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02/02/2005:

"Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen"

By Richard Oxman
Ward Churchill, University of Colorado at Boulder professor, recently resigned his post as head of the school's ethnic studies department following an uproar over an article he wrote about the people who died in the World Trade Center 9/11 event. Pressure had been applied.

The longtime native rights activist and leader of the Colorado chapter of the American Indian Movement had written an article underscoring how US foreign policies in Iraq and its support of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians played a role in the attack in inspiring the hijackers. He questioned whether the victims inside the World Trade Center should be described as "innocent civilians."

I remember (very well) the first time I came across his "little Eichmans" take; if I live long enough...I think it'll stay with me more vividly than the JFK assassination moment has to date.

To draw from one of Democracy Now!s headlines which delved into Churchill's mind/recent statements: "They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire - the 'mighty engine of profit.' Churchill accused the victims of Sept. 11 as being among the Americans who were too busy in their own lives to see the abuses being carried out by the U.S. overseas. This week Churchill said 'The overriding question that was being posed at the time was...why did this happen, why did they hate us so much,...and my premise was when you do this to other people's families and children, that is going to be a natural response."
Full Article:counterpunch.org