Utahns recognize threat but refuse to be cowed

Utahns' attitudes toward terrorism mirror similar polls conducted nationally. The Deseret News poll found that 65 percent said recent terrorist attacks had shaken their own personal sense of safety and security, either somewhat or a great deal.

In a national poll conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide this month, 63 percent of Americans said their sense of personal safety and security were somewhat or greatly shaken by the events.

The Deseret News/KSL-TV poll found that 65 percent of Utahns believe that it is somewhat or very likely that terrorists will try to explode a nuclear bomb or use biological or chemical weapons in the United States.

The Wirthlin poll found that 68 percent of Americans believe it likely terrorists will explode a nuclear bomb, and 83 percent think it likely terrorists will use chemical weapons.

And what about moving the Winter Games to somewhere other than Utah or canceling them?

Forget about it. An overwhelming 85 percent of those questioned in the Deseret News/KSL-TV poll said Salt Lake City should definitely or probably still host the Winter Games.

That's up from 76 percent who felt that way in a survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates the day of the terror attacks.

Zvi A. Vapni, deputy consul general for the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, told the Deseret News the "Olympic Games have always been an attractive target to terrorists, like it or not." It is, he said, a fact of life.

But the United States should never consider canceling the Games because of that threat. "God forbid, no," Vapni said. "It's what they (terrorists) want."

The Deseret News/KSL-TV poll of 407 Utahns was conducted Sept. 26 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

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E-MAIL: spang@desnews.com