Since you clearly don't want to read the actual poll, let me supply some highlights for you. These results don't sound like they're coming from people too terrified to speak their minds.
Doug
Here is one input from one of those from that part of the world, who is not terrified to speak his mind.
Fuck you Americans!
Get out of our part of the world!
Immediately!
Sabri
If you write something like that for a newspaper in Iraq, the occupier will ban the newspaper, put it out of business, fine you and arrest you and your colleagues. Under such conditions, you can't trust any Western opinion polls of Iraqis to reflect Iraqi opinions accurately, for Iraqis can't speak their minds freely:
***** U.S.-Led Coalition Shuts Down Iraq Paper By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer Published: March 29, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The U.S.-led coalition on Sunday shut down a weekly newspaper run by followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric, saying its articles were increasing the threat of violence against occupation forces.
Hours after the closure of Al-Hawza, more than 1,000 supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated peacefully in front of the newspaper's offices, decrying what they called a crackdown on freedom of expression.
Dozens of U.S. soldiers arrived at the Al-Hawza newspaper offices Sunday morning and closed its doors with chains and locks, sheik Abdel-Hadi Darraja said in front of the one-story house.
Darraja is a representative of al-Sadr, who lives in the southern holy city of Najaf and has been an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led occupation, but has not called for armed attacks.
A coalition letter in Arabic, signed by top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and handed to employees at the newspaper, said the paper's articles "form a serious threat of violence against coalition forces and Iraqi citizens who cooperate with coalition authorities in rebuilding Iraq."
The paper will close for 60 days, the statement said.
A coalition spokesman confirmed the 60-day closure, saying several articles "were designed to incite violence against coalition forces and incite instability" in Iraq.
The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said any violation of the closure could lead to the imprisonment of newspaper employees for up to one year and a fine of up to $1,000.
On Feb. 26, an article in Al-Hawza claimed that a suicide bombing two weeks earlier that targeted the mostly Shiite town of Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, was a rocket "fired by an (American) Apache helicopter and not a car bomb." The attack killed 53 people.
In the same edition an article was titled "Bremer follows the steps of Saddam," and criticized coalition work in Iraq.
"This is what happens when an Iraqi journalist expresses his opinion," said the white-turbaned Darraja.
"What is happening now is what used to happen during the days of Saddam. No freedom of opinion. It is like the days of the Baath," said Hussam Abdel-Kadhim, 25, a vendor who took part in the demonstration, referring to the Baath Party that ruled Iraq for 35 years until Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago.
In July, the coalition announced the closure of a Baghdad newspaper and the arrest of its office manager. The statement said Al-Mustaqila, which means "The Independent" in Arabic, published an article on July 13 calling for "death to all spies and those who cooperate with the U.S." It said killing them was a religious duty.
Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer , Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
<http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000474025> *****
***** Ban on a newspaper angers Iraqis Jeffrey Gettleman NYT Monday, March 29, 2004
BAGHDAD American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper and padlocked the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.
Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing on Sunday as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "No, no, America!" and "Where is democracy now?" screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly. The rally drew thousands in central Baghdad, where masses of angry Shiite men squared off against a line of American soldiers who arrived to seal off the area. The protest ended peacefully as night came. The closing of the paper reflected the struggle by the American authorities to strike a balance between their two main goals, encouraging democracy and maintaining stability, as the days wind down to the June 30 target date for handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people.
But security seems increasingly elusive. On Sunday, the Iraqi public works minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Mosul in which a driver and a guard were killed, and two non-Iraqi security guards, a Briton and a Canadian, were shot and killed nearby in front of a power plant.
Many Iraqis said that closing down a popular newspaper at such a critical time would not curtail antioccupation feelings but only inflame them.
"When you repress the repressed, they only get stronger," said Hamid al-Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a prominent Shiite political party. "Punishing this newspaper will only increase the passion for those who speak out against the Americans."
The American authorities said the newspaper may reopen in 60 days. The paper's editors, however, said they had been essentially put out of business.
Among Iraqi journalists, Al Hawza was known for printing wild rumors, especially anti-American ones. The paper is considered a mouthpiece for Moktada al-Sadr, a fiery young Shiite cleric and one of the most outspoken American critics.
The letter ordering the paper closed, signed by L. Paul Bremer 3rd, the top administrator in Iraq, cited what the American authorities called several examples of false reports in Al Hawza, including a February dispatch that said the cause of an explosion that killed more than 50 Iraqi police recruits was not a car bomb, as occupation officials had said, but an American missile.
Under a law passed by the occupying authorities last June, a news organization's license can be revoked if it publishes or broadcasts material that incites violence or civil disorder or "advocates alterations to Iraq's borders by violent means."
The New York Times
<http://www.iht.com/articles/512383.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
