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02-09-2005, 11:09 AM
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050209/2005-02-09T065017Z_01_N09331273_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-LIFE-UNIVERSITY-DC.html
Scholar Defiant Amid Furor Over 9/11 Remarks
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Feb 9, 1:50 AM (ET)
By Keith Coffman
BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - A University of Colorado professor under fire for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal on Tuesday refused to apologize for his remarks.
"I am not backing off an inch," said Ward Churchill, drawing an ovation from a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,200 students and backers gathered in a ballroom. "I owe no one an apology."
Churchill, who filed a lawsuit earlier in the day after officials at the state-funded university had threatened to cancel his speech, said his central message was that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had been provoked by U.S. foreign policy.
"Naturally and inevitably, what you put out will blow back on you and that's what happened," Churchill said.
In his essay, "Some People Push Back," written shortly after Sept. 11, Churchill said the hijackers had mounted "counterattacks" in the face of hostile U.S. policy in the Middle East and a campaign of "genocide" against Iraq through the trade sanctions imposed after the first Gulf War.
In the essay, later revised for a book, Churchill also said that World Trade Center victims could not be seen as innocent, calling them "little Eichmanns," a reference to German World War II criminal Adolf Eichmann.
"True enough, they were civilians of a sort," he wrote. "But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire."
'I DON'T WORK FOR BILL OWENS'
Churchill, a veteran Native American activist, first attracted widespread notice last month after Hamilton College in New York canceled a scheduled appearance, citing threats against him and others who had been slated to appear.
The University of Colorado then launched an investigation, a first step toward possibly firing Churchill.
Scholars have rallied to the defense of what they see as the free-speech rights at stake in the case, saying the firing of a tenured professor over unpopular remarks would threaten academic freedoms.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, has called for Churchill to be dismissed and state lawmakers have passed resolutions denouncing him.
"I do not work for the taxpayers of Colorado, and I don't work for Bill Owens. I work for you," Churchill told the audience.
Churchill has resigned as chairman of the university's ethnic studies department but has threatened to sue the school if he is fired.
Churchill said he felt sorrow for "the firefighters, food service workers, broom pushers and passersby" who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But he added that he also felt sorrow for the 500,000 Iraqi children he said had died as a result of the sanctions imposed on that country after the first Gulf War.
And he said he thought his initial published remarks had been deliberately miscast by conservative pundits.
"Nowhere in there did I justify the killing of innocent people," he told Reuters. "Those words are not there."
University administrators reversed course on Tuesday, allowing Churchill's speech to take place after determining students who organized the speech had not received death threats, as one had earlier claimed.
Even so, Churchill's lawyer, Darold Killmer, asked U.S. District Judge Bob Blackburn to grant an injunction that would prevent the university from "further suppression" of Churchill's free speech rights.
Blackburn gave the university until Feb. 24 to respond to that petition.
Scholar Defiant Amid Furor Over 9/11 Remarks
Email this Story
Feb 9, 1:50 AM (ET)
By Keith Coffman
BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - A University of Colorado professor under fire for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal on Tuesday refused to apologize for his remarks.
"I am not backing off an inch," said Ward Churchill, drawing an ovation from a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,200 students and backers gathered in a ballroom. "I owe no one an apology."
Churchill, who filed a lawsuit earlier in the day after officials at the state-funded university had threatened to cancel his speech, said his central message was that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had been provoked by U.S. foreign policy.
"Naturally and inevitably, what you put out will blow back on you and that's what happened," Churchill said.
In his essay, "Some People Push Back," written shortly after Sept. 11, Churchill said the hijackers had mounted "counterattacks" in the face of hostile U.S. policy in the Middle East and a campaign of "genocide" against Iraq through the trade sanctions imposed after the first Gulf War.
In the essay, later revised for a book, Churchill also said that World Trade Center victims could not be seen as innocent, calling them "little Eichmanns," a reference to German World War II criminal Adolf Eichmann.
"True enough, they were civilians of a sort," he wrote. "But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire."
'I DON'T WORK FOR BILL OWENS'
Churchill, a veteran Native American activist, first attracted widespread notice last month after Hamilton College in New York canceled a scheduled appearance, citing threats against him and others who had been slated to appear.
The University of Colorado then launched an investigation, a first step toward possibly firing Churchill.
Scholars have rallied to the defense of what they see as the free-speech rights at stake in the case, saying the firing of a tenured professor over unpopular remarks would threaten academic freedoms.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, has called for Churchill to be dismissed and state lawmakers have passed resolutions denouncing him.
"I do not work for the taxpayers of Colorado, and I don't work for Bill Owens. I work for you," Churchill told the audience.
Churchill has resigned as chairman of the university's ethnic studies department but has threatened to sue the school if he is fired.
Churchill said he felt sorrow for "the firefighters, food service workers, broom pushers and passersby" who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But he added that he also felt sorrow for the 500,000 Iraqi children he said had died as a result of the sanctions imposed on that country after the first Gulf War.
And he said he thought his initial published remarks had been deliberately miscast by conservative pundits.
"Nowhere in there did I justify the killing of innocent people," he told Reuters. "Those words are not there."
University administrators reversed course on Tuesday, allowing Churchill's speech to take place after determining students who organized the speech had not received death threats, as one had earlier claimed.
Even so, Churchill's lawyer, Darold Killmer, asked U.S. District Judge Bob Blackburn to grant an injunction that would prevent the university from "further suppression" of Churchill's free speech rights.
Blackburn gave the university until Feb. 24 to respond to that petition.