIA officer's
name could go beyond the White
House, as the Justice Department was
preparing Thursday to tell officials in
other federal agencies to preserve rele
vant documents and records.
Officials at federal agencies said
they were expecting letters from the
Justice Department urging them to
save e-mail, correspondence and
other documents that could pertain
to the investigation.
Word of the widening probe came
amid growing questions about the
close relationship between top politi
cal appointees at the Justice Depart
ment and the White House. Democ
rats have been calling for Ashcroft to
appoint a special counsel, saying his
relationship with President Bush and
Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove,
taint the prospects for an impartial
investigation.
Investigators hope to identify who
leaked to reporters the name of an
undercover CIA officer who's mar
ried to former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, after Wilson debunked a
claim in Bush's State of the Union
address that Iraq had tried to buy
uranium from Niger.
Disclosing the name of a CIA un
dercover operative is a felony.
At a news conference Thursday on
Capitol Hill, Sen. Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., called for Ashcroft to recuse
himself from the process.
Although the case is being handled
by seasoned career lawyers in the Jus
tice Department's counterespionage
section, Schumer said federal regula
tions required Ashcroft to sign off on
any subpoenas issued to members of
the media for telephone records, a
very real prospect in this probe
because of its focus on news leaks.
"This situation cries out for Attor
ney General Ashcroft to be as far away
as possible," Schumer said.
But he said possible conflicts went
deeper than Ashcroft and Rove, who
was hired as a political consultant for
three of Ashcroft's political campaigns
in Missouri, two for governor and one
forll.S. senator.
Acting Deputy Attorney General
Robert McCallum was inducted into
the secret Skull and Bones club at
Yale University with Bush. David Is
raelite, the Justice Department
deputy chief of staff, was political di
rector of the Republican National
Committee in 1999 and 2000. Solic
itor General Ted Olson was the lead
counsel for Bush during the Florida
election recount in 2000.
White House officials dismissed
Schumer's charges and reiterated
their faith in Ashcroft and Justice
Department staffers to conduct a fair
investigation.
(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. Knight Ridder
Newspapers correspondent James
Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.
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