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Ward Churchill resigns as head of department at U.Colorado

by Rocky mountain News
Embattled University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill today released a lengthy statement defending his controversial essay concerning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
January 31, 2005

Embattled University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill today released a lengthy statement defending his controversial essay concerning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Also, today, he resigned his post of chairman of the ethnic studies program but not his professorship — because he did not want the attention focused on him to reflect on fellow department members.

Churchill has been in the eye of a media hurricane since last week when students and 9/11 victims' family members began to protest his scheduled Thursday appearance on a panel at Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y. Churchill had triggered angry reactions in many quarters with his argument that American foreign policy, including support for U.N. sanctions of Iraq following the first Gulf War, had done much to provoke the terrorists' actions.

In his statement released Monday, Churchill protested what he called "grossly inaccurate media coverage," which had "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," Churchill stated.

The essay, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, wasintended to make the point "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."

Denying that he is a "defender" of the September 11 attacks, Churchill said, he had simply been "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'.

more at http://www.indybay.org/education
by Hamilton College
College Issues Statement Concerning Churchill Visit
Kirkland Project Speaker To Appear Feb. 3
Contact: Mike Debraggio
Phone: (315) 859-4680
January 26, 2005

In the days and weeks immediately following September 11th, Hamilton joined with the world community in denouncing the terrorist acts of that tragic morning. We all share deeply in the pain of the families who lost loved ones. Many people view Ward Churchill's comments concerning 9/11 as repugnant and disparaging the 3,000 people killed that day, including three Hamilton alumni and the father of a current Hamilton student.

Hamilton, like any institution committed to the free exchange of ideas, invites to its campus people of diverse opinions, often controversial. The opportunity to encounter and respond to people from outside the college community in their intensity and their immediacy is among the key attributes of a liberal education. The views of speakers are their own. We expect, as a matter of civil discourse, that the members of this academic community, as well as visitors, respect the dignity of reasoned and principled debate. It is in this setting that the substance and credibility of a speaker's views are established as being worthy of support, or not.

We expect that many of those who strongly disagree with Mr. Churchill's comments will attend his talk and make their views known. This is the process of both academic freedom and freedom of speech.
by RFK
"hose who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable"

Well, there haven't been any peaceful changes in the Islamic world for 1400 years...Looks like we're on the right path according to Robert Kennedy
by um
"haven't been any peaceful changes in the Islamic world for 1400 years"

There have been relatively peaceful democratic elections in Iran (before the US put in the Shah), in Turkey, in Pakistan (until the US supported the new dictator), Egypt (before he US supported the new dictator), Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia (sortof), Albania.....
by Rebekah (rebekah39online [at] yahoo.com)
For every action, there is supposed to be an equal, but opposite reaction. I think our self-imposed reactions have been a long time comming. Professor Churchill should be praised for recognizing, and teaching us, that when the United States government inflicts misery on innocent people in other lands (whether it intends to, or not) we should not be suprised when retaliation occurs! History must repeat itself when violence and oppression are condoned. Though it may have taken the French centuries to revolt against their oppressors (the royal caste), when they finally did many were rightly sentenced to death by way of the gullotine. In the minds of the 9/11 hijackers, those who died were just as guilty as the French aristocracy. Be as outraged at Professor Churchill's perspective as you want, but it does not change the fact that it is an accurate depiction of why 9/11 happened. I fear now that soon more justifed roosters will be comming home!!! Shall we continue to bury our heads in the sand and hope they will go away, or begin today to recognized them for the "avengers" that they are. Because these people really do believe that they are avenging the blood of the innocents who were killed, not only in 1991, but those killed by by the US at other times in the past. My sentiment is "Way to Go! Churchill! Keep up the good work."
by anti-ward
Hey Rebekah-- Good to see another leftist standing up for religious fundamentalists who commit mass murder.
by ex lefty, ex marine
dear rebecca, your aligning yourself with a true psuedo liberal nucklehead. You should understand that in any islamic country . youd be beheaded for your "free thinking" We just liberated fifty million poeple from a truly monstrous regime. Where were you folks when saddam was filling all those mass graves?
by .
Where were you? I indeed was protesting what was going on in Iraq.

You don't even need to visit the library - you're by a computer. Use google.
Saddam Hussein was paid by the CIA to help knock off members of the opposition party and gain power for the Baath party because the CIA decided that being antisocialist trumped other values.
Have you heard of the Iran Iraq War? I was only kindergarten through grade 5 during that time, but I still remember the news presenting images from that. Do you remember what side we were on? Yes.. we gave all those weapons to Hussein's regime which he used to torture and kill his own people with, as well as shoot at Iran and the kurds, until we finally parted ways in 1991.
By the way, there are more like 28 million in Iraq I believe.

oh oh... here's another cheery image for you. Did you see who's coming out of the closet now that Hussein is gone? The Iraq communist party is doing pretty well in vote counts, where they were undergrounded sinc eabout 1978.

look: http://www.chron.com/content/news/photos/03/12/14/reax/photo1.html
by Kansas Kid (roy1938 [at] yahoo.com)
I happened quite by accident to catch Ward Churchill on C Span one evening last week. Having previously just heard of this great man? it was interesting to see and hear a most learned university professor show the world his academia professionalism.

This person is mentally deficient and is in need of supervision. When I listened to this poor soul I felt ashamed and sorry for him. How in the world he can be a university professor is beyond my understanding. Such Anti American position is treasonous. God forbid there are more like him in our educational system. The likes of him need to do anything but try and influence impressionable minds. He is a nut case.

to read comments like the one from the "Kansas Kid" about Ward Churchill

invariably, they display an aversion to any analysis of Churchill's factual assertions, instead, he's "mentally deficient" and "in need of supervision", but rather strangely, despite these purportedly obvious deficiencies in his public persona, "impressionable" people need to protected from him

with the exception of a claim here that Churchill falsely stated that smallpox infested blankets were used to deliberately spread disease among Native Americans (a claim that appeared to be refuted by some of the people that responded), and another one about his description of the history of the Black Panthers (a rather minor issue in the overall scheme of his world view), I don't recall anyone really denying that he has accurately emphasized the destructiveness of American policy towards people around the world

so, we end up where the Kansas Kid finds himself, despite the obvious manifestations of mental disorder, Churchill is just traitorous and anti-American for publicly speaking about the more brutal, sadistic, unseeming aspects of American history, a history, it should be noted, that is well understood around the rest of the world, but one that the Kansas Kid would apparently suppress domestically

--Richard

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