Washington Post-ABC News Poll

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone May 11, 2006 among 502 randomly selected adults nationwide. Margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus four percentage points. The practical difficulties of doing a survey in a single evening represent other potential sources of error in this or any other overnight poll. Fieldwork by TNS of Horsham, PA.

*= less than 0.5 percent

4. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling protecting Americans' privacy rights as the government investigates terrorism?

             Approve     Disapprove     No opinion
5/11/06        51           47               2

43. As it conducts the war on terrorism, do you think the United States government is or is not doing enough to protect the rights of American citizens?

                               Doing too      No
             Is     Is not     much (vol.)   opin.
5/11/06      53      45             *          1
3/5/06       46      51             1          2
6/5/05       50      46             1          2
9/7/03       69      28             *          3
12/15/02     61      35             *          3           
9/8/02       74      24             *          1
6/16/02      65      30             2          3

44. What do you think is more important right now - (for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy); or (for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats)?

            Investigate     Respect      No
             threats       privacy     opin. 
5/11/06        65             31         4
1/8/06         65             32         3
9/7/03*        73             21         5
9/8/02         78             18         4
6/9/02         79             18         3
*9/7/03 and previous: "FBI" rather than "federal government"

45. It's been reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. It then analyzes calling patterns in an effort to identify possible terrorism suspects, without listening to or recording the conversations. Would you consider this an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?

             ------- Acceptable ------   ----- Unacceptable ------    No   
             NET   Strongly   Somewhat   NET   Somewhat   Strongly   opin.
5/11/06      63       41         22      35       11         24        2

46. If you found out that the NSA had a record of phone numbers that you yourself have called, would that bother you, or not? IF YES: Would it bother you a lot, or just somewhat?

            -----------Yes------------
            NET     A lot     Somewhat     No     No opin.
5/11/06     34        24         10        66         *

47. Do you think it is right or wrong for the news media to have disclosed this secret government program?

            Right     Wrong     No opin.
5/11/06       56        42          1