These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
51% Oppose Decision To Try Terrorists in New York City
Tuesday, November 16, 2009
Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters oppose the Obama administration's decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of voters favor the president's decision not to try the suspects by military tribunal at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba where they are now imprisoned. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure whether it was the right decision or not.
Only 30% of Americans said suspected terrorists should have access to U.S. courts, while 54% favored military tribunals in July 2008 , as the first such tribunal got under way at Guantanamo.
Still, 58% of voters now are at least somewhat confident that New York City will be safe and secure while the trials are going on. Yet only 20% are very confident of that fact. Thirty-eight percent (38%) are not very or not at all confident that New York will be safe during this period.
Most voters have consistently opposed moving any of the Guantanamo prisoners to prisons in the United States out of safety concerns .
Voters continue to overwhelmingly oppose giving the terrorist suspects the same legal rights in court as U.S. citizens. Only 14% say the suspects should be given the rights of citizens, but 76% disagree.
The decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and five other suspects in a Lower Manhattan courtroom near the site of the World Trade Center is part of the administration's plan to shut down the
Guantanamo terrorist prison camp by January. Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters oppose closing that facility, and 48% think it is unlikely it will be closed by January as President Obama has pledged .
When the president announced his decision to close the Guantanamo prison camp just after taking office in January, voters were evenly divided , but public support has been trending away from closing ever since.
While the president believes the prison camp established by his predecessor, George W. Bush, weakened national security, only 30% of Americans agree .
Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans and 56% of voters not affiliated with either major political party oppose trying the terrorist detainees in a civilian court. Democrats are more closely divided, with a plurality (46%) in favor of the administration's decision to treat the cases as criminal matters for trial in a civilian court.
Sixty percent (60%) of the Political Class think the terrorists suspects should be tried in a civilian court, while the identical number (60%) of Mainstream Americans disagree.
The Political Class Index is based on three questions. Political Class voters tend to trust political leaders more than the public at large and are far less skeptical about government. Mainstream voters are skeptical of both big government and big business.
Democrats and unaffiliated voters are much more confident than Republicans that New York City will be safe and secure during the trial of the suspected terrorists.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all voters say they have followed news stories about the decision to try the suspected terrorists in a civilian court at least somewhat closely. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say they have been following very closely. Only six percent (6%) are not following the news about the decision at all.
Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters agree with Attorney General Eric Holder's naming of a veteran prosecutor to probe the CIA's handling of terrorists during the Bush administration, but 49% are opposed to such an investigation .
Voter confidence in America's conduct of the War on Terror has fallen to its lowest level since the first week of January in 2007 . Largely unchanged for months is the view by 45% that America is safer today than before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree and say the country is not safer.
Sixty percent (60%) of voters nationwide say the recent massacre at Fort Hood, Texas should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act rather than by civilian authorities as a criminal act.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of Texas voters say Major Nadal Malik Hasan should receive the death penalty if he is convicted of the shootings at Fort Hood .
Only 16% of voters nationwide say America's relationship with the Muslim world will be better one year from now , despite the president's outreach to the global Islamic community. That's the lowest level measured all year.
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To view the original report, please use this link: This Will Be Trying