(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Few people in Canada and the United States are aware of a specific detail related to the 9/11 attacks, according to a two-country poll conducted by Angus Reid Strategies for CTV. Only 37 per cent of Canadian respondents—and just 14 per cent of American respondents—can accurately report that none of the terrorists who hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001 entered the U.S. from Canada.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Few people in Canada and the United States are aware of a specific detail related to the 9/11 attacks, according to a two-country poll conducted by Angus Reid Strategies for CTV. Only 37 per cent of Canadian respondents—and just 14 per cent of American respondents—can accurately report that none of the terrorists who hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001 entered the U.S. from Canada.
Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In July 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 concluded that "none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaeda plot" and pointed out government failures of "imagination, policy, capabilities, and management."
Afghanistan has been the main battleground in the war on terrorism. In October 2001, then U.S. president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan, claiming that there would be "no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them." The conflict began after the Taliban regime refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden without evidence of his participation in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
In July 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 established that none of the 19 al-Qaeda operatives had entered the U.S. from either Canada or Mexico.
Last month, during a television interview, U.S. homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano appeared to suggest that some of the 9/11 hijackers had entered the U.S. from Canada, saying, "To the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there. (…) Not just [the 9/11 hijackers] but others as well." Napolitano later claimed to have been "misunderstood."
Canada’s ambassador to the United States Michael Wilson responded to Napolitano’s statement, saying, "Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9/11 terrorists came from. As the 9/11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government, and no 9/11 terrorists came from Canada."
Polling Data
From what you may have seen, read or heard, how many of the terrorists who hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001 entered the United States from Canada?
|
CAN |
USA |
|
|
All of them |
4% |
11% |
|
Some of them |
38% |
29% |
|
None of them |
37% |
14% |
|
Not sure |
21% |
46% |
Source: Angus Reid Strategies / CTV
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,006 Canadian adults, conducted on Apr. 23 and Apr. 24, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent. Online interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted on Apr. 27 and Apr. 28, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
