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Colorado Regents put Ward Churchill on trial
The major media discovered Ward Churchill's existence last Thursday, when a group at Hamilton College in upstate New York criticized an essay he wrote nearly four years ago in 2001 that compared the 9/11 death toll to a much larger death count caused by the US military and US policies in SE asia, latin america and the Middle east. Given these criticisms, the Colorado board of regents is apparently considering whether to sanction him for pointing this stuff out.
Sun, Jan. 30, 2005
Colo. Regents Weigh Prof's 9/11 Comments
Associated Press
DENVER - The University of Colorado's regents have scheduled a special meeting to consider a professor's essay that said victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks deserved to die because they were a willing part of "the mighty engine of profit."
The essay by Ward Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies department and a longtime Indian activist, was written in the aftermath of the attacks. Its contents became known when he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Syracuse, N.Y.
Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims have protested the college's decision to allow Churchill to speak on Thursday, the same day the Colorado regents will meet on the university's Fitzsimons campus.
CU Provost Phil DiStefano last week said Churchill's views do not represent the university, but he had a right to express them.
A critic, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., said that because Churchill is tenured he apparently is immune from any sanctions by the university but should apologize. There was no answer at Churchill's office phone Sunday, and his private phone is not listed.
Following the attacks, Churchill wrote an essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," that hailed the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.
He said although the victims were civilians they were not innocent. He went on to describe the World Trade Center victims as "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi leader
Colo. Regents Weigh Prof's 9/11 Comments
Associated Press
DENVER - The University of Colorado's regents have scheduled a special meeting to consider a professor's essay that said victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks deserved to die because they were a willing part of "the mighty engine of profit."
The essay by Ward Churchill, chairman of the ethnic studies department and a longtime Indian activist, was written in the aftermath of the attacks. Its contents became known when he was invited to speak at Hamilton College in Syracuse, N.Y.
Some relatives of Sept. 11 victims have protested the college's decision to allow Churchill to speak on Thursday, the same day the Colorado regents will meet on the university's Fitzsimons campus.
CU Provost Phil DiStefano last week said Churchill's views do not represent the university, but he had a right to express them.
A critic, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., said that because Churchill is tenured he apparently is immune from any sanctions by the university but should apologize. There was no answer at Churchill's office phone Sunday, and his private phone is not listed.
Following the attacks, Churchill wrote an essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," that hailed the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.
He said although the victims were civilians they were not innocent. He went on to describe the World Trade Center victims as "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized Nazi leader
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I think his main problem is that his kind of aggressive style of expressing himself can cloud its content, especially when he ventures outside of the areas of history that other people are familiar with. President Bush has whole volumes written about him and his misquotes- see 'The Bush Dyslexicon' by Mark Crispin Miller.
Notice here how he explains about how he was in the Vietnam War, and how we all agree that germans had a moral responsibility to control their government, yet how aware are americans of thousands of deaths caused in central America. He is making more sense here because he is talking in bullet points and you can see his main ideas.
-------------------------
January 31, 2005 The following is a statement from Ward Churchill: 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.
Ward Churchill
Boulder, Colorado
January 31, 2005
Pull out a map, and even though americans tend to not know a lot about foreign countries, including Canada, most areas of the world outside of a few western european areas are doing pretty badly right now... and a lot of this can be traced to world economic policies within the World Bank/International Monetary fund/WTO that keep the third world poor, in addition to the long history of the British/Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch empires which set up places like India/Africa/Indonesia, SE Asia just to serve them. The primary reason why Japan is the exceptional asian country is because they successfully kept colonialists out.
And speaking as a german citizen, okay, there is some group accountability by citizens of a country over their government. Even though Germany was under a dictatorship in WWI and WWII, everyone blames Germans for letting Hitler do what he did, and not throwing themselves in the way. germans have paid big reparations to other countries.
Why doesn't this principle apply to places other than Germany too?
Seymour Hersh has made clear that the Bush administration is very likely to go on a bombing raid in Iran, and this could set off a nuclear situation. Even if you live in a comfortable spot, and you aren't going into the army, you still are essentially sending poorer southern kids over as your surrogate soldiers. You do carry some moral responsibility.
I think in the future, people will come over to Churchill's primary ideas, although hopefully another writer will emerge who doesn't write like a post traumatic Vietnam vet who can't control his tongue.
Sec. of Stat Albright's response to a May 11, 1996 60 Minutes question about the over half a million children killed by the [Iraqi] sanctions
Roosting Chickens is now in the top 400 sellers on Amazon.com which is pretty good given their 4million listed books. He has really written a lot. I hadn't realized he has so many titles.
The Bellecourts, who they keep quoting in the news articles, have been fighting Churchill for a long time and they keep accusing each other of being FBI agents, and the Bellecourts physically look more european than Churchill, not that it matters. They were convicted of drug sales too.
I applaud Dr. Churchill and pity the tiny minded fools who want to punish him for stating a position they find offensive.
[29 docs] Morning Star Institute (Washington DC) material regarding Ward Churchill
- It's not just "AIM". Check out all the documents on the above URL.
History AIM #1
"Indictment AIM"
The following is from a tribunal held against
Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt.
By the American Indian Movement.
American Indian Movement
temotczin [at] aol.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I would like people to read Russell Means's book "Where White Men Fear to Tread." He explains Vernon's behavior. Vernon and Clyde are the very reason for the split in AIM and we are doing very well and are very alive without them." --Bobby Castillo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The International Conference Of
Autonomous Chapters
Of The American Indian Movement.
On December 17 and 18 of 1993 representatives of the American Indian Movement (AIM) chapters from Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Dakota, Montana, Southern Arizona, Virginia, South East Northwest, New Mexico, Colorado, San Francisco and Los Angeles, California met to revitalize and re-focus AIM.
After presenting evidence of acts of treason, fraud, complicity in Genocide and other crimes committed by Vernon Bellecourt, Clyde Bellecourt, the assembled delegates in overwhelming consensus, brought forth an indictment of crimes against the Bellecourts, who fraudulently labeled themselves National AIM officers, Co Conspirators, Tony Gonzales with the International Indian Treaty Council and a Carol Standing Elk who also makes fraudulent claims to "regional" AIM leadership.
The indictment will specifically charge Vernon Bellecourt as being a federal agent of the United States. The others will be charged with crimes and conspiracy to disrupt and discredit the American Indian Movement and bring harm to American Indian Peoples.
The conference made it perfectly clear. There has not been a genuine national membership meeting of the American Indian Movement since 1974. Therefore, no membership authorization for a national office or national officers can possibly be said to have been obtained since that time. To the contrary, it has been specifically determined on at least two separate occasions during the intervening two decades that such a structure and such titles are antithetical to the interest of the movement and of the American Indian people more generally.
AIM Leader ships has always come from the bottom up on a chapter by chapter basis; not from the top down. The series of self-ordained "AIM National Leadership Meeting" conducted during the 1980's and 1990's have done nothing to change this essential fact.
The conferences also ascertained, contrary to the statements of the Bellecourts and their cohorts/dupes, AIM is not a corporate entity under the laws of the United States, the State Minnesota or any other foreign government, nor is it an entertainment enterprise, personal freedom, a "career option", a medium for private profit , or any of the other things this fringe element seems to believe.
Consequently, the conference delegates state without hesitation or equivocation that they collectively reject all pretense too legitimacy or authority of those who call themselves National AIM and/or those individuals it has appointed positions of regional or local "leadership" over the past several months.
Let it be known that it is the unanimous decision of the conference that an International Tribunal be held in San Rafael, California at Dominican College on, 50 Acacia Ave, the 26 and 27th of March 1994. At that time the indictments brought against Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt, and co-conspirators Carole Standing Elk, and Tony Gonzales will be heard and tried.
For further information call:
Russell Means - Phone
----------
Also, people say he was around when Maria Aquash was killed.
http://home.earthlink.net/~cloud_transcripts/311-325.htm
Q. Can you tell us what you observed about her at that
time?
A. Since the last time I had seen her she had cut her hair
and there were tears in her eyes, she had been crying.
Q. Did she appear distraught?
A. She appeared very unhappy.
Q. Did you have a conversation with her?
A. Yes, I greeted her, and we exchanged sort of greetings.
And then I said to her that it, as strange as it might seem,
that she really, that people in Oglala really missed her and
that I did, and that strange as it might seem, that Oglala
could be a really safe place for her to stay. And she said
well, I don't think I will get to, or I don't think I will,
something to that effect.
Q. What happened then?
A. We talked maybe another less than a minute probably, and
she said, well, I have to go back in there now, and went back
to that front room.
Q. Did you hear anything of the conversation that was going
on in there?
A. No. I could hear voices, but I didn't hear any of the
conversation.
Q. Did you see her leave the WKLDOC house?
JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104 (605) 330-4877
PAGE 312
A. No.
Q. When did you leave?
A. It was after dark in December, must have been 5:00 or
5:30 that we left.
Q. What did you do next?
A. I got in the car with Ted Means, Clyde Bellecourt, Web
Poor Bear was there, and another man I didn't know and still
don't know who he was, and we were on our way to Sioux Falls,
but we stopped in Rosebud on the way at Bill Means' house.
Q. Can you just point, stand up and point if you would to
where Thelma's apartment was on this roughly?
A. It is this apartment complex, and this is reversed from
the way it looks, but it was over in here.
Q. Can you point about where the WKLDOC office was on here?
I told you Allen Street was about there, would that help you?
A. Yes. It was back in the second block off of Main. This
is before.
Q. Before the flood.
A. Right in here. (Indicating).
Q. The lower left-hand corner of Exhibit 38?
A. Yes.
Q. Thank you. Does that photograph show Anna Mae about as
she looked on that day?
A. Yes.
Q. She had her hair cut short?
JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104 (605) 330-4877
PAGE 313
A. Yes.
THE COURT: That's Exhibit what, counsel?
MR. MANDEL: Exhibit 27, Your Honor.
BY MR. MANDEL:
Q. After leaving the -- first of all, when you left the
WKLDOC office, did a ride arrive for you, or how did that take
place?
A. I was upstairs and somebody just yelled Candy, we are
ready, and I came down. And about that time all these people
came out of that front room.
Q. Who did you leave with?
A. With Clyde Bellecourt, Ted Means, Web Poor Bear and a
guy I didn't know.
Q. When they came out of that front room, just so I
understand, first of all did Anna Mae come out at that time?
A. I didn't see her then.
Q. Laurelie Decora?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you say Madonna Gilbert?
A. Yes.
Q. Bruce Ellison?
A. Yes.
Q. Thelma Rios?
A. Yes.
Q. Anybody else?
JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104 (605) 330-4877
PAGE 314
A. Did you say Clyde?
Q. Clyde Bellecourt?
A. I think that's all.
Q. So then you left with Clyde Bellecourt, Webster Poor
Bear and Ted Means you said?
A. Um-hum.
Q. I have to ask you to answer yes or no?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you say Ted Means was in the room too, or no?
A. He was in the group that came out when I came after I
got downstairs.
Q. And then where did you head to from the WKLDOC office?
A. We were on our way to Sioux Falls. We went through
Rosebud and stopped at Bill Means' house.
Q. Bill Means also known by the nickname Kill?
A. Yes.
Q. What happened when you got to his house?
A. Everybody got out. Nobody said anything to me about
coming in, so I just stayed in the car and everybody else went
inside.
Q. Was there any discussion of what they were doing there?
A. No.
Q. Did you know why they went in there?
A. Pardon me?
Q. Did you know why they went in the house?
JERRY J. MAY, RPR, CM 400 South Phillips Avenue, #305A
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104 (605) 330-4877
PAGE 315
A. No, I had no idea. I thought maybe they stopped to see
Kill.
Q. Was there any discussion of Anna Mae on the way from
Rapid City over to Rosebud?
A. No. I don't think anybody said a word the whole way.
Q. A long ride without saying anything.
A. Yes.
Q. How long were you there at Kill's place in Rosebud?
etc.