Colorado professor wins wrongful-termination suit

[Disco_Destroyer]

Colorado professor wins wrongful-termination suit
Ward Churchill's 'little Eichmanns' reference to victims of 9/11 started a storm that led to his firing.
By DeeDee Correll
April 3, 2009
Reporting from Boulder, Colo. -- The University of Colorado professor who likened 9/11 victims to a Nazi leader was fired in retaliation for his controversial remarks, a Denver jury ruled Thursday.

Jurors in the wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by Ward L. Churchill agreed with the embattled professor's contention that he was the victim of a "howling mob," not the perpetrator of academic misconduct.



Ward Chuchill, David Lane
However, they awarded him only $1 in damages, an amount Churchill dismissed after the verdict as unimportant.

"What's next for me? Reinstatement, of course," Churchill said at a televised news conference outside the courtroom. "I didn't ask for money. I asked for justice."

It's up to Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves to decide whether to return Churchill, 61, to his $96,392-per-year job as a professor of ethnic studies at the Boulder campus. The judge also will determine whether the university must pay his legal fees.


Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said the verdict represented a victory "for the 1st Amendment and academic freedom."

"We've never argued the fact that [the 9/11 essay] is what started this ball rolling," said Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for the University of Colorado system.

But Churchill was fired for academic misconduct uncovered in the aftermath of the essay's publication, he said.

"We're certainly disappointed in the decision, but it doesn't change the fact that 20 of his peers found he engaged in plagiarism and academic dishonesty."

McConnellogue said the university has not decided whether it will appeal.

Churchill, a tenured professor known for his blunt manner, was fired in 2007 -- two years after the firestorm that erupted over an essay he penned soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The paper, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," attributed the attacks to U.S. foreign policy and called victims in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns," a reference to Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann.

The contents of the essay didn't become widely known until 2005, when a campus newspaper at Hamilton College in upstate New York, where Churchill had been scheduled to speak, dug up the essay and printed a story about it.

The essay quickly placed the professor and the University of Colorado at the center of a maelstrom. Many, including then-Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, called for his ouster.

University officials concluded that free-speech protections prevented them from firing Churchill for the Sept. 11 essay. However, as complaints about Churchill's academic work surfaced, the school launched an investigation and fired him after three committees of faculty members from Colorado and other universities concluded that Churchill had committed plagiarism, fabrication and research misconduct in his writings on American Indian history.

During the four-week trial, Churchill took the stand to defend his research and reiterate his belief that the terrorist attacks were "perfectly predictable," according to the Associated Press. The only surprise was that they took so long to occur, he said.

In comparing the 9/11 victims to Eichmann, Churchill said he intended to make the point that "if you make it a practice of killing other people's babies for personal gain . . . eventually they're going to give you a taste of the same thing."

Correll writes for The Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-churchill-verdict 3-2009apr03,0,179491.story

[outsider]

In comparing the 9/11 victims to Eichmann, Churchill said he intended to make the point that "if you make it a practice of killing other people's babies for personal gain . . . eventually they're going to give you a taste of the same thing."

Perhaps the prat aught to tell that to the Jersey Girls, or Bob McIlvane. Or William Rodriguez, who narrowly escaped death.

[Disco_Destroyer]

I think you attack the man for the wrong reasons? He has been quite instrumental in unearthing and teaching people that America was born out of the blood of other nations.
I respect the guy for that no matter what his stance on 9/11 is.
I personally think that is a valid stance to take as it still addresses the fact that US foreign policy needs to change. Also he was one of the 1st people I came accross telling a different story to what the media spun.
Credit where credit due IMO.

[Disco_Destroyer]

Also I call this as playing it safe, attacking people will not persuade them to look at other ideas?

TESTAMENT LYRICS
The Formation Of Damnation (2008)


3. The Evil Has Landed

The sky began to fall, ripping open a path up to Heaven
Time slowed to a crawl early morning September eleventh
Steel crumbling frames, the scales of justice are decimated
Hate ignites the flames, New York city incinerated
See the flames on the river, is this our judgement day?
Praying hands of a killer when evil flies our way
Our way

The towers got hit, a steel bird with wings of destruction
As the building split, the skyline has been deconstructed
So many people killed, two thousand nine hundred and seventy four
Innocent blood spilled, extremist plotting a holy war
See the flames on the river, terrorism sealed our fate
Praying hands of a killer reciting a sermon of hate
Will you please reconsider, is this our judgement day?
Time to stand and deliver when evil flies our way
Flies our way

We will pick up the pieces
We never cast the first stone
Through all the bereavement
We will rebuild our home

The sky began to fall, ripping opening a path up to Heaven
Time slowed to a crawl early morning September eleventh
See the flames on the river, terrorism sealed our fate
Praying hands of a killer reciting a sermon of hate
Will you please reconsider, is this our judgement day?
Time to stand and deliver when evil flies our way
Flies our way

To highlight:
TESTAMENT LYRICS
The New Order (1988)
2. The New Order

[Music & Lyrics: Skolnick, Peterson]

Takers of humanity, elders paranoid
The time is now
Give up this world you once destroyed
Society versus the underground
Their battles fought and lost
The time has come
To rule the world at any cost

For the past it's too late
Cause the world can't control fate
Shadows cast loud and clear
Tell the world the new order's here

Cities turn to battlefields
A deadly spell is cast
Corpses falling one by one
Until the last
The preacher speaks of prophecy
So many years before
No one escapes their punishment
The gods of war

For the past it's too late
Cause the world can't control fate
Shadows cast loud and clear
Tell the world the new order's here

Death is like an empty space
Fell no thoughts of fear
The future cries
As mother nature sheds a tear
The world becomes a prisoner
A victim of its crime
The human race is now a race
Against time

For the past it's too late
Cause the world can't control fate
Shadows cast loud and clear
Tell the world the new order's here