Ward Churchill Under Attack 

AK Press / San Francisco Bay View 16feb2005

After finding himself at the center of a media firestorm - and receiving a barrage of death threats - AK Press author Ward Churchill has stepped down from his position as chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado. Not satisfied with this, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens is demanding that Ward resign his position as a tenured professor as well.

The controversy is based on an essay Ward wrote soon after 9-11, which he later expanded into an AK Press book, "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality." Conservative protestors used the essay to force Hamilton College in New York to cancel a speaking engagement Ward had scheduled there. The mainstream media, including Bill O'Reilly and Fox News, has picked up the story, distorting and misrepresenting the facts, as usual.

AK Press wishes to voice our support for Ward in this struggle - in terms of both his well-researched analysis of factors that contributed to the 9-11 attacks and his right to express that analysis in public without having his life and livelihood threatened.

Below, we've provided some links to articles describing the controversy, followed by the press release Ward issued. We also recommend that you read "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" yourself, rather than relying on the media's version on it. If you can't find it in a library or bookstore, you can order it here:

• http://www.akpress.org/2003/items/onthejusticeofroostingchickens.

Media coverage:

• http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3512151,00.html [article below] 
• http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3514100,00.html [not found] 
• http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4151452/detail.html [Gov's statement below] 

Ward Churchill's press release

Jan. 31, 2005 - In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the Sept. 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.

l 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.

l I am not a "defender" of the Sept. 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."

l 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."

l 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 Sept. 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.

l Finally, I have never characterized all the Sept. 11 victims as "Nazis." What I said was that the "technocrats of empire" working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of "little Eichmanns." 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.

l 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.

l 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, they 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.

l 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.

l 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

The anti-AIM tide is rising
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

All of us who surround those who were involved in AIM since the early '70s have known it was coming, or rather that "they" would come for them again. There is no shock in the recent campaign to discredit Ward Churchill (former national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee).

Most of all, we are sure Mr. Churchill himself knew it was coming sooner or later. We are sure Ward is at home asking himself questions such as: why now, what will be gained by disabling me at this time and how will this negatively affect the movement? Most of all, like any good warrior, we hope he finds himself asking how he can make this work for the movement's benefit. Mr. Churchill has co-authored books which guaranteed he would be attacked by his favorite organization, the FBI.

His contributions academically to the Indian movement, whether it be AIM or a generation of like minded thinkers, has been vast. Without books such as "Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement" and "The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret War Against Dissent in the United States," our generation and those younger would not have a map by which we can predict the government's response and how they will work to stop Indians being outspoken. Simply put, we firmly believe that many of AIM's figureheads are modern-day Indian heroes. We cannot sit by and watch our government continue to destroy Native Americans.

Mr. Churchill's writings are motivational in a way the government does not appreciate. His writings are critical of the government. We believe any educated Indian would have to agree with his works and themes, though not necessarily embrace every point. We believe we need people such as Mr. Churchill who are not afraid to exercise their First Amendment right of freedom of speech. American Indians need to feel free to speak.

Please note the newspaper reporters seem to forget how long ago Mr. Churchill wrote the 9/11 piece. It is also important to note how the mainstream press has totally misinterpreted and misreported Mr. Churchill's statements and intent. We challenge those who have not read Mr. Churchill to read what he has written and draw their own conclusions and not be swayed by the propaganda being spread by the mainstream media.

Please beware: The government will use 9/11 and anything else they find inflammatory to turn the tide against AIM and against not only Ward Churchill, but against Leonard Peltier. Our phones are tapped, of this we are sure, so the FBI clearly knows lately those at the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee have made some great contacts internationally.

We assure you they want to turn the tide against Leonard and AIM right now; therefore, they must undo all our work, they must keep us down. Remember these guys earn a paycheck to suppress us; we have nothing but pocket lint because it is our lives.

But if we do not let the rising anti-AIM tide drown our spirits, we can still win. We say good luck, Mr. Churchill. We personally like the way you exercise your first amendment rights.

source: http://www.sfbayview.com/020905/underattack020905.shtml 21feb2005

CU's Churchill R as Dept. Chair 

CHARLIE BRENNAN / Rocky Mountain News 31jan2005

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, was intended 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'."

source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_%203512151,00.html 21feb2005

Gov. Owens Letter Calls For Churchill To Step Down February 1, 2005

Dear Friends:

We have come to a teaching moment at the University of Colorado. I applaud every person on the University of Colorado campus who has come to speak out against the indecent, insensitive and inappropriate comments and writings of Ward Churchill.

All decent people, whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, should denounce the views of Ward Churchill. Not only are his writings outrageous and insupportable, they are at odds with the facts of history. The thousands of innocent people -- and innocent they were -- who were murdered on September 11 were murdered by evil cowards Indeed, if anyone could possibly be compared to the evildoers of Nazi Germany, it is the terrorists of the 21st century who have an equally repugnant disregard for innocent human life.

No one wants to infringe on Mr. Churchill’s right to express himself. But we are not compelled to accept his pro-terrorist views at state taxpayer subsidy nor under the banner of the University of Colorado. Ward Churchill besmirches the University and the excellent teaching, writing and research of its faculty.

Ideas have consequences, and words have meaning. If there is one lesson that we hope that all Coloradans take from this sad case -- and especially our students -- it is that civility and appropriate conduct are important. Mr. Churchill’s views are not simply anti-American. They are at odds with simple decency, and antagonistic to the beliefs and conduct of civilized people around the world. His views are far outside the mainstream of civil discourse and useful academic work.

His resignation as chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department was a good first step. We hope that he will follow this step by resigning his position on the faculty of the University of Colorado.

Sincerely,
Bill Owens

source: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4151452/detail.html 21feb2005