Ward Churchill's 9/11 opinions Draw Emotional Crowd

Ward Churchill's 9/11 opinions Draw Emotional Crowd
Controversial writer Wspeaks at local university
By CLARISSA ALJENTERA and JOE LIVERNOIS
Monterey (California) Herald Staff Writers
Tuesday May 3, 2005, page one

Several dozen people gathered at CSU-Monterey Bay on Monday to read the
names of the victims of the Sept. 11
attacks to protest the appearance of a University of Colorado professor
who they believe tarnished the names
of those victims.

But more than 500 others gathered inside the University Center Ballroom
to listen to Ward Churchill deliver
a scathing indictment of U.S. policies, policies he believes led to the
9/11 attacks.

"We don't believe in any of the things he is saying," said Kenneth
Beadell, who was carrying an American flag
during the remembrance.

Beadell, a Vietnam veteran, was standing about 20 yards from a group of
people who came out to protest the war
in Iraq.

"People have given their lives for people to have freedom to
demonstrate," he said.

The candlelight vigil was planned by the Republican party of Monterey
County along with the young Republicans
at CSUMB.

"This is supposed to be a contrast," said Kelly Bland, president of the
Young Republicans.

The reading of the names of the Sept. 11 victims was not meant to be a
protest of Churchill's lecture,
said Paul Bruno, co-chairman of the Monterey County Republican Party.

"Churchill has a right to free speech," said Bruno. "This is a
contrast. It is not political. Sept. 11
was not political. This man spews hate speech. What we are doing is
remembering the victims."

Around 6 p.m. the names of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were
read and about 30 minutes later people
protesting the war began chanting anti-President Bush messages. The
group against the war in Iraq dispersed
and filtered into the building while the group reading the names of the
Sept. 11 victims continued.

Gus Moutos, who lost his son Peter in the World Trade Center bombing,
said he wasn't pleased with the message Churchill was sending out.

"I have an objection to anyone who comes to misinform the students,"
said Moutos, carrying a framed photograph
of his son.

During his 1-hour and 45-minute speech, Churchill did not back down
from his 3½-year-old, description of
World Trade Center victims as ''little Eichmanns'' that has recently
turned him into a subject of conservative torment while propelling him
into the latest liberal champion du jour.

In Colorado, politicians and regents are calling for his head, Bill
O'Reilly set aside time on his TV program
to excoriate the professor, and Churchill has received more than 60,000
mostly-angry e-mails since January.

"I'm still standing," he said. "I became the poster boy for academic
freedom. I didn't ask for this."

And he said he doesn't expect it to last much longer, and he noted
Monday that his name is already starting
to fade as a nation turns its attention to "runaway brides and Michael
Jackson."

Churchill has found himself at the center of an academic firestorm for
a 20-page essay he wrote for an obscure
Web magazine the day of the 9/11 attacks in which he described the
victims of the World Trade Center's destruction
as "Little Eichmanns," referring to the Nazi technocrat who assiduously
did his job, leading to the genocide of millions of Jews.

Churchill said Monday he never said that the WTC victims "deserved" to
die, but said that systematic economic sanctions and policies of
aggression by the U.S. have fostered enemies who inevitably reacted in kind.
And, he said, the victims at WTC were working at jobs that, like Adolph
Eichmann's, support a system that
has led to millions of deaths worldwide in the name of American might.

While watching the devastation on Sept. 11, Churchill said he was
struck by the immediate reaction in the
American media that the attacks were "senseless acts."

"This is not happening by accident," Churchill said he told himself.
"This is not happening extemporaneously.
Whoever did this planned it with a purpose. If there's a purpose,
there's a motive. If there's a motive,
you can't conceivably call it senseless."

Churchill said he "immediately flashed on" Malcolm X's reaction to John
F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963,
that "the chickens are coming home to roost."

Churchill then recited a litany of what he termed "genocidal" policies
against people, both foreign and in the U.S., dating back to the
elimination of American Indians, to slavery and to the brutal use of Chinese
immigrants to build the railroads.

In the modern era, Churchill said, the "policy of genocide" extends to
the deaths of more than 500,000 children
in Iraq in 1996 that he attributes to U.S. sanctions on Iraq, to
Nagasaki and Hiroshima, to CIA-led intervention
in Latin America and to continuing conflicts in the Mideast.

"Doing this to other people is a fundamental requirement to what it
means to be the United States," he said.
So, he added, it should not come as a surprise when the United States
becomes a target. And the response to
America's "terrorism problem," Churchill said, is to "perpetuate the
reason people dislike us to begin with."

Churchill came under fire after he had written an essay saying the
United States set itself up for attack
because of an unlawful American foreign policy that resulted in killing
countless innocent people around
the world.

Caitlin Manning had heard Churchill's information and was eager to see
the literature that was given out before
the lecture began. The flier urged Churchill to go back to his ''tee
pee'' and said anyone on his side was with
the terrorists.

"I'm actually one of the few people who read his quotes and looked at
what he said," said Manning, a faculty
member at the university. "I thought there was some truth to it. It was
the racist stuff what brought me here."

Although the flier looked as if it was circulated by the CSUMB College
Republicans, members of the organization
said they didn't create it.

Churchill's appearance was partly sponsored by CSUMB's MEChA
organization.

Zoilo Avila, 23, co-chairman of the campus group, said MEChA has been
trying to lure Churchill to the campus
for years, even before Churchill became the subject of the heated
debate. Avila also said he welcomed the
protest outside.

"I think it's great," he said. "It's a dialogue that is healthy. He
stated his case and it's a different side
and a different light. It's important that people not become
intellectually lazy."

Churchill was paid $4,000 from student-body fees for his appearance.