WASHINGTON -- A poll of Iraqi public opinion, sponsored by a group with strong Democratic Party connections, is being portrayed by major news services as extremely bad news for the continuing U.S. occupation.

News accounts highlight negative findings such as:

• About six in 10 Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces.

• About seven in 10 want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year.

• Almost 80 percent say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.

Indeed, those were some of the findings of the poll and they are certainly not good news for the Pentagon and White House.

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But there are some silver linings getting little attention in the poll conducted earlier this month for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes. And many of those behind the organization conducting it have ties to past Democratic administrations and think-tanks known for opposing the war.

Overall 94 percent have an unfavorable view of al-Qaida, with 82 percent expressing a very unfavorable view. Of all organizations and individuals assessed in the poll, Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization received the most negative ratings.

Antipathy toward bin Laden's terrorists is near unanimous among Shiites (95 percent) and Kurds (93 percent). Even among his fellow Sunnis, 77 percent express unfavorable views of al-Qaida.

When the personality of bin Laden is measured, he doesn't do much better.

In addition, the new Iraqi army gets higher marks. One of the driving forces for wanting an early departure of U.S. troops may have to do with increasing confidence in Iraqi army forces – trained by Americans.

Pro-American leaders in Iraq fare better than those opposing American policy. Ayatollah Sistani, who has rejected Iranian meddling in Iraq, is supported by 95 percent of Shiites. Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki runs a strong second with 86 percent. But Muqtada but al Sadr, the Iranian-backed militia leader gets only 51 percent support.

Asked whether Iran is having a mostly positive or negative influence on the situation in Iraq, just 45 percent of Shiites say it is having a positive influence. Kurds and Sunnis are overwhelming negative about Iran.

Syria is also seen as a problem in Iraq. Most Shiites (68 percent) think Syria is having a negative influence. Most Kurds agree (63 percent). Sunnis are only slightly more positive, with 41 percent having a favorable view.

The board of advisers for the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the poll, includes Anthony Lake, national security adviser to President Clinton; I.M. Destler, formerly a senior associate at the liberal Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and at the liberal Brookings Institution; Alan Kay, a board member of the progressive Center for Defense Information and a commissioner of the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations; Gloria Duffy, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense and special coordinator for cooperative threat reduction in the Clinton administration; Bill Frenzel of the liberal Brookings Institution and a special adviser to Clinton on NAFTA; and Catherine Kelleher, a deputy assistant secretary of defense under Clinton who served on President Carter's national security council staff and a former senior fellow the Brookings Institution.

Among other studies the program has conducted was an October 2003 report showing how viewers of U.S. media – especially Fox News -- hold "misperceptions about American foreign policy." Some of those "misperceptions," however, turned out to be, at the very least, debatable – such as whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and whether Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaida.

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