Land of Fear: Americans See Fourth of July Terror Likely

June 21, 2002

Half of Americans (57%) surveyed by TIME magazine and CNN believe a terrorist attack on the 4th of July is very or somewhat likely (13% and 44% respectively; 11% say "not at all likely," 27% say "not very likely"). Americans think that overall, the U.S. has risk of a terrorist attack is "high" (39%) or "significant" (29%).

Americans favor Tom Ridge over Rudy Giuliani to head a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. The current director of the office of Homeland Security gets 39% support, while New York City's former mayor gets 35%. (Nine percent say "neither," 17% are "not sure".)

Two-in-three (69%) want Congress to create the new cabinet-level department (23% do not). Americans believe the new department would make the U.S. more secure from future terrorist attacks (71% yes, 24%); make them more secure personally (58% yes, 37% no).

But many fear a new Department of Homeland Security would cost too much (57% yes, 35% no) and create too much bureaucracy (52% yes, 39% no).

Other poll results include:


MIDDLE EAST:

Two-thirds (66%) say Bush should offer his own peace plan (27% say no). Israel's decision to send in troops to re-occupy Palestinian territory makes it more difficult to achieve peace, according to 60% (28% said it would not be more difficult).

Americans are split on whether or not a Palestinian state should be created (40% favor, 35% oppose, 25% not sure).

They also are split on whether a Palestinian state would make peace more difficult to achieve (40% say yes, 44% say no).

Equal percentages of Americans consider themselves supporters of Israel (44%) and not supporters; 14% are unsure.

More say the U.S. provides Israel with the "right amount" of support (45%) than too much (35%).


U.S. POLITICS:

Bush's job approval rating is at 70% (down from a one-year high of 89% Oct. 12).
Important midterm election issues will be domestic, say 54% (30% chose foreign policy).


WORLD CUP SOCCER:

3 in 4 Americans are not following the event (72%) v. 26 percent who are following soccer.

Poll Results will appear in the upcoming issue of TIME, on newsstands Monday, June 24. The TIME/CNN survey was conducted by Harris Interactive by telephone among 1,003 adult Americans June 19-20, 2002. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.1%.

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