Ward Churchill, Madeleine Albright, and Five Communications About Dead Iraqi Children

Since about 2003, I have been writing that the Colorado American Indian Movement (CO-AIM), associated with Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado, plagiarized the history of the Osage Indian murders.

Here is the FBI file on these murders.

The Osage County Historical Museum sells a book titled The Osage Indian Murders that was written by Lawrence J. Hogan, a former FBI agent and U.S. Congressman.

Here is an article where I have summarized the history of the Osage Indian murders and its relevance to Ward Churchill's writings.

Churchill cannibalized the Osage "reign of terror" to fabricate his account of how FBI-backed death-squads allegedly murdered as many as 342 Indians on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during what Churchill has also termed a "reign of terror."

I noticed Churchill's plagiarism by accident: I had been studying the JonBenet Ramsey murder and noticed that this CO-AIM organization seemed to be spreading a conspiracy theory that the government was protecting a ring of powerful pedophiles who had killed little JonBenet Ramsey.

I first noticed that lawyer-operatives with political agendas were inserting themselves into the investigation of the Ramsey murder by reading this article in Westword.

I have written about the lawyer-operatives here.

I tripped over Ward Churchill while reading about CO-AIM because he writes many articles for them.

Churchill has never provided any evidence that he is an Indian, so his CO-AIM really doesn't speak for Indians at all. Never-the-less, the more I have written about this topic, the more I have been accused of being against Indians. In fact, it is CO-AIM that cynically uses Indians as pawns, distorts and kidnaps Indian history, and puts Indian people and their history at the service of CO-AIM's communist agenda.

In early 2005, Churchill's infamous article "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens" became a national news story.

I think that the article had originally been published on 9-12-01 in an obscure animal rights publication, so it had not been noticed except by a few radicals.

There were allegations in the media that Churchill was a dishonest scholar who had engaged in plagiarism and other academic misconduct and who was being investigated by his own university for academic misconduct. I learned that some scholars and some Indians had been complaining about Churchill for years, but the University of Colorado had not listened.

This news story made me realize that I was not the only one who had noticed that CO-AIM and Ward Churchill were fabricating legends disguised as history to advance their political agenda, and I said so in a post on Free Republic.

I learned that people who tried to confront Churchill's lies were threatened, smeared, and banned. Here is how some "conservative" posters from Free Republic characterized my opinions:

KEYWORDS: 1AIMKILLEDKENNY; 2THOSEBASSTURDS; AIM; AIMWARDCHURCHILL; AOLINSTANTMESSAGE; BUILDABURGERCRIMES; COLORADO; CONSPIRACYJUNK; DELUSIONS; GARBAGE; ILLUMINATIPRINTS; JONBENET; LEEHILL; MURDER; NOTNEWS; RAMSEY; SIGNATURETINFOIL; SNAPPLETINFOILER; STUPIDVANITY; THEMASONSDIDIT; TINFOIL; TINFOILBODYSUIT; WARDCHURCHILL; WHISKEYSNAPPLE;

The first label, "AIM Killed Kenny" actually was used as the title of a disparaging article on the pro-Churchill, pro-terrorist blog.

I was smeared as a lunatic despite the fact that Churchill has advocated "snuffing" American children and admits that he assaulted his own wife, who later died when she was run over by a car while lying drunk on Arapahoe Road late at night.

After Churchill's 9-12-01 article "Some People Push Back" was publicized in about early 2005, I learned that Churchill was a big opponent of US policies in Iraq. Up until early 2005 my own research had focused only on AIM's "Indian" issues. I hadn't really noticed Churchill's activism on behalf of the Saddam regime.

I had noticed by 2003 that the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note seemed to have some little "hints" about CO-AIM; but after the publicity about Churchill in 2005, I wondered if the ransom figure of $118,000 might have some special meaning for Ward Churchill.

I googled ward+churchill+118,000. I got a huge shock when I came to a Maoist site. [UPDATE: This February 17, 2005 article is now posted here and here. See page 4.]

That's how I first learned about this Maoist site called MIM. This February 17, 2005 article, written by a contributor to MIM, claimed that the Iraqi people were "choking to death" and that 118,000 Iraqi children were in danger of dying due to the U.N. and U.S. sanctions on Iraq.

This was a stunning discovery, because 118,000 was about children in danger of dying. That certainly related to JonBenet Ramsey. Perhaps her death was some "payback" for U.S. policies toward Iraq.

Not only that, JonBenet was probably killed on December 26, Mao's Birthday. AIM has committed crimes on historic dates to make an ideological/symbolic point and Ward Churchill was a supporter of the Black Panthers, a Maoist organization. He is also supported by the Maoist Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, who was born on December 26, and may have chosen Mao as his hero for that reason.

As I read more articles by the MIM contributor, I began to wonder if Ward Churchill might actually be writing some of the articles in defense of himself for the Maoist MIM.

Here are five communications about a TV appearance by U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright. The theme of all five is dead Iraqi children.

Three are by Ward Churchill and two are by the anonymous contributor to the Maoist MIM. They are in order by date.

Churchill's original (and factually incorrect) 9-11/12-01 statement that Albright spoke on MEET THE PRESS in 1998 is never repeated by either Churchill or the anonymous contributor to the Maoist MIM.

First, the date is redacted (corrected) to 1996 on national television (Churchill press release 1-31-05), and subsequently is redacted to 1996 on 60 MINUTES (Churchill 2-10-05).

Albright did appear on 60 Minutes on 5/12/1996 and make an ill-considered statement. She later observed that her remarks were "stupid." She should have said that there was money available for the Iraqi people's humanitarian needs, but that Saddam stole it. I think that her 1996 comments antagonized Ward Churchill.

The MIM contributor's February 17 and 18, 2005 communications agree with Churchill's 2-10-05 communication: 1996 on 60 MINUTES.

The MIM contributor's 2-17-05 communication is of most interest since it mentions that 118,000 Iraqi children are at risk of dying. JonBenet Ramsey died Christmas night 1996. Probably she died on December 26, Mao's birthday. The killer demanded a 118,000 ransom.

As noted elsewhere, there appear to be a number of allusions to AIM in the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note.

The ransom amount may be an esoteric political rationalization for a brutal sexual assault with a paintbrush, strangulation, and bludgeoning ---perhaps it is payback for 118,000 Iraqi children near death.

The JonBenet ransom note also plagiarizes passages from the Lindbergh kidnapping notes. This is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, Churchill is a known plagiarist. Secondly, the investigator for the Lindbergh kidnapping was Norman Schwarzkopf--the father of the hero of Desert Storm.

Like the ransom figure of $118,000, the allusion to the Lindbergh kidnapping may be a subtle allusion to the supposed effect of our policies on Iraqi children.

I really wonder if Ward Churchill writes some articles for the anonymous Maoist MIM.

On February 17, 2005 the contributor to the Maoist MIM claims to be quoting Churchill's 9-11/12-01 "Some People Push Back" communication, but the contributor to MIM actually misquotes what Churchill actually wrote on BOTH the date AND the name of the news program---thereby correcting the factual record. [Updated link]

It is unlikely that a person misquotes an article he is citing from another source on TWO points---and thereby corrects the record. Possibly Churchill wrote these MIM articles himself, but failed to reread what he had actually written on 9-11/12-01 and misquoted HIMSELF. Or perhaps he was correcting the two factual errors in his original "Some People Push Back"/Roosting Chickens" article in subsequent articles.

Here are the quotes.

Churchill wrote in his September 9-12, 2001 "Some People Push Back"/"Roosting Chickens" article:

[F]ormer U.N. Assistant Secretary General Denis Halladay [sic, Halliday], repeatedly denounced what was happening as "a systematic program ... of deliberate genocide." His statements appeared in the New York Times [no cite] and other papers during the fall of 1998, so it can hardly be contended that the American public was "unaware" of them. Shortly thereafter [sic-1996], Secretary of State Madeline [sic, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine] Albright openly confirmed Halladay's [sic, Halliday] assessment. Asked during the widely-viewed TV program MEET THE PRESS [sic-60 Minutes] to respond to his "allegations," she calmly announced that she'd decided it was "worth the price" to see that U.S. objectives were achieved......As a whole, the American public greeted these revelations with yawns.. There were, after all, far more pressing things than the unrelenting misery/death of a few hundred thousand Iraqi tikes to be concerned with. Getting "Jeremy" and "Ellington" to their weekly soccer game, for instance, or seeing to it that little "Tiffany" and "Ashley" had just the right roll-neck sweaters to go with their new cords. And, to be sure, there was the yuppie holy war against ashtrays -- for "our kids," no less -- as an all-absorbing point of political focus......[because of the sanctions] vast legions of brown-skinned five-year-olds sat shivering in the dark, wide- eyed in horror, whimpering as they expired in the most agonizing ways imaginable.

CU is saying that this article can't be a reason to fire Churchill because he has free speech; but actually, the article is evidence of his dishonest scholarship.

According to Churchill's article, a UN official named Halliday was quoted in the fall of 1998 in the New York Times to the effect that what was happening in Iraq amounted to genocide.

I don't know what article Churchill is referrencing, but here is a July 1998 report in the NYT about Halliday. He reportedly blamed the Security Council, Iraqi policies, and the UN sanctions, according to other diplomats and officials:

Mr. Halliday had become frustrated by constraints imposed by the Security Council and Iraqi policies, and he was also said to have objected to the United Nations sanctions because of the hardships for ordinary Iraqis.

Mr. Halliday, on leave in Ireland, said in a statement he was ''winding up for personal reasons at the end of September.'' He made no other comment.

Churchill then said that Madeleine Albright responded soon after on Meet the Press that this was an "acceptable price" to pay. In fact, Albright could not have been responding to a 1998 article in the NYT because she made her ill-considered remarks NOT in 1998 on Meet the Press, but in 1996 on 60 Minutes.

Churchill has Albright "responding" in 1996 to a NYT article Halliday supposedly wrote in 1998.

Churchill posted this January 31, 2005 press release on his official C.U. website:

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.”

Here is a Churchill interview in Boulder Weekly from February 10, 2005.

Churchill said:

Well, I see a half-million dead Iraqi children for starters, children that Madeline [sic] Albright confirmed she was aware of. This was UN data [on the impact of U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq] in 1996 when she went on 60 MINUTES and said, 'Yeah, we're aware of it, and we've determined that it's worth the price."

MIM's contributor writes on February 17, 2005 [Updated link]:

As Churchill points out [in Roosting Chickens], Madeline [sic] Albright herself admitted on 60 Minutes in 1996 that half a million children died as a result of the sanctions.

The MIM contributor also cited, as proof that Americans should have known of the suffering of Iraqi children, a 1991 news article that claimed that "118,000 children are at risk of death."

Mim's contributor wrote (2-17-05):

On December 23, 1991, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) editorial reported: "The sanctions have indeed been choking Iraqis to death. According to surveys, food prices in Iraq have risen more than 2,000 percent, per capita calorie intake has dropped to 1,500 calories from 3,000 before the war; cholera, typhoid, meningitis and diarrhea are epidemic; infant morality has quadrupled and 118,000 children are at risk of death."

The next day, February 18, 2005, in an article devoted to statistics about dead Iraqi children, the contributor to MIM wrote [Updated link]:

In May 1996, Madeline [sic] Albright did not dispute 500+ thousand Iraqi children dead from Iraq sanctions on 60 MINUTES.

It sure seems odd to me that if MIM were a different person that he would accidentally misquote Churchill on two points of fact---thereby correcting the factual record. It seems more likely that Churchill wrote these MIM articles and corrected the two errors he made in his original article about the date and the program Albright appeared on.

UPDATE: Here is another article I have written about the contributor to MIM dated 2/20/05 that raises the same issues.The MIM contributor [Updated link] quotes Ward Churchill to the effect that that Albright was "responding" to comments that Denis J. Halliday, a U.N. official, reportedly made in the NYT in the fall of 1998. Yet a few lines later, the author correctly notes that Albright made her remarks in 1996.

All of the above is Snapple's opinion.