[News] Ward Churchill Vows to Fight Dismissal

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Colo. Professor Vows to Fight Dismissal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6803898,00.html

Wednesday July 25, 2007 11:31 AM

By DAN ELLIOTT

Associated Press Writer

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - A professor scorned for remarks about Sept. 11 
victims vowed that his firing over allegations of plagiarism, 
falsification and other misconduct wouldn't end his 2-year dispute 
with the University of Colorado.

``New game, new game,'' said a defiant Ward Churchill, referring to 
his intent to sue the university after the state Board of Regents 
voted 8-1 Tuesday to remove him as ethnic studies chairman.

Three faculty committees had accused Churchill of plagiarism, 
falsification and other misconduct in portions of his research. The 
allegations were unrelated to an essay he wrote that likened some 
victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks to a Nazi leader.

David Lane, Churchill's attorney, said his client's dismissal simply 
marks a change in venue for the dispute.

``We're out of kangaroo court and going into real court,'' he said.

Lane plans to file a lawsuit in Denver Wednesday alleging Churchill's 
First Amendment rights were violated. He says Churchill was targeted 
because of his views.

University President Hank Brown said the school had little choice but 
to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of the university's research.

``I think from all the discussion I've heard, the focus on this 
question solely related to his research and the efforts to falsify 
research, and specifically, both the charges and the discussion did 
not relate to 9/11,'' Hank said.

Churchill had vowed to file a lawsuit if he was fired, a threat Brown 
said had no bearing on the decision.

The university's allegations against Churchill included 
misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians, 
fabricating evidence that the Army deliberately spread smallpox to 
Mandan Indians in 1837, and claiming the work of a Canadian 
environmental group as his own.

The essay that gained Churchill widespread scorn, ``Some People Push 
Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,'' was not part of the 
investigation.

The essay and a follow-up book argued that the 2001 terrorist attacks 
were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. Churchill said 
those killed in the World Trade Center collapse were ``a technocratic 
corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire.'' He 
called them ``little Eichmanns,'' referring to Nazi war criminal 
Adolf Eichmann.

Churchill wrote the piece shortly after the attacks, but it drew 
little notice until 2005, when a professor at Hamilton College in 
upstate New York called attention to it when Churchill was invited to 
speak there.

The Regents subsequently apologized to ``all Americans'' for the 
essay and the Colorado Legislature labeled Churchill's remarks ``evil 
and inflammatory.''

Bill Owens, then governor of Colorado, said Churchill should be 
fired, and George Pataki, then governor of New York, called Churchill 
a ``bigoted terrorist supporter.''

School officials concluded Churchill couldn't be dismissed because he 
was exercising his First Amendment rights. But they launched the 
investigation into his research in other work.

A faculty committee and an interim chancellor had recommended 
Churchill be fired. When a second committee reviewed the case, three 
of its five members recommended suspension. The other two said he 
should be fired.

Churchill remained on the university payroll but has been out of the 
classroom since the spring of 2006. The school relieved him of 
teaching duties after the interim chancellor recommended he be fired.




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