Poll shows many Germans see U.S. behind Sept 11

Reuters ^ | 23 Jul 2003 15:18:43 GMT

[Frances_Marion]

Young Germans have taken their brainwashing by their leftist government well....they pretty much believe whatever their socialist gov and press tell them.

[cwb]

"The news is controlled," 17-year old Kenny Donaubaur was quoted as saying. "You could see that in the Iraq war. It doesn't seem to me thet you get the full truth."

This is the only statement I could find to agree with. Unfortunatley, poor Kenny is looking at it from the wrong side. It's amazing that a country that made propaganda an art form, is pointing fingers at others.

[attiladhun2]

Germany is about 10% Turkish Muslim.

[AnalogReigns]

According to the official stats, something about 30 million are under 30 in Germany (total population 84 million)--and of that about 4.5 million are foreign born. So about 15 percent of the age bracket are foriegn...and we can estimate at least 95% of those are Middle Eastern or Turkish Moslems.

We know that wild compiracy theories, usually virulently anti-Semitic, are regularly printed and debated about in the Moslem world...so a probable guess is that 90% at least of those under 30 usually under-educated Islamic immigrants in Germany believe the conspiracy theories about 9/11.

This would skew the results a bit eh? This would mean that of native Germans under 30, really closer to 15% (not 31%) believe the conspiracy theories.... Convincing lunacy can always garner something over 10% (Perot got what,a vote of 19%?) so this doesn't have me too worried. I'd be willing to bet a number of those native Germans are from the East too--still very suspicious and naive of the West generally and the US in particular.

Germans better worry though about the effect of gullible undereducated immigrants on their population however.

[McGavin999]

What a sick bunch of people. We should have let them all starve. Look at the sick, twisted people they've produced.

[attiladhun2]

Commies, NeoNazies, and Islamofacist terrorists dredge the human cesspools composed of dumbsh*ts who believe in cabals and conspiracy theories.

[americanbychoice1]

Well, the Europeans hate us because they are envious of the life we lead. They won't stop until we become a socialist country and share our wealth with them. I read the German papers every day just to get my adrenalin going. The Anti- americanism is outrageous, nothing we, as americans are doing is right. Last week one of the headlines in "Der stern.de" Highlighted the 10 Lies of the american administration and Blair. They try to destroy everyone from Bush to Powell, to anyone connected with this administration. They highlight Fischer's visit to the US as very successful and warned that the US better listen to them or else..... Even Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton are not immune. Armstrong is scared of Ullrich. The injury sustained by Hamilton is just a cheap American propaganda act. etc., etc.
I am so sick of the Europeans, especially the Germans, French and Belgians.
I do believe, we should give a tax incentive to our american firms in Europe to come home. It sure would increase Tax revenue and employment and Give the Euro's what they deserve, go to the dustbin of history.
Possibly the Euros should see their proctologists to demand a lobotomy, maybe that would cure some of their ills?
With the new Constitution they are trying to push through, they will have a revolution within 15 years. The people will revolt again against the ruling aristocracy. At least one of the few bright spots.
The Master race will never stop until they rule the world. Yeah right.

[spectacularbid2003]

Germany's demographics below:

http://www.kmike.com/country/gmdemog.htm

Germany
Population: 83,029,536 (July 2001 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 15.57% (male 6,635,328; female 6,289,994) 15-64 years: 67.82% (male 28,619,237; female 27,691,698) 65 years and over: 16.61% (male 5,336,664; female 8,456,615) (2001 est.)

Ethnic groups: German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Serbo-Croatian, Italian, Russian, Greek, Polish, Spanish)

Religions: Protestant 38%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 1.7%, unaffiliated or other 26.3%

[austinTparty]

To wit, from your link:

Wer saß am Steuerknüppel der Maschinen, die ins World Trade Center stürzten? Krachte wirklich eine Passagiermaschine ins Pentagon oder wurde das Verteidigungsministerium durch etwas ganz anderes beschädigt? Wurden die Todesmaschinen wirklich von arabischen Kamikazepiloten gesteuert?

(translation) Who sat at the steering wheel of the machines that dove into the World Trade Center? Did a passenger airplane really crash into the Pentagon, or was the Defense Ministry damaged by something completely different? Were the machines of death really piloted by Arab kamikaze pilots?

Sick. Sick. Sick. Reminds me of the WSJ column about the French book along the same lines, with the response "It happened. I saw it. I was there."

[Melpomene]

I guess we can't excpet this sort of support from them anymore:

At sea aboard USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81), Sept. 14, 2001 - The officers and crew of the German destroyer GFS Lutjens (D-185), say goodbye and render honors to USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) by lining the rails in their Dress Blues as they came alongside the ship at sea. The German Sailors, who had become good friends with many of the crew on board Churchill, were flying an American flag at half mast and had hung a homemade banner that read, "We Stand By You." The ships had been conducting joint exercises off the coast of the United Kingdom prior to the terrorist attack on the United States on Sepbember 11th. Official U.S. Navy photo by LT Mike Elliot.

[Salem]

I have learned over the last year a basic axiom of current geo-political truth is: Don't underestimate the stupidity of Germans and Frenchmen in large numbers.

[BMCDA]

Sick. Sick. Sick.

Indeed. I think all conspiracy theorists have some major malfunction but these ones are just over the top :(

[longjack]

Here's a quick translation of a blurb about this in Germany's "Spiegel":

It has some demographics re: East / West. The new states are the former East Germany

---

Survey About September 11

One in five believes in U.S. conspiracy

Who was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001? Was it really Osama bin Laden's terror organization Al Qaida? Quite a number of federal citizens suspect that the U.S. government could have ordered the attacks.

Hamburg - 19 per cent of Germans regard it as possible that the U.S. government itself ordered the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. This was the result of a survey published on Wednesday which was contracted by "Die Zeit".

For the less than 30-year-old age group it's even every third person. The interview produced clear differences for East and West Germany: In the old federal states only 16 per cent believe in such a conspiracy, in the new states it's up to 29 per cent.

68 per cent of all Germans feel not completely informed about the true details of the attack, its actually 78 per cent for the less than 30-year-olds.

For the representative survey the polling institute Forsa questioned 1000 men and women.

Longjack

"Der Spiegel"..Jeder Fünfte glaubt an US-Verschwörung

[Huck]

Not hard to imagine that Germans formerly under the Soviet yoke would be more prone to wild conspiracy theories. In their experience, the conspiracies were real. I have talked to people who lived under that regime. Their goons and spies reached every boy and girl. Truly a sick and evil place.

[knighthawk]

I feel the urgent need to post a Dutch joke about Ze Germans:

A Belgian, a Dutchman and a German are captured by Saddam Hussein. They will recieve punishment, 25 beatings with a stick. But because Saddam is in a good mood, they may each make a wish.

The Belgian is first. He askes for a pillow strapped to his back, so he won't feel much of the beating.

It helps a bit, but he still feels a lot of pain.

The German is smarter. He wishes for a mattrass tied to his back. Because of the mattrass he doesn't feel a thing of the beatings. He even laughs!

Now it's the Dutchman's turn. But Saddam says, because he likes Dutch people so much, he may have two wishes.

So the Dutchman speaks his first wish: "I want 100 beatings with the stick!"

Saddam says that he is crazy, but his wish will be granted. Before the beating the Dutchman askes for his second wish.

Saddam askes "What is it?"

The Dutchman says: "Before you start to beat me, I want the German to be tied to my back!"

[Lazamataz]

Almost one in three Germans below the age of 30 believes the U.S. government may have sponsored the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington

Barney Frank: "It's TWOO! It's TWOO!"

[Movemout]

Kristallnacht was a Zionist conspiracy to rid themselves of six million of their brethern. I am of German descent and I have lived in Germany for three years plus. My conclusion is that Deutchlanders are a legend in their own mind.

An interesting sidebar:

During the latter portion of WWII the German general staff could not understand how Stalin was outproducing Germany in the diesel engine arena. Especially since Germans were high tech for their time and the Soviets had been punished militarily by German forces. The answer to their question was a matter of how their thinking differed. The German engineers produced pistons and cylinders with very precision oriented manufacturing procedures. Pistons and cylinders that were outside the described requirements were discarded as defective.

OTOH, the Soviets produced pistons and cylinders with a very broad range of tolerance in the manufacturing process. They then matched pistons and cylinders that worked well. Voila, their production dwarfed the inimitable and high tech Germans. I laugh every time I recall this little difference in production philosophy.

[Prodigal Son]

Wow, actually that's pretty good. Practically all democrats think the US was behind 9/11. The Germans seem very sane in comparison.

[Consort]

Sounds like Strudel Syndrome.

[Prodigal Son]

The Blame America First crowd here in the US holds opinions indistinguishable from the Germans--and probably the rest of Old Europe.

Yep, and given that they're Americans, it makes their views even more extreme than that of a foreigner.