Poll: Terror Threat Is Not Overstated

June 17 -- Americans are more apt to believe the administration is understating rather than overstating the threat of future terrorism, a sign of the anxiety fueling the public's demand for vigorous counterterrorism efforts.

Only 12 percent in an ABCNEWS.com poll believe the administration is overstating the risks, regardless of suggestions that Attorney General John Ashcroft may have exaggerated the threat allegedly posed by Jose Padilla, accused of plotting with al Qaeda.

Instead, a plurality, 45, percent, thinks the government is accurately describing the level of threat. And 39 percent believe it's actually understating the risks.

Detention Better Than Trials

In cases such as Padilla's — a U.S. citizen charged with planning an al Qaeda attack — a modest majority supports military detention rather than a criminal trial. This grows to a broader preference for detention if the government says a trial would jeopardize sensitive intelligence.

Padilla was arrested in Chicago in May on charges he was part of an al Qaeda plot to detonate a "dirty bomb" — a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material — in the United States. The administration has said the military will hold him, without trial or access to a lawyer, as an "illegal combatant." That's expected to be challenged in court.

In this poll, 54 percent agree that someone in Padilla's circumstances should be held by the military rather than being tried in the civilian courts; 42 percent prefer a court trial. (The question did not state the administration's position.) If the authorities maintain that a trial would compromise intelligence, support for military detention rises to 67 percent.

Rights vs. Safety

While civil rights watchdogs have raised alarms about measures such as the Padilla detention and expanded FBI surveillance authority, two-thirds of Americans say they believe the government is doing enough to protect the rights of U.S. citizens.

That's in accord with previous ABCNEWS polling, in which majorities have given their highest priority to deterring terrorism, even at the expense of limited intrusions on personal rights.