Outspoken Native American Activist
Prof Being Harrassed for 911-Attack Views
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Prof quits chair over 9/11
By Howard Pankratz
Denver Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
denverpost.com
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, criticized for comparing victims of the September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center to Nazis, resigned Monday as chair of the school's ethnic-studies department.
Todd Gleeson, dean of CU-Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences, accepted the resignation. Churchill will continue to teach in the department of ethnic studies.
"I believe it is in the best interests of both the university and professor Churchill that he step away from his administrative role in the department at this time," Gleeson said. Churchill's term as department chair was to expire in June.
His salary will drop to $94,242 from $114,032, said Pauline Hale, a CU spokeswoman.
In his letter to Gleeson, Churchill said that he is proud of his administrative accomplishments but that the present political climate made him a liability in representing his department and the university as an administrator.
He had compared the World Trade Center victims to "little Eichmanns," after Adolf Eichmann, who managed the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews.
Earlier Monday, Churchill said in a statement issued through his wife, Natsu Saito, that he hadn't compared all of the World Trade Center victims to Nazis, just the "technicians" who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I have never characterized all the Sept. 11 victims as Nazis. What I said was that the 'technocrats of empire' working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of 'little Eichmanns.' Thus, it was obviously not directed to the children, janitors, food-service workers, firemen and random passers-by killed in the 9-1-1 attack," Churchill said.
Churchill said he isn't a "defender" of the Sept. 11 attacks but simply pointed out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, "we cannot feign innocence when some of the destruction is returned."
In the essay "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," Churchill said the Pentagon was a military target, "pure and simple."
"As to those in the World Trade Center ... Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire - the 'mighty engine of profit' to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved."
Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., wasn't satisfied with Churchill's clarification.
"There were no legitimate targets for the 9/11 attacks. Thousands of innocent people were killed in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania. There is no way to rationalize those attacks," Pacheco said.
Churchill is scheduled to speak on a panel Thursday at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., where his comments have upset students, residents and relatives of 9/11 victims.
Kathy Trant, whose husband, Dan, died in the attacks, plans to confront Churchill when he speaks in New York on Thursday.
Dan Trant was a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees.
"I want to ask him why he feels the way he does," Kathy Trant said Monday. "It is just hurtful, and I think this man is looking for attention."
Richard Pecorella, whose fiancée, Karen Juday, was an administrative assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald, said he is outraged.
"I feel it is almost defamation of character of these people," he said Monday. "This is not an ethnic issue or freedom-of-speech issue. This is someone outright saying these people deserved to be murdered because they worked for corporate America. And he compares them to Nazis; that's outrageous."
Churchill's comments have brought calls for apologies and demands that he be fired.
He lashed out at recent media coverage of his essay, saying it had resulted in death threats and defamation of character.
Shoba S. Rajgopal, an instructor in the ethnic-studies department, said Churchill's resignation isn't pleasing everyone.
"He's very sad the whole department is being dragged down by this," she said. "He did not want the whole department tarnished. A lot of students are upset about him stepping down. I suppose there are students who feel the other way, too."
Speaking Monday night, New York Gov. George Pataki said he would tell Hamilton College officials they made a mistake in inviting Churchill.
"I am appalled first that this person with such a warped sense of right and wrong and of humanity teaches at a higher education institution anywhere in America," the Republican governor said. "But I am equally, or perhaps even more, appalled that Hamilton College in this state has invited that person to participate in a forum. It is wrong. There is a difference between freedom of speech and inviting a bigoted terrorist supporter."
Staff writer Dave Curtin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
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Text of Churchill statement
Tuesday, February 01, 2005 denverpost.com
Here is the text of a statement distributed to the media Monday on behalf of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill. Spelling and punctuation have been left unaltered.
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Press Release - Ward Churchill January 31, 2005 In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been.
* The piece circulating on the internet was developed into a book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. Most of the book is a detailed chronology of U.S. military interventions since 1776 and U.S. violations of international law since World War II. My point is that we cannot allow the U.S. government, acting in our name, to engage in massive violations of international law and fundamental human rights and not expect to reap the consequences.
* I am not a "defender"of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. I have never said that people "should" engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy. As Martin Luther King, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."
* This is not to say that I advocate violence; as a U.S. soldier in Vietnam I witnessed and participated in more violence than I ever wish to see. What I am saying is that if we want an end to violence, especially that perpetrated against civilians, we must take the responsibility for halting the slaughter perpetrated by the United States around the world. My feelings are reflected in Dr. King's April 1967 Riverside speech, where, when asked about the wave of urban rebellions in U.S. cities, he said, "I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed . . . without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government."
* In 1996 Madeleine Albright, then Ambassador to the UN and soon to be U.S. Secretary of State, did not dispute that 500,000 Iraqi children had died as a result of economic sanctions, but stated on national television that "we" had decided it was "worth the cost." I mourn the victims of the September 11 attacks, just as I mourn the deaths of those Iraqi children, the more than 3 million people killed in the war in Indochina, those who died in the U.S. invasions of Grenada, Panama and elsewhere in Central America, the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, and the indigenous peoples still subjected to genocidal policies. If we respond with callous disregard to the deaths of others, we can only expect equal callousness to American deaths.
* Finally, I have never characterized all the September 11 victims as "Nazis." What I said was that the "technocrats of empire" working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of "little Eichmanns." Adolf Eichmann was not charged with direct killing but with ensuring the smooth running of the infrastructure that enabled the Nazi genocide. Similarly, German industrialists were legitimately targeted by the Allies.
* It is not disputed that the Pentagon was a military target, or that a CIA office was situated in the World Trade Center. Following the logic by which U.S. Defense Department spokespersons have consistently sought to justify target selection in places like Baghdad, this placement of an element of the American "command and control infrastructure" in an ostensibly civilian facility converted the Trade Center itself into a "legitimate" target. Again following U.S. military doctrine, as announced in briefing after briefing, those who did not work for the CIA but were nonetheless killed in the attack amounted to no more than "collateral damage." If the U.S. public is prepared to accept these "standards" when the are routinely applied to other people, they should be not be surprised when the same standards are applied to them.
* It should be emphasized that I applied the "little Eichmanns" characterization only to those described as "technicians." Thus, it was obviously not directed to the children, janitors, food service workers, firemen and random passers-by killed in the 9-1-1 attack. According to Pentagon logic, were simply part of the collateral damage. Ugly? Yes. Hurtful? Yes. And that's my point. It's no less ugly, painful or dehumanizing a description when applied to Iraqis, Palestinians, or anyone else. If we ourselves do not want to be treated in this fashion, we must refuse to allow others to be similarly devalued and dehumanized in our name.
* The bottom line of my argument is that the best and perhaps only way to prevent 9-1-1-style attacks on the U.S. is for American citizens to compel their government to comply with the rule of law. The lesson of Nuremberg is that this is not only our right, but our obligation. To the extent we shirk this responsibility, we, like the "Good Germans" of the 1930s and '40s, are complicit in its actions and have no legitimate basis for complaint when we suffer the consequences. This, of course, includes me, personally, as well as my family, no less than anyone else.
* These points are clearly stated and documented in my book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, which recently won Honorary Mention for the Gustavus Myer Human Rights Award. for best writing on human rights. Some people will, of course, disagree with my analysis, but it presents questions that must be addressed in academic and public debate if we are to find a real solution to the violence that pervades today's world. The gross distortions of what I actually said can only be viewed as an attempt to distract the public from the real issues at hand and to further stifle freedom of speech and academic debate in this country.
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NEW TEXT OF HOUSE RESOLUTION ON CHURCHILL
Wednesday, February 02, 2005 denverpost.com
Here is the text of House Joint Resolution 1011, supporting victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as adopted unanimously Wednesday by the Colorado House of Representatives. (Capitalization is at it appears in the resolution).
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WHEREAS, The tragedy of September 11, 2001, marked one of the darkest days in American history;
and WHEREAS, The terrorist attacks cost more than 3,000 innocent people their lives;
and WHEREAS, The pain of the families who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001, attacks is immeasurable;
and WHEREAS, The healing process for those who lost a family member in the September 11, 2001, attacks is still ongoing;
and WHEREAS, It is important for the people of Colorado to aid in and support that healing process;
and WHEREAS, Professor Ward L. Churchill's essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, strikes an evil and inflammatory blow against America's healing process;
and WHEREAS, Professor Churchill's essay contains a number of statements and contentions that are deplorable and do not reflect the values of the people of the State of Colorado;
and WHEREAS, Professor Churchill's essay, which claims that the victims at the World Trade Center were not innocent, states, "As for those in the World Trade Center, ... well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But Innocent, Gimme a break." And Professor Churchill goes on to compare the innocent victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks to Adolph Eichmann, the man who executed Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews during World War II;
and WHEREAS, The sentiment of these statements strikes at the hearts of those who lost a loved one in the World Trade Center attack;
and WHEREAS, The victims at the World Trade Center were innocent in every sense of the word and should always be remembered as innocent victims of an unprovoked attack on America;
now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty-fifth General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein: (1) That the General Assembly expresses its heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the September 11, 2001, tragedy and their families; and (2) That the General Assembly commemorates the lives lost during the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman, the University of Colorado at Boulder Chancellor's office, the University of Colorado Board of Regents, and University of Colorado at Boulder Department of Ethics Chairman Ward L. Churchill.
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Text of Governor Owens' letter on Churchill
Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - denverpost.com
Here is the text of Gov. Bill Owens' letter Tuesday on the subject of the controversy surrounding University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. The letter was sent to the College Republicans at the University of Colorado and its president, Isaiah Lechowit.
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February 1, 2005
Dear Friends:
We have come to a teaching moment at the University of Colorado. I applaud every person on the University of Colorado campus who has come to speak out against the indecent, insensitive and inappropriate comments and writings of Ward Churchill.
All decent people, whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, should denounce the views of Ward Churchill. Not only are his writings outrageous and insupportable, they are at odds with the facts of history. The thousands of innocent people - and innocent they were - who were murdered on September 11 were murdered by evil cowards. Indeed, if anyone could possibly be compared to the evildoers of Nazi Germany, it is the terrorists of the 21st century who have an equally repugnant disregard for innocent human life.
No one wants to infringe on Mr. Churchill's right to express himself. But we are not compelled to accept his pro-terrorist views at state taxpayer subsidy nor under the banner of the University of Colorado. Ward Churchill besmirches the University and the excellent teaching, writing and research of its faculty.
Ideas have consequences, and words have meaning. If there is one lesson that we hope that all Coloradans take from this sad case - and especially our students - it is that civility and appropriate conduct are important. Mr. Churchill's views are not simply anti- American. They are at odds with simple decency, and antagonistic to the beliefs and conduct of civilized people around the world. His views are far outside the mainstream of civil discourse and useful academic work.
His resignation as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department was a good first step. We hope that he will follow this step by resigning his position on the faculty of the University of Colorado.
Sincerely,
Bill Owens
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N.Y. college cancels talk
Ward Churchill, who quit as department chair over his 9/11 comments, insists he won't resign as teacher.
By Howard Pankratz Denver Post Staff Writer denverpost.com
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Hamilton College in New York has canceled the panel discussion featuring controversial University of Colorado ethnic- studies professor Ward Churchill, citing dozens of threats to the college and members of the panel.
But 9/11 victims' relatives, who decry Churchill's description of World Trade Center victims as "little Eichmanns," say their protests were what forced the school to reconsider.
Vige Barrie, director of media relations for the school in Clinton, N.Y., said that "more than a hundred" threats had been received and forwarded to local police.
The threats came as a result of the controversy that erupted over an essay Churchill penned the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, comparing workers in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi whom Churchill describes as "a technocrat who made sure the trains ran on time."
Churchill resigned Monday as chair of CU's ethnic- studies department but will remain as a teaching professor with a salary of $94,242.
On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Owens suggested that Churchill resign his teaching post as well.
"Ideas have consequences, and words have meaning," Owens said in a written statement. "Mr. Churchill's views are not simply anti-American. They are at odds with simple decency. ... His resignation as chairman of the ethnic-studies department was a good first step."
Churchill made it clear Tuesday that resigning as chair was as far as he intended to go.
"I didn't want the job (as chair of the department) anyway, so it's worked out really well," he said, freeing him to concentrate on what he loves: teaching and writing. As for the call of Owens, or anyone else who would urge him to resign, Churchill said emphatically: "I'm not going anywhere."
"I was doing my job," he said, because the essay is sparking discourse and debate.
He is being misquoted, he said, and does not advocate the violence of 9/11. His essay points out that because the U.S. has a policy, he said, of dominating other countries, the attacks were inevitable.
Meanwhile, he said, he will continue to do what he lives for.
"Seeing light bulbs go on and seeing people as a result of what I do connect the dots, I suppose it's akin to the birthing process," he said. "I'm almost 60; I'm not going to be hurtling myself over any barricades."
Tuesday afternoon, a throng of students and reporters accompanied Churchill between classes on the CU-Boulder campus. For every student who insulted Churchill as he passed, more praised him.
"Professor Churchill is a fantastic writer, and I wanted to be in an atmosphere where normal thought is challenged," said Shaina Mille, 20, who says she transferred to CU from New Orleans' Tulane University because of him.
Other students criticized him.
"I totally support his First Amendment rights," said Allison Sands, 18, who said she found his comments "offensive and blasphemous" and that they should not be supported by CU.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hamilton College president Joan Stewart said the school had done its best "to protect what we hold most dear, the right to speak, think and study freely. But there is a higher responsibility that this institution carries, and that is the safety and security of our students, faculty, staff and the community in which we live."
Dan English, chief of police in Kirkland, N.Y., said Hamilton has been compiling e-mails and phone calls. The department's director of campus safety will be forwarding them to English's department, the Oneida County Sheriff's Department or the New York State Police.
English said he hasn't seen the e-mails or heard the calls, so he couldn't comment on their nature.
Lt. Tim McGraw of the CU Police Department said CU detectives are aware of death threats against Churchill and have taken precautions to protect Churchill and those around him, including his students.
Some of the 9/11 families believe the real reason the school canceled the event was because of the pressure relatives brought on the school.
One critic of Hamilton College is Richard Pecorella, whose fiancée, Karen Juday, was an administrative assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees in the attack.
"I believe that the cancellation of Mr. Churchill was from all the pressure put on your institution by the families of 9/11, and it was the moral thing to do," Pecorella wrote Stewart on Tuesday. "You want to save face by implying the death threats stopped this."
Staff writer Amy Herdy contributed to this report
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
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AAUP Statement on Professor Ward Churchill Controversy
We have witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of criticism aimed both at Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado at Boulder, for his written remarks describing victims of the attacks on September 11, 2001, as "little Eichmanns," and at the invitation for him to speak at Hamilton College in New York. Television commentators urged viewers to write to Hamilton College to condemn what the professor had written and the college's decision to invite him. More than 6,000 e-mail messages were sent to Hamilton College president Joan Hinde Stewart, who described them as "ranging from angry to profane, obscene, violent." The governor of New York wrote a letter of protest to President Stewart and in a dinner banquet described Professor Churchill as a "bigoted terrorist supporter." The governor of Colorado called on the professor to resign from the University of Colorado and, one day later, called for his dismissal. Professor Churchill reports that he and his wife have received more than 100 death threats. The prospect of violence at Hamilton College led the administration there to cancel the visit.
The American Association of University Professors, since its founding in 1915, has been committed to preserving and advancing principles of academic freedom in this nation's colleges and universities. Freedom of faculty members to express views, however unpopular or distasteful, is an essential condition of an institution of higher learning that is truly free. We deplore threats of violence heaped upon Professor Churchill, and we reject the notion that some viewpoints are so offensive or disturbing that the academic community should not allow them to be heard and debated. Also reprehensible are inflammatory statements by public officials that interfere in the decisions of the academic community.
Should serious questions arise about Professor Churchill's fitness to continue at the University of Colorado -- the only acceptable basis for terminating a continuing or tenured faculty appointment -- those questions should be judged by a faculty committee that affords the essential safeguards of due process, as required by the university's and the Board of Regents' official policies. Special care must be taken, however, to avoid applying harsher standards in such a case, or following less rigorous procedures, because of the statements made by Professor Churchill about the tragic events of September 11, 2001. While members of the academic community are free to condemn what they believe are repugnant views expressed by a faculty member, any charges arising from such statements must be judged by the same standards and procedures that would apply to statements unrelated to the terrorist attacks and the loss of life on that fateful day. We must resist the temptation to judge such statements more harshly because they evoke special anguish among survivors and families of the September 11 victims. The critical test of academic freedom is its capacity to meet even the most painful and offending statements. A college or university campus is, of all places in our society, the most appropriate forum for the widest range of viewpoints.
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chronicle.com/daily/2005/02/2005020405n.htm
Friday, February 4, 2005
Colorado Regents Will Investigate Professor Who Compared September 11 Victims to Nazis By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
As a first step toward possibly firing him, the University of Colorado will investigate the writings and speeches of a professor at its Boulder campus who has compared victims of the September 11 attacks to Nazis.
Philip P. DiStefano, interim chancellor of the campus, told the university system's Board of Regents at a special meeting on Thursday that he and two deans would review the work of the professor, Ward Churchill. The chancellor said he and the deans would determine whether Mr. Churchill "may have overstepped his bounds."
Mr. Churchill, who teaches ethnic studies, has called those who died in the 2001 attacks "little Eichmanns." Shortly after the attacks, he wrote in an essay that the victims were not innocent civilians but a "technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire." (The essay, "'Some People Push Back': On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," is available online here.)
The three-year-old remarks drew attention in the past week after families of September 11 victims and others protested Mr. Churchill's planned appearance at Hamilton College. He was supposed to be speaking at the Clinton, N.Y., college on Thursday night but the event was canceled by Hamilton's president, Joan Hinde Stewart, because she was worried about safety (The Chronicle, February 2).
As the Colorado regents' meeting began, several dozen students stood up in the audience. Although they were silent at first, they then began shouting at the regents, demanding to be heard. Police officers removed at least one student, and the regents adjourned to conduct an executive session.
When they returned, they approved a resolution endorsing the chancellor's plan to investigate Mr. Churchill. The regents also said that the professor's remarks had "brought dishonor" to the university and that the board wanted to "apologize to all Americans."
This week has been a tumultuous one for Mr. Churchill.
On Monday, he stepped down as chairman of the ethnic-studies department at Boulder, cutting his $114,000 salary by about $20,000. He also released a statement saying that news-media reports had grossly misstated his views.
On Tuesday, Hamilton canceled his speech, saying it had received threats of violence against college officials and Mr. Churchill. That night or early the next morning, according to Boulder County sheriff's deputies, someone painted two swastikas on Mr. Churchill's pickup truck as it sat outside his home.
On Wednesday, the Colorado House of Representatives passed a resolution denouncing Mr. Churchill, saying that his essay "strikes an evil and inflammatory blow against America's healing process." The State Senate passed the same resolution Thursday.
Mr. Churchill told The Denver Post that he would sue the university if he was fired. "This is exactly what I'm protected from -- an attempt to take my job on the basis of a difference of opinion on a burning issue," he told the newspaper.
In a statement released on Thursday, the American Association of University Professors said any questioning of Mr. Churchill's future at Colorado should be done by the faculty and should ensure the professor due process. Also, the association cautioned that Mr. Churchill should not face harsher standards because of the subject of his remarks.
"While members of the academic community are free to condemn what they believe are repugnant views expressed by a faculty member, any charges arising from such statements must be judged by the same standards and procedures that would apply to statements unrelated to the terrorist attacks and the loss of life on that fateful day," the AAUP said.
"We must resist the temptation to judge such statements more harshly because they evoke special anguish among survivors and families of the September 11 victims. The critical test of academic freedom is its capacity to meet even the most painful and offending statements."
