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AK Press Author Under Attack<br><br>
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 Governor Bill
Owens is demanding that Ward resign his position as a tenured professor
as well.<br>
The controversy is based on an essay Ward wrote soon after 9-11, which he
later expanded into an AK Press book,<i> On the Justice of Roosting
Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and
Criminality</i>. 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.<br><br>
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.<br>
Below, we've provided some links to articles describing the controversy,
followed by the press release Ward issued. We also recommend that you
read<i> On the Justice of Roosting Chickens</i> yourself, rather than
relying on the media's version on it. Individuals can order it here:
<a href="http://www.akpress.org/2003/items/onthejusticeofroostingchickens" eudora="autourl">http://www.akpress.org/2003/items/onthejusticeofroostingchickens<br><br>
</a>The book is available to bookstores and to the trade in general from
Consortium Book Sales and Distribution at:
<a href="http://www.cbsd.com/%A0" eudora="autourl">http://www.cbsd.com/
</a> or 1-800-283-3572<br><br>
<br>
Media Coverage:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3512151,00.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_3512151,00.html<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3514100,00.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3514100,00.html<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4151452/detail.html" eudora="autourl">http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4151452/detail.html<br>
</a>--------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>
Ward Churchill's Press Release:<br><br>
January 31, 2005<br><br>
In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate
media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 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.<br><br>
* 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.<br><br>
* I am not a "defender"of the September 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."<br><br>
* 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."<br><br>
* 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 September 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.<br><br>
* Finally, I have never characterized all the September 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.<br><br>
* 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.<br><br>
* 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, 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.<br><br>
* 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.<br><br>
* 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.<br><br>
Ward Churchill<br>
Boulder, Colorado<br>
January 31, 2005<br><br>
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