More On Zogby's Poll ... or Ploy?

Pollster John Zogby apparently hung up on Hugh Hewitt today. Read Hugh's piece here. It brought Information International of Beirut to my attention. So I thought I'd look into them. It was a bit surprising to find that the name has absolutely no indexing through Google News. One would think a reputable international polling organization would have been mentioned in at least one news article, particularly one the well-known pollster, Zogby, claims as a partner.

Some polling in Lebanon - conducted by Zogby International partner Information International of Beirut in October and November

And they rate only 65 total mentions on Google, which scours the web. So I had a look at a few.

here in a Robert Fisk article - More than 70 per cent of Arabs in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon believe that an American invasion of Iraq will increase "terrorist operations" and more than 15 per cent say there will be an attack on American forces "within days" of a US occupation, according to an opinion poll.

... But the poll, by Information International of Beirut, was professionally conducted and shows the degree of Arab opposition to a war and of the disillusion with the United States.

They are referenced in another Zogby article - Why Do They Hate Us, that reference being picked up in some number of term papers.

Some polling in Lebanon—conducted by Zogby International partner Information International of Beirut in October and November—revealed some disturbing currents in that nation. Though limited in scope and focused on one country, that poll demonstrated a deep alienation from and lack of empathy with the United States. A massive multi-country poll by the Gallup organization in early 2002 found much the same.

At first I thought that was it until I saw this:

The company's director, Jawad Adra, said: "There's always a link in the respondent's mind with the Palestinian issue. They cannot isolate any issue from the bias which is detected in US policy on the Palestinians."

So I search Jawad Adra and found the corporate site. Mr. Adra likes to write editorials.

“Us” and “Them” (Part 5 of 5): The sheikh’s turban and the cowboy’s hat, or morality and justice...?

Let us imagine that on the eve of the fall of the Soviet Union the so-called “free world”, instead of celebrating its ‘victory’ in mockery and vanity, decided to live up to its principles and declared a plan of action for a world free of nuclear weapons, pollution, hunger, poverty, disease, and yes, war.

Would we not all be feeling safer now? Had we not been told that overcoming all those challenges was postponed because of the “communist enemy”? Are we not justified in questioning why the free world has turned its back on Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Bangladesh and the hundreds of pockets of poverty in the world, and focused on Serbia, for example?

To understand both militant Islam and militant Christianity, one should not be confined to ideas and ideologies, but must examine interests. Militant Islam at one time served the interests of both western and local tyrants, and militant Christianity now serves special business and political interests. The path is clear for the Arab world; a separation of religion and state is a must towards democracy. In the United States, a separation of special interests from national interests in the making of foreign policy is also a must. As discussed in previous editorials, those two processes require reform on both sides.

We have been ruled for so long by the merchant and the bedouin under different hats (see Issue 22 for Part 2 of this editorial series). This time it is the cowboy’s hat and the sheikh’s turban. The world, however, is one; united “we” all must stand because “western” and “Arab” values are in essence, one. It is curious that in this age of dying ideologies, militancy is becoming one. The way it appears now, the dark future for the Arab world is a choice between ‘militant Islam’ or ‘American reform’; and for America, the choice is ‘militant Christianity’ or ‘ersatz reform’. Alternatives exist, but only if we take the path of structural reform, towards morality and justice.

To be fair to Mr. Adra, if you read a few of his editorials, you will find him to be a thoughtful man. And he seems to have no more regard for radical Islam, than, in his terms, radical Christianity. But two other critical factors emerge. This is an individual opposed to war. And Information International of Beirut has no significant body of work outside of Lebanon, if any at all.

You might want to see this poll in pdf, Download attack_on_America.pdf

And it is a poll, not Mr. Adra's opinions, I assume. It's called Attack on America and it appears to inform the Lebanese respondents that a high percentage of Americans favor attacking countries which harbor terrorists even if it entails the deaths of civilians and asks them if they agree. Sixty percent do not. It also shows that over thirty percent of respondents believe Israel was responsible for the World Trade Center attacks and they were America's fault due to our extreme policies.

There are only a few of their polls available in English. And they do provide an interesting look into the minds of the Lebanese. But I cannot for the life of me see one single qualification of Information International of Beirut which suggests they would be an appropriate choice to poll the US military, particularly while on the battlefield during a time of war. Nor could I find any work they've ever done in Iraq, unless of course it's in their larger body of work in Arabic.

Something here simply does not add up.

Comments

[MrsLevy]

You poor fool.

MrsLevy

[ronery]

"People never feel quite so alive as when the conscience has given them a green light to engage in sacrificial violence. Just ask the nazis. Ask the inquisitors. Ask the Islamists. And ask the crusading liberal media, who take so much moral satisfaction in instructing the grazing multitude on whom they may joyously burn at the stake.

This is why truth is the most important societal value. For virtually all wholesale violence is caused by a lie that sanctions the release of the primordial instinct to scapegoat, thereby temporarily unburdening the psyche of intolerable toxins. But, like a neurotic compulsion, the ritual drama must be enacted over and over again, because it is rooted in magic, not reality."

http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2005/10/ritual-scapegoating-and-holy-liberal.html

__________________

"We have not seen a single jew blow themself up in a German restaurant." - Wafa Sultan, Arab American psychologist - free woman.

Al Jazeera, Feb. 2006

__

"Government is not the enemy, for it is ordained of God. The enemy to freedom is tyrannical government that presumes to take the place of God." - Patrick Henry

[Rick Moran]

Dan:

Great stuff on the Zogby poll. Chris at MYDD is asking for trouble, I think, if he's serious about commissioning a poll conducted by a reputable pollster. And Zogby's explanations about why he can't reveal his methodology is pretty strange.

Again, great job on digging into the Lebanese polling company.

Rick Moran

[Dan]

Thanks, Rick.