Personal experience doesn't really help with understanding something like this, so the fact that no one you know has said anything in support of this idea doesn

Personal experience doesn't really help with understanding something like this, so the fact that no one you know has said anything in support of this idea doesn't mean that it's not widely believed. At the time of the war, as many as 70% (!) of Americans believed that Saddam was responsible for 9/11, and since then the number has slowly declined to the mid-20s (with a weird period where the number increased around 2007). For a falsehood that, as you say, is ridiculously unsupported. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-po... http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Poll_41_of_Americans_believe_Saddam_0624.html http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Poll_41_of_Americans_believe_S... http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501863_162-3253552.html http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-501863_162-3253552.html http://themoderatevoice.com/121921/ten-years-later-belief-in-iraq-connection-with-911-attack-persists/ http://themoderatevoice.com/121921/ten-years-later-belief-in... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein_and_al-Qaeda_link_allegations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein_and_al-Qaeda_lin... The ridiculousness degree to which the American public grasped onto this false belief eventually led to the meme that 20% of Americans will believe any old thing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/one-in-five-americans-believe_n_691843.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/one-in-five-america... And of course: http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-1-in-5-americans-believe-obama-is-a-cactus,18127/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-1-in-5-americans-belie...