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3/21 Update on Ward Churchill
Ward was considering a settlement with CU in the hopes that it would
forestall a more general erosion of academic freedom and allow him to
return to his research and writing. Last week this possibility was
subverted by another round of personal attacks on Ward and by political
threats against the Regents...
forestall a more general erosion of academic freedom and allow him to
return to his research and writing. Last week this possibility was
subverted by another round of personal attacks on Ward and by political
threats against the Regents...
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:40:18 -0500
Subject:
Dear Friends,
As I’m sure you know, in recent weeks Ward Churchill’s substantive
critiques of U.S. policies and practices have been conveniently buried in
a frenzy of increasingly ugly personal attacks.
The local media (along with Bill O’Reilly) and the political forces behind
them have made no secret of their agenda to destroy Ward’s reputation and
career, along with academic freedom, tenure and ethnic studies at CU.
With so many allegations and so little coverage of Ward’s responses, I’m
sure you have questions as well, so I’ve included below a brief summary
which I hope provides some context and sheds a little light on the
credibility of the accusations. In addition, some of Ward’s responses and
excerpts from scholars’ statements on his work are attached.
Ward was considering a settlement with CU in the hopes that it would
forestall a more general erosion of academic freedom and allow him to
return to his research and writing. Last week this possibility was
subverted by another round of personal attacks on Ward and by political
threats against the Regents. As a result, Interim Chancellor Phil
DiStefano has now promised to issue a “report” on the “investigation” by
Monday March 28.
We have no doubt that the right wing will intensify its campaign to ensure
that the report is as negative as possible. Ward has never been
officially notified of the investigation, much less consulted, and the
local media rarely publishes his responses or those of others who attempt
to counter various allegations. We cannot force the media to fairly cover
the issues, or expect a secret “investigation” to result in due process.
A political battle is being waged in which responsible journalism and
academic integrity have precious little role. But the knowledge that this
process is being publicly scrutinized can make a tremendous difference.
If you’re willing to take the time this week to write the editors of the
local newspapers and also copy the committee that will issue the report,
it would be of great help. Letters needn’t be long or profound and can
address any aspect of this process.
Even if you can’t do that, please feel free to circulate this and to
contact me directly if you have further questions. Since there is so much
disinformation circulating, I think it’s really important to give folks
this information and encourage them to question the sources that they may
be relying on.
Your support, expressed in so many ways over the past weeks, has really
kept us going.
With appreciation,
Natsu
MEDIA CONTACT INFO:
letters [at] RockyMountainNews.com
openforum [at] denverpost.com
openforum [at] dailycamera.com
letters [at] coloradodaily.com
PLEASE CC:Phil.Distefano [at] colorado.edu
Gleeson [at] colorado.edu
Getches [at] colorado.edu
nsaito [at] gsu.edu
***************************************************************************
OVERVIEW:
1. First, a bit of background: Ward Churchill has published more than
twenty books, dozens of book chapters and over one hundred journal
articles; has received numerous teaching awards and four prestigious
awards for writing; was inducted into the Martin Luther King Collegium of
Scholars in 2004; and as of 2001 was the most cited scholar in his field.
Students flock to his classes and his public lectures are uniformly well
received.
Ward is a big guy. He speaks the truth as he sees it, forcefully and
without compromise. To some people his size and the strength of his
convictions appear threatening, and that is the image most frequently
projected by the media. Most who know him, however, understand that the
anger he can project is not personal but stems from the pain of seeing
lives and communities needlessly destroyed. They understand that the only
danger he poses is to the status quo. Even in the midst of the current
controversy he rarely goes anywhere without people * often complete
strangers * seeking him out to express their appreciation for giving voice
to their realities.
Ward’s writing focuses on the government’s failure to comply with the
Constitution and with international law, both with respect to American
Indians and in its foreign policy. In some circles he is best known for
documenting the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations and their attempts to destroy
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (AIM). These
governmental actions, of course, included disinformation campaigns in
which bogus “news” was fed to the media by government sources, people’s
personal lives were publicly shredded, dissent was fomented within
organizations, activists were gratuitously charged with criminal conduct
and, when all else failed, those considered most threatening to the status
quo were falsely imprisoned or assassinated.
In addition to being a scholar, for over thirty years Ward has also been a
political activist. As a result, he has been under intense surveillance *
well documented by FBI and Denver police files * and has often been
attacked politically. Never, however, as intensely as at present.
2. In late January, having successfully forced former political prisoner
Susan Rosenberg out of a teaching position at Hamilton College, right wing
activists in upstate NY turned their attention to Ward’s “Roosting
Chickens” essay, generating enough threats of violence to cancel his
speech.
3. Politicians and the media then attempted to say that Ward was
“advocating” the attacks of 9/11 rather than trying to explain their
causes. (See attached statement on 9/11.) Colorado Governor Bill Owens,
other politicians, the Denver newspapers and local radio (KHOW) talk show
hosts Dan Caplis, Craig Silverman and Peter Boyles immediately began a
campaign to fire Ward and the CU Regents initiated the current
“investigation.” KHOW, Bill O’Reilly and the local papers have kept the
issue “hot” with daily attacks.
4. To some extent the spin on the 9/11 piece was countered by Ward’s
highly publicized and extremely well-received speeches at CU and in
Hawai’i and Wisconsin. The media pundits, particularly Caplis and
Silverman, then changed their focus from the substance of Ward’s arguments
to the
allegation that he incites others to violent criminal action * a charge
prominently featured in a full-page ad, a major op-ed, and their radio
show. (Ward’s response is attached.) This, in turn, has been used by
Bill O’Reilly to denounce Ward as a “traitor.”
5. As that charge lost steam, it has mutated into inferences that Ward
“modus operandi” is to personally threaten violence. Recently the press
has featured several such claims, each unsubstantiated and heretofore
unreported, and alleged to have happened years, even decades, ago. While
both untrue and irrelevant, such charges effectively distract people from
the real issues.
6. Some people have, of course, remained focused on the substance of
Ward’s message, and many on the importance of supporting academic freedom.
Statements denouncing the attacks and/or the Regents’ investigation have
come from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the
board of directors of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) and
numerous other academic organizations; over a thousand professors and
several thousand others have signed petitions and/or sent individual
letters. This groundswell has forced the Regents to disregard the
Governor’s call to immediately fire Ward.
7. As it has become clear that it is politically untenable * as well as
illegal * to fire Ward simply because of his ideas, attacks on the
academic front have moved from the content of his work to allegations of
“fraud.” Ignored are the dozens of eminent scholars such as Howard Zinn,
Noam Chomsky, and David Stannard who have publicly praised Ward’s
scholarship. (See attached excerpts.) Instead, the focus has been on
three accusations from relatively unknown academics and two easily refuted
claims of “grade retribution” from among the thousands of students Ward
has taught.
8. The primary allegation of academic fraud is a charge of plagiarism
arising from a 1999 article by University of New Mexico professor John
LaVelle, a long-time political foe. LaVelle juxtaposes quotes from Ward’s
books to passages by other authors and concludes that Ward wrote all the
passages in question. The media has turned this on its head, claiming
that Ward engaged in plagiarism. (To decide for yourself, you only need
compare the writing styles; also see Ward’s attached response.) In 1996
LaVelle also published an article, since discredited by many scholars, in
which he accuses Ward of “fraud” over what is at most an interpretive
dispute.
9. The second allegation is by Thomas Brown, an apparently unpublished
assistant professor at Lamar University. Brown contests Ward’s
interpretation of the U.S. Army’s role in the spreading of smallpox to the
Mandan near Fort Clark in 1837. At best this is a disagreement of
historical interpretation, not a fraud claim.
10. And the third is from Fay Cohen of Dalhousie University, who
belatedly claimed that portions of her writing were included without
attribution in a report by a research collective published in 1992. Ward
is identified as playing a lead role in compiling the document, but was
neither its author nor the editor of the book in which it appeared. Even
assuming that Cohen’s complaint was legitimate, one has to question both
why she would raise the issue at this time and only against Ward, and why
it would call his entire body of scholarship into question.
11. In a parallel effort to discredit Ward, his identity has become a
topic of general debate. Relying on the denunciations of a small network
of political adversaries centered around a Minneapolis-based organization
that calls itself “National AIM,” the media has asserted that Ward is a
“fake” Indian, completely disregarding the determination of the Keetoowah
Band of Cherokee, his actual family history, and his longterm
participation in and support from the local American Indian community,
Colorado AIM and Indian organizations around the country.
12. It is worth noting in this context that after AIM’s leadership was
decimated by COINTELPRO operations in the 1970s and early ’80s, in order
to survive it transformed itself into a series of autonomous chapters, of
which Colorado AIM is the strongest. “National AIM” was subsequently
incorporated by one faction of former AIM members. It is a corporate
entity which, according to its own reports has received funding from both
the federal government and corporations like Honeywell.
This group has spent considerable energy attacking Colorado AIM. Recently
released intelligence files reveal an the Denver Police were informed by
the FBI in 1995 of a plan by unnamed individuals from Minneapolis to
assassinate Colorado AIM leaders Ward Churchill and Glenn Morris and wound
Russell Means. “National AIM” has for years denounced Ward as not only as
a “fake” Indian but as an FBI agent, a former cop, and a CIA operative who
supported the Contras in Nigeria (yes, Nigeria). (I can send more info on
this if you’d like.) **
Not surprisingly, a number of those now raising accusations of academic
fraud and personal threats * as well as identity * have ties to this
group.
11. Without any critical investigation of the sources, and ignoring much
evidence to the contrary, the press has reported this wide range of
allegations as if they were “news.” On the “Indian question” Ward is now
being widely denounced as having been hired, tenured and promoted simply
as a result of a false claim of ethnicity. (If it were that easy, one
has to wonder where all the Indians in academia are.) Simultaneously, he
is being barraged by virulent anti-Indian racism, most of it a variant of
“we should have exterminated all of you long ago,” complete with every
derogatory adjective imaginable. And just in case nothing else sticks,
an assortment of other claims about Ward’s artwork, his service in
Vietnam, and
relationships with former wives are being tossed in.
12. All of this adds up to a classic disinformation campaign (of the
sort documented by Ward and Jim Vander Wall in their books, Agents of
Repression and COINTELPRO Papers), one designed to “neutralize” political
dissent. Historically we have seen that such efforts only escalate.
As CU President Betsy Hoffman warned just before she announced her
resignation, these attacks are intended not simply to discredit Ward
Churchill, but are part of a concerted national campaign to undermine
academic freedom. In discussing the settlement option, the CU Regents
flatly rejected Ward’s demand that they affirm their own rules on academic
freedom. Similarly, they refused to acknowledge the validity of existing
tenure and review processes.
Governor Owens is a major player in Lynne Cheney’s American Council of
Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). At CU and across the country, attacks have
begun on ethnic studies and women’s studies, on affirmative action, and on
other professors. In recent weeks not only Ward but students of color at
CU generally have been subjected to acts of blatant racial hatred.
To accede to a “where there’s smoke” rationale without considering the
credibility of sources or their motivations legitimizes the use of ad
hominem attacks to undermine academic freedom. The targeting of Ward
Churchill is just the opening round; what is happening to him can be done
* though perhaps with less visibility * to anyone critical of the status
quo.
The widespread attempts to neutralize political dissent we currently face
will be limited only by the effectiveness of our resistance on each front.
----
**Note from Doc; There is not one national AIM. There are unfortunately
four major factions.
Minneapolis
Colorado
Oklahoma
Confedrated Chapters
Each IMHO tends to spend too much of it's effort claiming to be the
legitemate AIM and each denounces the others.
Each has some amount of truth in it's allegations against the others.
I find the entire reality juvenile and refuse to participate.
Every attack on any of the AIM chapters or personalities is an act of aid
and comfort to the enemy (FBI, CIA, WTO, BIA, FTAA, KKK, etc.).
I must judge Ward by his deeds as I have witnessed them.
I know him to be a man of honor in all of his dealings with me since
Wounded Knee'73.
Doc
Subject:
Dear Friends,
As I’m sure you know, in recent weeks Ward Churchill’s substantive
critiques of U.S. policies and practices have been conveniently buried in
a frenzy of increasingly ugly personal attacks.
The local media (along with Bill O’Reilly) and the political forces behind
them have made no secret of their agenda to destroy Ward’s reputation and
career, along with academic freedom, tenure and ethnic studies at CU.
With so many allegations and so little coverage of Ward’s responses, I’m
sure you have questions as well, so I’ve included below a brief summary
which I hope provides some context and sheds a little light on the
credibility of the accusations. In addition, some of Ward’s responses and
excerpts from scholars’ statements on his work are attached.
Ward was considering a settlement with CU in the hopes that it would
forestall a more general erosion of academic freedom and allow him to
return to his research and writing. Last week this possibility was
subverted by another round of personal attacks on Ward and by political
threats against the Regents. As a result, Interim Chancellor Phil
DiStefano has now promised to issue a “report” on the “investigation” by
Monday March 28.
We have no doubt that the right wing will intensify its campaign to ensure
that the report is as negative as possible. Ward has never been
officially notified of the investigation, much less consulted, and the
local media rarely publishes his responses or those of others who attempt
to counter various allegations. We cannot force the media to fairly cover
the issues, or expect a secret “investigation” to result in due process.
A political battle is being waged in which responsible journalism and
academic integrity have precious little role. But the knowledge that this
process is being publicly scrutinized can make a tremendous difference.
If you’re willing to take the time this week to write the editors of the
local newspapers and also copy the committee that will issue the report,
it would be of great help. Letters needn’t be long or profound and can
address any aspect of this process.
Even if you can’t do that, please feel free to circulate this and to
contact me directly if you have further questions. Since there is so much
disinformation circulating, I think it’s really important to give folks
this information and encourage them to question the sources that they may
be relying on.
Your support, expressed in so many ways over the past weeks, has really
kept us going.
With appreciation,
Natsu
MEDIA CONTACT INFO:
letters [at] RockyMountainNews.com
openforum [at] denverpost.com
openforum [at] dailycamera.com
letters [at] coloradodaily.com
PLEASE CC:Phil.Distefano [at] colorado.edu
Gleeson [at] colorado.edu
Getches [at] colorado.edu
nsaito [at] gsu.edu
***************************************************************************
OVERVIEW:
1. First, a bit of background: Ward Churchill has published more than
twenty books, dozens of book chapters and over one hundred journal
articles; has received numerous teaching awards and four prestigious
awards for writing; was inducted into the Martin Luther King Collegium of
Scholars in 2004; and as of 2001 was the most cited scholar in his field.
Students flock to his classes and his public lectures are uniformly well
received.
Ward is a big guy. He speaks the truth as he sees it, forcefully and
without compromise. To some people his size and the strength of his
convictions appear threatening, and that is the image most frequently
projected by the media. Most who know him, however, understand that the
anger he can project is not personal but stems from the pain of seeing
lives and communities needlessly destroyed. They understand that the only
danger he poses is to the status quo. Even in the midst of the current
controversy he rarely goes anywhere without people * often complete
strangers * seeking him out to express their appreciation for giving voice
to their realities.
Ward’s writing focuses on the government’s failure to comply with the
Constitution and with international law, both with respect to American
Indians and in its foreign policy. In some circles he is best known for
documenting the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations and their attempts to destroy
the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement (AIM). These
governmental actions, of course, included disinformation campaigns in
which bogus “news” was fed to the media by government sources, people’s
personal lives were publicly shredded, dissent was fomented within
organizations, activists were gratuitously charged with criminal conduct
and, when all else failed, those considered most threatening to the status
quo were falsely imprisoned or assassinated.
In addition to being a scholar, for over thirty years Ward has also been a
political activist. As a result, he has been under intense surveillance *
well documented by FBI and Denver police files * and has often been
attacked politically. Never, however, as intensely as at present.
2. In late January, having successfully forced former political prisoner
Susan Rosenberg out of a teaching position at Hamilton College, right wing
activists in upstate NY turned their attention to Ward’s “Roosting
Chickens” essay, generating enough threats of violence to cancel his
speech.
3. Politicians and the media then attempted to say that Ward was
“advocating” the attacks of 9/11 rather than trying to explain their
causes. (See attached statement on 9/11.) Colorado Governor Bill Owens,
other politicians, the Denver newspapers and local radio (KHOW) talk show
hosts Dan Caplis, Craig Silverman and Peter Boyles immediately began a
campaign to fire Ward and the CU Regents initiated the current
“investigation.” KHOW, Bill O’Reilly and the local papers have kept the
issue “hot” with daily attacks.
4. To some extent the spin on the 9/11 piece was countered by Ward’s
highly publicized and extremely well-received speeches at CU and in
Hawai’i and Wisconsin. The media pundits, particularly Caplis and
Silverman, then changed their focus from the substance of Ward’s arguments
to the
allegation that he incites others to violent criminal action * a charge
prominently featured in a full-page ad, a major op-ed, and their radio
show. (Ward’s response is attached.) This, in turn, has been used by
Bill O’Reilly to denounce Ward as a “traitor.”
5. As that charge lost steam, it has mutated into inferences that Ward
“modus operandi” is to personally threaten violence. Recently the press
has featured several such claims, each unsubstantiated and heretofore
unreported, and alleged to have happened years, even decades, ago. While
both untrue and irrelevant, such charges effectively distract people from
the real issues.
6. Some people have, of course, remained focused on the substance of
Ward’s message, and many on the importance of supporting academic freedom.
Statements denouncing the attacks and/or the Regents’ investigation have
come from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the
board of directors of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) and
numerous other academic organizations; over a thousand professors and
several thousand others have signed petitions and/or sent individual
letters. This groundswell has forced the Regents to disregard the
Governor’s call to immediately fire Ward.
7. As it has become clear that it is politically untenable * as well as
illegal * to fire Ward simply because of his ideas, attacks on the
academic front have moved from the content of his work to allegations of
“fraud.” Ignored are the dozens of eminent scholars such as Howard Zinn,
Noam Chomsky, and David Stannard who have publicly praised Ward’s
scholarship. (See attached excerpts.) Instead, the focus has been on
three accusations from relatively unknown academics and two easily refuted
claims of “grade retribution” from among the thousands of students Ward
has taught.
8. The primary allegation of academic fraud is a charge of plagiarism
arising from a 1999 article by University of New Mexico professor John
LaVelle, a long-time political foe. LaVelle juxtaposes quotes from Ward’s
books to passages by other authors and concludes that Ward wrote all the
passages in question. The media has turned this on its head, claiming
that Ward engaged in plagiarism. (To decide for yourself, you only need
compare the writing styles; also see Ward’s attached response.) In 1996
LaVelle also published an article, since discredited by many scholars, in
which he accuses Ward of “fraud” over what is at most an interpretive
dispute.
9. The second allegation is by Thomas Brown, an apparently unpublished
assistant professor at Lamar University. Brown contests Ward’s
interpretation of the U.S. Army’s role in the spreading of smallpox to the
Mandan near Fort Clark in 1837. At best this is a disagreement of
historical interpretation, not a fraud claim.
10. And the third is from Fay Cohen of Dalhousie University, who
belatedly claimed that portions of her writing were included without
attribution in a report by a research collective published in 1992. Ward
is identified as playing a lead role in compiling the document, but was
neither its author nor the editor of the book in which it appeared. Even
assuming that Cohen’s complaint was legitimate, one has to question both
why she would raise the issue at this time and only against Ward, and why
it would call his entire body of scholarship into question.
11. In a parallel effort to discredit Ward, his identity has become a
topic of general debate. Relying on the denunciations of a small network
of political adversaries centered around a Minneapolis-based organization
that calls itself “National AIM,” the media has asserted that Ward is a
“fake” Indian, completely disregarding the determination of the Keetoowah
Band of Cherokee, his actual family history, and his longterm
participation in and support from the local American Indian community,
Colorado AIM and Indian organizations around the country.
12. It is worth noting in this context that after AIM’s leadership was
decimated by COINTELPRO operations in the 1970s and early ’80s, in order
to survive it transformed itself into a series of autonomous chapters, of
which Colorado AIM is the strongest. “National AIM” was subsequently
incorporated by one faction of former AIM members. It is a corporate
entity which, according to its own reports has received funding from both
the federal government and corporations like Honeywell.
This group has spent considerable energy attacking Colorado AIM. Recently
released intelligence files reveal an the Denver Police were informed by
the FBI in 1995 of a plan by unnamed individuals from Minneapolis to
assassinate Colorado AIM leaders Ward Churchill and Glenn Morris and wound
Russell Means. “National AIM” has for years denounced Ward as not only as
a “fake” Indian but as an FBI agent, a former cop, and a CIA operative who
supported the Contras in Nigeria (yes, Nigeria). (I can send more info on
this if you’d like.) **
Not surprisingly, a number of those now raising accusations of academic
fraud and personal threats * as well as identity * have ties to this
group.
11. Without any critical investigation of the sources, and ignoring much
evidence to the contrary, the press has reported this wide range of
allegations as if they were “news.” On the “Indian question” Ward is now
being widely denounced as having been hired, tenured and promoted simply
as a result of a false claim of ethnicity. (If it were that easy, one
has to wonder where all the Indians in academia are.) Simultaneously, he
is being barraged by virulent anti-Indian racism, most of it a variant of
“we should have exterminated all of you long ago,” complete with every
derogatory adjective imaginable. And just in case nothing else sticks,
an assortment of other claims about Ward’s artwork, his service in
Vietnam, and
relationships with former wives are being tossed in.
12. All of this adds up to a classic disinformation campaign (of the
sort documented by Ward and Jim Vander Wall in their books, Agents of
Repression and COINTELPRO Papers), one designed to “neutralize” political
dissent. Historically we have seen that such efforts only escalate.
As CU President Betsy Hoffman warned just before she announced her
resignation, these attacks are intended not simply to discredit Ward
Churchill, but are part of a concerted national campaign to undermine
academic freedom. In discussing the settlement option, the CU Regents
flatly rejected Ward’s demand that they affirm their own rules on academic
freedom. Similarly, they refused to acknowledge the validity of existing
tenure and review processes.
Governor Owens is a major player in Lynne Cheney’s American Council of
Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). At CU and across the country, attacks have
begun on ethnic studies and women’s studies, on affirmative action, and on
other professors. In recent weeks not only Ward but students of color at
CU generally have been subjected to acts of blatant racial hatred.
To accede to a “where there’s smoke” rationale without considering the
credibility of sources or their motivations legitimizes the use of ad
hominem attacks to undermine academic freedom. The targeting of Ward
Churchill is just the opening round; what is happening to him can be done
* though perhaps with less visibility * to anyone critical of the status
quo.
The widespread attempts to neutralize political dissent we currently face
will be limited only by the effectiveness of our resistance on each front.
----
**Note from Doc; There is not one national AIM. There are unfortunately
four major factions.
Minneapolis
Colorado
Oklahoma
Confedrated Chapters
Each IMHO tends to spend too much of it's effort claiming to be the
legitemate AIM and each denounces the others.
Each has some amount of truth in it's allegations against the others.
I find the entire reality juvenile and refuse to participate.
Every attack on any of the AIM chapters or personalities is an act of aid
and comfort to the enemy (FBI, CIA, WTO, BIA, FTAA, KKK, etc.).
I must judge Ward by his deeds as I have witnessed them.
I know him to be a man of honor in all of his dealings with me since
Wounded Knee'73.
Doc
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/education
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
It is common for extreme personal attacks not only of book writers, but of those who want to enter government meetings. The regime is an evil and ugly conglamerate under the surface. I served the USA military and was betrayed after service. I support all military operations that target the regime.
American is a dieing entity and the South East has been swallowed up by our enemies who are directed by criminals in power sharing arrangement to D.C. and the Kremlin.
I piss on the American flag in the hands of the regime and applaud all freedom fighters. The World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings were likely not done by those accused, but instead by those who know the truth about the rot that inhabits seats of power in the dieing USA.
Need some crack? A forced medical experiment? Your USA government has it all and I spit in their face. I welcome a world war to free us all from their filthy inhumame grip. Are they even human under the facade? I doubt it. Let it bleed.
Free music and videos of abuse at Mobile Audit Club. The pic is of myself being beaten down in Mobile Alabama after being beaten down in Los Angeles. Break up the USA so we can have intra-regional conflicts to decide if the old laws still apply.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
American is a dieing entity and the South East has been swallowed up by our enemies who are directed by criminals in power sharing arrangement to D.C. and the Kremlin.
I piss on the American flag in the hands of the regime and applaud all freedom fighters. The World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings were likely not done by those accused, but instead by those who know the truth about the rot that inhabits seats of power in the dieing USA.
Need some crack? A forced medical experiment? Your USA government has it all and I spit in their face. I welcome a world war to free us all from their filthy inhumame grip. Are they even human under the facade? I doubt it. Let it bleed.
Free music and videos of abuse at Mobile Audit Club. The pic is of myself being beaten down in Mobile Alabama after being beaten down in Los Angeles. Break up the USA so we can have intra-regional conflicts to decide if the old laws still apply.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/index.html
For more information:
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyor...
While Ward Churchill's job should be defended, he should be actively encouraged to take his pension when eligible as he is clearly profoundly ignorant and amazingly stupid. As we all watched the 9/11/01 Reichstag Fire on TV, it was obvious that our excellent air defense paid for with our tax dollars could have stopped the first plane crash, as well as all the rest, unless they had been told to stand down, and only the president, vice-president or secretary of war could do that, which is exactly what happened.
We know now from reading Michael Ruppert's must-read book, Crossing the Rubicon, that Dick Cheney was in control of the planes which were on automatic pilot guided by the US military with no hijackers on board and that the 9 of the alleged hijackers are currently alive. We also know that the Twin Towers, and Building 7, which was not hit by any plane, were brought down by construction explosives. Not only do we have the videos and eyewitness accounts, we have the chief lessor of Building 7, Larry Silverstein, stating on PBS that Building 7 was brought down by construction explosives. The Pentagon was also damaged by construction explosives. The plane that flew over Pennsylvania was shot down by the US military. This was the CIA's Operation Northwoods realized, a 1962 plan approved by the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff to have the CIA destroy a US airplane and blame it on Cuba as an excuse to invade Cuba, among may other agent provocateur actions. We also know many other details from reading David Ray Griffin's 9/11 Commission Report: Ommissions and Distortions and the many other books and websites proving clearly what should have been obvious on the day it happened to any thinking person that this was an inside job.
No people's liberation movement has the motive, means or opportunity to carry out such a technologically advanced heinous crime. The only beneficiaries are the ruling capitalist class, and they carried it out via their military as only they could. They are not liberators; they are fascists. The Nazis did the same thing with the burning down of their government building, the Reichstag, and blaming the communists. One communist, the Bulgarian communist George Dimitrov, was acquitted of the charge of burning down the Reichstag when he put the Nazis on the witness stand and proved they did it.
Ward Churchill spoke in San Francisco on Friday, March 25, and his speech was excerpted on KPFA's news at 6 p.m. on March 26. This profoundly ignorant "professor" had the unmitigated gall to state that Eichmann did not participate in the killing of Jews; he was simply the transportation coordinator, who arranged the train schedules. Quoting from the benchmark must-read book by William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
"The lucractive trade in human freedom was handled by a special organization set up under the SS by Heydrich, the 'Office for Jewish Emigration' which became the sole Nazi agency authorized to issue permits to leave the country. Administered from the beginning to the end by an Austrian Nazi, a native of Hitler's home town of Linz by the name of Karl Adolf Eichmann, it was to become eventually an agency not of emigration but of extermination and to organize the slaughter of more than four million persons, mostly Jews."
Another benchmark must read book, The Destruction of The European Jews" by Raul Hilberg, state "...in these foreign areas the Eichmann machinery concerned itself with the entire uprooting phase of the deportations, including the initiation of anti-Jewish laws, the various definitions and categorizations of the Jewish victims, and the time and procurement of transportation."
One means of transportation was via trucks which filled with gas, murdering the Jews inside.
This is the Nazi to whom the workers at the World Trade Center were compared by the profoundly ignorant "professor" Ward Churchill. At best, this demonstrates the bankruptcy of identity politics and its complete contempt for the class struggle. There is, obviously, no comparison whatsoever. And further, it was the US government which carried out the 9/11/01 Reichstag Fire for the same reasons the Nazis burned the Reichstag: to perpetrate fascism at home and war abroad so as to maximize the profits of the capitalist class.
It is the class analysis that is completely missing from Ward Churchill's feeble brain. There is a saying: He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool; avoid him. It is best to avoid Ward Churchill.
We know now from reading Michael Ruppert's must-read book, Crossing the Rubicon, that Dick Cheney was in control of the planes which were on automatic pilot guided by the US military with no hijackers on board and that the 9 of the alleged hijackers are currently alive. We also know that the Twin Towers, and Building 7, which was not hit by any plane, were brought down by construction explosives. Not only do we have the videos and eyewitness accounts, we have the chief lessor of Building 7, Larry Silverstein, stating on PBS that Building 7 was brought down by construction explosives. The Pentagon was also damaged by construction explosives. The plane that flew over Pennsylvania was shot down by the US military. This was the CIA's Operation Northwoods realized, a 1962 plan approved by the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff to have the CIA destroy a US airplane and blame it on Cuba as an excuse to invade Cuba, among may other agent provocateur actions. We also know many other details from reading David Ray Griffin's 9/11 Commission Report: Ommissions and Distortions and the many other books and websites proving clearly what should have been obvious on the day it happened to any thinking person that this was an inside job.
No people's liberation movement has the motive, means or opportunity to carry out such a technologically advanced heinous crime. The only beneficiaries are the ruling capitalist class, and they carried it out via their military as only they could. They are not liberators; they are fascists. The Nazis did the same thing with the burning down of their government building, the Reichstag, and blaming the communists. One communist, the Bulgarian communist George Dimitrov, was acquitted of the charge of burning down the Reichstag when he put the Nazis on the witness stand and proved they did it.
Ward Churchill spoke in San Francisco on Friday, March 25, and his speech was excerpted on KPFA's news at 6 p.m. on March 26. This profoundly ignorant "professor" had the unmitigated gall to state that Eichmann did not participate in the killing of Jews; he was simply the transportation coordinator, who arranged the train schedules. Quoting from the benchmark must-read book by William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich:
"The lucractive trade in human freedom was handled by a special organization set up under the SS by Heydrich, the 'Office for Jewish Emigration' which became the sole Nazi agency authorized to issue permits to leave the country. Administered from the beginning to the end by an Austrian Nazi, a native of Hitler's home town of Linz by the name of Karl Adolf Eichmann, it was to become eventually an agency not of emigration but of extermination and to organize the slaughter of more than four million persons, mostly Jews."
Another benchmark must read book, The Destruction of The European Jews" by Raul Hilberg, state "...in these foreign areas the Eichmann machinery concerned itself with the entire uprooting phase of the deportations, including the initiation of anti-Jewish laws, the various definitions and categorizations of the Jewish victims, and the time and procurement of transportation."
One means of transportation was via trucks which filled with gas, murdering the Jews inside.
This is the Nazi to whom the workers at the World Trade Center were compared by the profoundly ignorant "professor" Ward Churchill. At best, this demonstrates the bankruptcy of identity politics and its complete contempt for the class struggle. There is, obviously, no comparison whatsoever. And further, it was the US government which carried out the 9/11/01 Reichstag Fire for the same reasons the Nazis burned the Reichstag: to perpetrate fascism at home and war abroad so as to maximize the profits of the capitalist class.
It is the class analysis that is completely missing from Ward Churchill's feeble brain. There is a saying: He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool; avoid him. It is best to avoid Ward Churchill.
"This profoundly ignorant "professor" had the unmitigated gall to state that Eichmann did not participate in the killing of Jews"
He said no such thing. You really should listen to what he said (the audio is posted on this site) befoe accusing him of such things. I dont agree with Ward's analysis but his stuff on Eichman seemed to come straight from Arendt's book "The Banality of Evil". Ward's use of the name Eichman came from Arendt's talk of the indirectness of the killings carried out by Nazi beurocrats compared to the soliders on the ground. Ward's use of the name Eichman in relation to the WTC has something to do with placing the balme for US foreign policy and the exploitation of the third world directly on the heads of CEOs and stockbrokers in the US. In a sense he is saying that a CEO at Coke who however indirectly orders the killing of Union leaders in Colombia is guilty of murder even moreso than the death squads on the ground. You can respond that since most CEOs dont directly order individual murders this is different from Eichman and perhaps it is but then you should be attacking Ward for placing too much blame on the US executives and misrepresenting who was actually working in th WTC. Of course part of What Ward argues is something I think most would have to agree with which is that the WTC was targetted twice since the WTC was seen (by those who carried it out) as a symbol of US business interests that lie at the heart of US power.
Your attack on Ward is just a play on words which would be akin to accusing anyone who calls Bush a fascist of being soft of WWII fascists. When people use hyperbole they are using the comparison because the believe the second part of the comparison is probably worse than what they really think; a signs saying Bush is Satan isnt saying Satan is only as bad as Bush, a sign saying Sharon is a Nazi isnt saying Nazis were only as bad as Sharon, and a speech comparing those in the WTC to Eichman isnt saying that EIchman was only as bad as some in the WTC. It would be nice to hear you make a well thought out critique of Ward but trying to play his Eichman remark off as antiSemitic Hollocaust revisionism is just an underhanded trick to discredit Ward without dealing with anything he actually said.
He said no such thing. You really should listen to what he said (the audio is posted on this site) befoe accusing him of such things. I dont agree with Ward's analysis but his stuff on Eichman seemed to come straight from Arendt's book "The Banality of Evil". Ward's use of the name Eichman came from Arendt's talk of the indirectness of the killings carried out by Nazi beurocrats compared to the soliders on the ground. Ward's use of the name Eichman in relation to the WTC has something to do with placing the balme for US foreign policy and the exploitation of the third world directly on the heads of CEOs and stockbrokers in the US. In a sense he is saying that a CEO at Coke who however indirectly orders the killing of Union leaders in Colombia is guilty of murder even moreso than the death squads on the ground. You can respond that since most CEOs dont directly order individual murders this is different from Eichman and perhaps it is but then you should be attacking Ward for placing too much blame on the US executives and misrepresenting who was actually working in th WTC. Of course part of What Ward argues is something I think most would have to agree with which is that the WTC was targetted twice since the WTC was seen (by those who carried it out) as a symbol of US business interests that lie at the heart of US power.
Your attack on Ward is just a play on words which would be akin to accusing anyone who calls Bush a fascist of being soft of WWII fascists. When people use hyperbole they are using the comparison because the believe the second part of the comparison is probably worse than what they really think; a signs saying Bush is Satan isnt saying Satan is only as bad as Bush, a sign saying Sharon is a Nazi isnt saying Nazis were only as bad as Sharon, and a speech comparing those in the WTC to Eichman isnt saying that EIchman was only as bad as some in the WTC. It would be nice to hear you make a well thought out critique of Ward but trying to play his Eichman remark off as antiSemitic Hollocaust revisionism is just an underhanded trick to discredit Ward without dealing with anything he actually said.
I am sure that Ward knew what the Corporate Controled Mass Media which is controled by the same faction that (yes) controls our own government was going to do as far as try to destroy his integrity. That was to be expected. And the mind manipulated "moral majority" (laugh) will never bother to look at Ward's background, or bother to listen to what it is he has to say at "this point". But that doesn't mean ALL of us are brain dead. And once you hear something, you can't un-hear it. So they will never be able to "stop" the truth from being told. At least that much we can count on. So Ward has helped open some eyes and ears to the TRUTH however you want look at it. And "their" condemnation only draws more attention to him.
This system, is breaking down more every day. And the more that "they" try to hold on to what "they" have created, the more "they" give themselves away. And the more eyes open to what it is that goes on around the world...and why. So let them blow their smoke where-ever they like. This system is starting to fall, and will continue to do so with the help of people like Ward Churchill, David Icke, Alex Jones, Jim Marrs, Jeff Rense, George Noory, and the list goes on. The organized criminal World Banking System is what needs to come down. This is the root of all the evil system building and exploitation of third world nations. That was what was behind the exploitation of the original inhabitants of this nation. But it's just a belief. And it's time to WAKE up. Awaken! And the TRUTH shall set you free. Freedom.... Live it. BE it.
This system, is breaking down more every day. And the more that "they" try to hold on to what "they" have created, the more "they" give themselves away. And the more eyes open to what it is that goes on around the world...and why. So let them blow their smoke where-ever they like. This system is starting to fall, and will continue to do so with the help of people like Ward Churchill, David Icke, Alex Jones, Jim Marrs, Jeff Rense, George Noory, and the list goes on. The organized criminal World Banking System is what needs to come down. This is the root of all the evil system building and exploitation of third world nations. That was what was behind the exploitation of the original inhabitants of this nation. But it's just a belief. And it's time to WAKE up. Awaken! And the TRUTH shall set you free. Freedom.... Live it. BE it.
David Icke is awful. He has all the indications of being a charismatic schizophrenic person with his crazy ideas about the planet being controlled by a secret reptilian class of shapeshifters who only appear to be human, but have weird slitty pupils, and he also dangerously brings race into his rambles. If you need to follow a leader, there are better people. Jeff Rense has a tolerable list of weblinks, except he has a serious lack of quality control and filtering of crap.
Here is what CU is doing today. They are telling Churchill to prove his race. Luckily, when being asked to do a ridiculous thing like this, in the ethnic studies department where they study concepts of race and ethnicity, they are light years ahead of where the regents probably are. For almost anyone, try to prove what your race is. I could say I'm german, but my friend's housemate is really german yet he was adopted from Korea and has black hair. I'm white so people wouldn't doubt me, but it turns out that in the 1600s and 1700s, a few of my relatives (of the fraction that I can trace, and many people can't trace beyond 1850) were rumored to have come from France from religious persecution, and from serbia. Then the question would be to prove that those people were really french, and weren't themselves descended from people from elsewhere. And what means do you have to prove any of this. Old census records aren't accurate. The people taking them had inaccurate notions of race, and they only added the mixed race category in the U.S. in yr 2000.
-----------------------
By Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writer
Post / Andy Cross
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill greets American Indian Movement member Leslie Andrews, 20, after Andrews spoke at a rally on the Boulder campus Tuesday evening.
University of Colorado at Boulder officials have asked embattled professor Ward Churchill to respond in writing to questions of plagiarism and ethnicity within two weeks, Churchill said.
"My response was, 'I had hoped you'd have the integrity to drop the ethnic thing, but since you haven't, I will provide you with information that's already public record,"' said Churchill, who has asked for an extension of the deadline.
"I don't know what these guys who are supposed to be faculty members do for a living, but I teach," he said. "I can't put a response together and grade papers for 200 students in the middle of finals. Nice timing, guys."
Officials couldn't be reached at CU late Tuesday for comment.
Advertisement
Churchill said he was asked to respond to a report issued in March by a three-person committee that looked into his comments about Sept. 11. While the committee determined he could not be punished for his speech, they asked a faculty panel to investigate Churchill on charges of plagiarism and whether he falsely represented himself to be American Indian.
Churchill briefly spoke about the inquiry at a rally held at the CU campus Tuesday night.
The event, modeled after the Four Directions All Nations march that takes place in Denver to protest Columbus Day, gathered a vocal crowd of about 300 who sported signs such as, "Bush's actions are more outrageous than Churchill's words."
Those who gathered at the rally said they did so to support faculty of color, to protest racism and to affirm free speech.
In response, a CU spokesman handed out a statement that read in part, "The University of Colorado at Boulder has no evidence of a connection between racist incidents occurring on or near campus in recent months and the allegations against professor Ward Churchill."
Several speakers appeared, but it was Churchill the crowd was clearly there to see.
"Welcome to ground zero," Churchill said to loud cheers. "I do not back up an inch. My fight is your fight and vice versa. ... We go forward with this (expletive) committee and its process, and we defeat that."
Meanwhile, Churchill's attorney, David Lane, spoke on a panel before the Boulder chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He told the group that CU's investigation is a retaliation for Churchill's essay written shortly after Sept. 11 that compared some of the World Trade Center victims to Nazis.
"The Ward Churchill case is a microcosm of First Amendment analysis in America today," Lane said. "If nothing else, the Ward Churchill case is probably one of the best opportunities to teach people about the First Amendment that I have seen in my entire life."
Here is what CU is doing today. They are telling Churchill to prove his race. Luckily, when being asked to do a ridiculous thing like this, in the ethnic studies department where they study concepts of race and ethnicity, they are light years ahead of where the regents probably are. For almost anyone, try to prove what your race is. I could say I'm german, but my friend's housemate is really german yet he was adopted from Korea and has black hair. I'm white so people wouldn't doubt me, but it turns out that in the 1600s and 1700s, a few of my relatives (of the fraction that I can trace, and many people can't trace beyond 1850) were rumored to have come from France from religious persecution, and from serbia. Then the question would be to prove that those people were really french, and weren't themselves descended from people from elsewhere. And what means do you have to prove any of this. Old census records aren't accurate. The people taking them had inaccurate notions of race, and they only added the mixed race category in the U.S. in yr 2000.
-----------------------
By Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writer
Post / Andy Cross
University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill greets American Indian Movement member Leslie Andrews, 20, after Andrews spoke at a rally on the Boulder campus Tuesday evening.
University of Colorado at Boulder officials have asked embattled professor Ward Churchill to respond in writing to questions of plagiarism and ethnicity within two weeks, Churchill said.
"My response was, 'I had hoped you'd have the integrity to drop the ethnic thing, but since you haven't, I will provide you with information that's already public record,"' said Churchill, who has asked for an extension of the deadline.
"I don't know what these guys who are supposed to be faculty members do for a living, but I teach," he said. "I can't put a response together and grade papers for 200 students in the middle of finals. Nice timing, guys."
Officials couldn't be reached at CU late Tuesday for comment.
Advertisement
Churchill said he was asked to respond to a report issued in March by a three-person committee that looked into his comments about Sept. 11. While the committee determined he could not be punished for his speech, they asked a faculty panel to investigate Churchill on charges of plagiarism and whether he falsely represented himself to be American Indian.
Churchill briefly spoke about the inquiry at a rally held at the CU campus Tuesday night.
The event, modeled after the Four Directions All Nations march that takes place in Denver to protest Columbus Day, gathered a vocal crowd of about 300 who sported signs such as, "Bush's actions are more outrageous than Churchill's words."
Those who gathered at the rally said they did so to support faculty of color, to protest racism and to affirm free speech.
In response, a CU spokesman handed out a statement that read in part, "The University of Colorado at Boulder has no evidence of a connection between racist incidents occurring on or near campus in recent months and the allegations against professor Ward Churchill."
Several speakers appeared, but it was Churchill the crowd was clearly there to see.
"Welcome to ground zero," Churchill said to loud cheers. "I do not back up an inch. My fight is your fight and vice versa. ... We go forward with this (expletive) committee and its process, and we defeat that."
Meanwhile, Churchill's attorney, David Lane, spoke on a panel before the Boulder chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He told the group that CU's investigation is a retaliation for Churchill's essay written shortly after Sept. 11 that compared some of the World Trade Center victims to Nazis.
"The Ward Churchill case is a microcosm of First Amendment analysis in America today," Lane said. "If nothing else, the Ward Churchill case is probably one of the best opportunities to teach people about the First Amendment that I have seen in my entire life."
[Here is what CU is doing today. They are telling Churchill to prove his race. Luckily, when being asked to do a ridiculous thing like this, in the ethnic studies department where they study concepts of race and ethnicity, they are light years ahead of where the regents probably are. For almost anyone, try to prove what your race is. I could say I'm german, but my friend's housemate is really german yet he was adopted from Korea and has black hair. I'm white so people wouldn't doubt me, but it turns out that in the 1600s and 1700s, a few of my relatives (of the fraction that I can trace, and many people can't trace beyond 1850) were rumored to have come from France from religious persecution, and from serbia. Then the question would be to prove that those people were really french, and weren't themselves descended from people from elsewhere. And what means do you have to prove any of this. Old census records aren't accurate. The people taking them had inaccurate notions of race, and they only added the mixed race category in the U.S. in yr 2000.]
In regard to Churchill, this is beginning to look like clear harassment, because, after all, CU can't say that he was hired because he said he was Native American, even if he did exaggerate or lie about it. And, if they are going to fire him for this (assuming he lied), how many other professors are vulnerable for similar transgressions?
In the larger context, racial identification has always been problematic as you say. How many segregationist whites in the South in the 1960s had African American relatives in their family history, and vice versa with African Americans? For the left, it's a challenging issue, because, while geneticists and anthropologists have been diminishing the idea of a clear racial identity, with distinguishing attributes (like that Harvard guy who died a few years ago, the guy who rebutted Murray's "The Bell Curve"), people undoubtedly do discriminate on the basis of purported racial differences.
And, the reverse is also true, people associate and interact culturally and socially on this basis as well.
--Richard
In regard to Churchill, this is beginning to look like clear harassment, because, after all, CU can't say that he was hired because he said he was Native American, even if he did exaggerate or lie about it. And, if they are going to fire him for this (assuming he lied), how many other professors are vulnerable for similar transgressions?
In the larger context, racial identification has always been problematic as you say. How many segregationist whites in the South in the 1960s had African American relatives in their family history, and vice versa with African Americans? For the left, it's a challenging issue, because, while geneticists and anthropologists have been diminishing the idea of a clear racial identity, with distinguishing attributes (like that Harvard guy who died a few years ago, the guy who rebutted Murray's "The Bell Curve"), people undoubtedly do discriminate on the basis of purported racial differences.
And, the reverse is also true, people associate and interact culturally and socially on this basis as well.
--Richard
FOR Amy...
I prefer not to follow any leader. And even David Icke would not claim to have the answers, or ask you to believe what he has to say. He is only presenting information he has come upon in his study of who we are, and why we are here.
Like Ward Churchill, David Icke presents information you just do not get from the indoctrination system we have grown up in. Detailed information that is sourced and documented. And you are welcome to form your own belief and opinion, because that is understood to be a personal decision.
And as a FREE society, we should respect each others decision to believe whatever it is we so choose to believe. The problem comes when particular forces start to meddle with those belief systems. And that starts in our own homes at a very young age in most cases. Trying to open ones mind after being through the "education system" (er-hem) can be a little hard to do. Let alone if one has been through a private religious based indoctrination system. (won't go into details)
As far as bloodlines go...Try Burke's Peerage via a Google search. I myself would think that anyone born in this country is a native American...NO? Maybe not necessarily indigenous in reality. But from spiritual point of view, the Native American belief system is more of a way of life that is a constant learning process than a debate over the exact amount of indigenous blood that runs in ones veins. Ward can be as Native American as he wants to be when standing for rights of a Nation that a lot of the people in this country tend to forget about when they go about their daily lives. Thanks very much.
I prefer not to follow any leader. And even David Icke would not claim to have the answers, or ask you to believe what he has to say. He is only presenting information he has come upon in his study of who we are, and why we are here.
Like Ward Churchill, David Icke presents information you just do not get from the indoctrination system we have grown up in. Detailed information that is sourced and documented. And you are welcome to form your own belief and opinion, because that is understood to be a personal decision.
And as a FREE society, we should respect each others decision to believe whatever it is we so choose to believe. The problem comes when particular forces start to meddle with those belief systems. And that starts in our own homes at a very young age in most cases. Trying to open ones mind after being through the "education system" (er-hem) can be a little hard to do. Let alone if one has been through a private religious based indoctrination system. (won't go into details)
As far as bloodlines go...Try Burke's Peerage via a Google search. I myself would think that anyone born in this country is a native American...NO? Maybe not necessarily indigenous in reality. But from spiritual point of view, the Native American belief system is more of a way of life that is a constant learning process than a debate over the exact amount of indigenous blood that runs in ones veins. Ward can be as Native American as he wants to be when standing for rights of a Nation that a lot of the people in this country tend to forget about when they go about their daily lives. Thanks very much.
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