Ward Churchill "Jokes" in Three Scholarly Books That Mothers Should "Snuff" Their Babies and Kill Themselves to "Do the Planet a Real Favor"

"There are currently no fewer than 24 books in print concerning the Jonbenet Ramsey case."--Discredited ex-Professor and American Indian Movement (AIM) Activist Ward Churchill (Perversions of Justice, p. 402)

[University of Colorado Research Misconduct Inquiry]

Some coward at the The Chronicle of Higher Education (2-15-09) is banning comments about discredited ex-professor Ward Churchill's vicious language. The coward is also suppressing information about how Ward Churchill undermines the sovereignty of Indians, abuses their history to make his political points, tells lies about FBI-backed death squads, and fabricates stories about the US Army deliberately giving the Mandan Indians smallpox.

Professor Marc Bousquet claims that Ward Churchill was fired from his teaching job at the University of Colorado because he wrote an essay called "Some People Push Back." This essay, which characterized the 9-11 victims as "little Eichmanns," was written just after 9-11-01; but because Churchill was a very obscure scholar, the national media only noticed his essay in early 2005 when a student whose dad had been burned up in the Twin Towers complained to his college after he learned that Churchill was coming to speak.

In early 2005, the faux-Indian "scholar" Ward Churchill emerged from obscurity. His falsehoods were chronicled in The Rocky Mountain News [See the end of this article]. His writing was finally examined by real scholars, and he was eventually fired for research misconduct after a long investigation by college professors at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Churchill's big mouth made scholars notice what real Indian voices had been saying for a long time, but a big mouth does not absolve one of research misconduct.

Churchill's research misconduct did not go unnoticed by real Indian people. The Indian law professor Dr. John LaVelle exposed Churchill's dishonest scholarship in 1996. In 2004, the Canadian Indian nation of Churchill's late wife Leah Kelly criticized Churchill for misrepresenting their history and her family.

One thing I pointed out on the CHE site is that the former Boulder, Colorado professor Ward Churchill "jokes" in three scholarly books that mothers should "snuff" their babies and kill themselves "to do the planet a real favor."

In his 2003 book Perversions of Justice (p. 402), Churchill also complains in a footnote about the excessive media coverage of the JonBenet Ramsey murder. The ex-Professor has even counted the number of books published about Jonbenet's murder. Even I didn't do that. According to Ward Churchill, "There are currently no fewer than 24 books in print concerning the Jonbenet Ramsey case."

I find Ward Churchill's negative attitude about the JonBenet coverage very strange considering the fact that a Boulder lawyer named Lee Hill claims that he [Lee Hill] hid a witness in the Ramsey case in the home of an American Indian Movement (AIM) activist.

Churchill writes on page 370 of Perversions of Justice:

Every wide-eyed little waif starving to death in Iraq and the reservations of Native North America is of a value identical to that with which a Jonbenet Ramsey or Danielle van Dam is currently imbued. From this realization, had it occurred, one could hope that certain conclusions might accrue, conclusions resulting not just in an American "regime change," but in an alteration of public sensibility that left the likes of Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright sitting where by rights they belong: in a defendants' dock overshadowed by the gallows.

At the very least, it was reasonable to expect that it might at last dawn on average folk that, to quote Georgia State University law professor Natsu Saito, "if Americans want their own kids to be safe again, the way to make it happen is really not very complicated---stop killing other people's babies." (Perversions, p. 370; Note: Natsu Saito is Churchill's current wife.)

Ward Churchill writes as though he were an expert on the U.N. sanctions on Iraq, but in "Some People Push Back," he hasn't yet learned how to spell the names of Ambassador Madeleine Albright or Denis Halliday, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq .

As NBC News (1-6-2006) explains:

The oil-for-food program ran from 1996 to 2003. It was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited — and eventually unlimited — amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods.

If Saddam was eventually selling unlimited amounts of oil, I think Iraqis were hungry because Saddam and his sticky-fingered helpers in the UN and elsewhere took so much of the oil-for-food money for themselves.

If you read Ward Churchill's famous 9-11 essay, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," he divines that in 1996 Madeleine Albright "responded" to the 1998 remarks of a UN official named Denis Halliday!.....Odd.....How did Madeleine Albright ever manage to respond to Halliday two years before he made his remarks? He didn't even have that job in 1996. [See more about this here.]

Perhaps because they were unfamiliar with his work, scholars failed to notice that Churchill's "shocking" 9-11 comments were actually quite typical of his writing. The scholars were only reading the media, I guess; they were unacquainted with Indian publications about Ward Churchill or with his ignorant, mendacious, creepy books.

I don't like to think that American scholars actually knew that Ward Churchill "jokes" in three books that mothers should "snuff" their babies and kill themselves "to do the planet a real favor." However, Churchill is famous now, and I still seem to be the only person who has ever thought that it is very abnormal to keep repeating this "joke" in scholarly literature.

I suspect that if a lunatic professor were to tell other professors that they should "snuff" their babies and kill themselves "to do the planet a real favor" that professors would not rush to defend the lunatic's free speech.

Ward Churchill also reveals that he has daydreams about politicians being hanged:

[R]everies of malignant toads like Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and Jesse Helms squatting in the shadows of the gallows are simply too pleasant to be suppressed. [2003 Introduction to Churchill's book Acts of Rebellion; cited by Bruce Fein, "Professorship not a License" 2-15-05]

I have these delightful visions which is what puts me to sleep at night of Madeleine Albright, Jesse Helms, and Henry Kissinger all in a nice neat little row with nooses around their necks and... And the current crop is amply entitled to the same destiny as far as I'm concerned. Do I think anybody's going to do it? Well, that's an interesting question. Who would be doing it? There's only one possible answer: you. We. Us... [audio]---Ward Churchill 3-25-05

Were the opportunity acted upon in some reasonably good faith fashion – a sufficiently large number of Americans rising up and doing whatever is necessary to force an immediate lifting of the sanctions on Iraq, for instance, or maybe hanging a few of America's abundant supply of major war criminals (Henry Kissinger comes quickly to mind, as do Madeline [sic]Albright, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton and George the Elder) – there is every reason to expect that military operations against the US on its domestic front would be immediately suspended. [Ward Churchill, "Some People Push Back."]

On June 26, 1975, two young FBI Special Agents, Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, were shot to death execution-style at close range on Pine Ridge Indian reservation after they were already injured and on the ground. When ex-Professor Ward Churchill claimed that the two murdered FBI agents died "Custer-like--in their self-made trap," he viciously disparaged these victims of terrorism in exactly the same way that he disparaged the 9-11 victims as "little Eichmanns." [Read about FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams here.]

Churchill has claimed, variously, that he was on Pine Ridge the day of the shootings or the day after. He also has claimed that he was "a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) security team at the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota in the early 1970's."

Churchill even claims that he taught the Weather Underground terrorists how to make bombs.

I believe in free speech for Ward Churchill. That's why my my blog has chronicled the loathsome ex-teacher's free speech, which he has often used to tell audiences in very graphic language who he thinks deserves to be snuffed, burned alive, shot, fragged, hanged, kneecapped, dismembered, stabbed in the throat, and so on. Here is a little taste of Ward Churchill's violent rhetoric.

"Is Ward Churchill the New Michael Bellesiles" by Dr. Thomas Brown is very informative and details Churchill's advocacy of assault, terrorism, and murder:

In 1998, Churchill published Pacifism as Pathology, a manifesto justifying the use of political violence. Churchill claims to have taught bomb-making to the Weather Underground. Churchill called for breaking the kneecaps of tourists headed for Hawaii, as a political statement in support of Hawaiian nationalism. He repeatedly called for the destruction of the United States. Churchill gave speeches in which he offered justifications and explicit strategies for successful terrorist actions against the US.

Churchill’s personal life echoed this theme of violence. Churchill claims to vandalize or destroy state property as revenge for every traffic ticket he receives. A number of people had accused Churchill of assault or threats of assault. Joanne Arnold, an administrator on Churchill’s home campus, reported that Churchill had threatened in a phone call that she would “get hurt” if she didn’t back off her position in a dispute over naming a dormitory. Carole Standing Elk, an Indian activist, complained that Churchill had spit on her during an argument. David Bradley, a New Mexico artist, complained to his local police that Churchill had threatened to kill him." [Full text]

Some scholars arrogantly claim they are "speaking truth to power" when they defend this brutal, vicious propagandist who publishes his lies in a KGB mouthpiece. Ward Churchill claimed in a KGB publication that FBI-backed death squads killed 342 Pine Ridge Indians who were affiliated with the American Indian Movement. [More about Churchill's strange Pine Ridge statistics here.]

Ward Churchill has also mischaracterized the words of genuine scholars to give credibility to his claim that the US Army deliberately infected the Mandan with smallpox. [See
"Did the U.S. Army Distribute Smallpox Blankets to Indians? Fabrication and Falsification in Ward Churchill’s Genocide Rhetoric" (2006) by Dr. Thomas Brown in Plagiary.]

Dr. Brown writes:

Churchill fabricated all of the central details of his [Mandan Indian] genocide story. Churchill also falsified the sources he cites in support of his genocide charges, sources which say the opposite of what Churchill attributes to them. Moreover, we must conclude that falsification and fabrication are habitual with Churchill. This essay has analyzed not much more than three cumulative pages of Churchill’s writing, drawn from across six different essays. (Since Churchill published his second version at least twice, this adds up to at least seven different publications.) Within those few pages, Churchill has committed multiple counts of research misconduct—specifically, fabrication and falsification.

Churchill "cites" The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (1945) by E. Wagner Stearn, Ph.D. and Allen E. Stearn, Ph.D. to give the impression that his claim is documented by these respected scholars. In fact, this book actually chronicles in painstaking detail the attempts of the American government to innoculate Indians against smallpox.

In a discussion about the health effects on Indians of the construction of the Pacific Railroad, the Searn and Stearn book even mentions that some trouble-makers tried to convince Indians that the whites planned to deliberately infect them with contaminated clothing:

Mischief makers tried to provoke the Indians against the whites by telling them that they were to be exterminated by smallpox, introduced in clothing sent to them. [Stearn and Stearn. The Effect of Smallpox on the Destiny of the Amerindian (102)]

Churchill is a mischief maker, too. His fabricated history of the Mandan genocide reminds me of the KGB lie that the US Army invented AIDS to kill black people. In the USSR, the leaders of the Soviet Academy of Sciences actually did "speak truth to power" and denounce this lie right in Izvestia:

The New York Times (11-5-87) reported:

Soviet scientists have disavowed charges in the Soviet-sponsored press that the AIDS virus was artificially cultivated at a secret American military base.The scientists, Roald Sagdeyev and Vitali Goldansky, publicly distanced the Soviet Academy of Sciences from the accusations about American responsibility for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. They said they had protested the appearance of Soviet articles that repeated those contentions.The disavowal was contained in Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper...

Finally, in 1992, KGB chief Primakov made this frank admission in Izvestia:

[KGB foreign intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov] mentioned the well known articles printed a few years ago in our central newspapers about AIDS supposedly originating from secret Pentagon laboratories. According to Yevgeni Primakov, the articles exposing US scientists' 'crafty' plots were fabricated in KGB offices."--Izvestia (3-19-92)

I am thankful that the CU scholars finally examined Churchill's "scholarship" and saw through his divisive lies. It's too bad they didn't listen sooner to what Indian sources had been saying about Churchill.

Dr. Thomas Brown, Dr. John LaVelle, and the CU scholars who investigated Churchill really did "speak truth to power" when they exposed Ward Churchill's lies. Scholars are supposed to try to uncover the truth, and they really did uncover the truth about the fake Indian Ward Churchill.

I was glad that Indian people finally were heard on the subject of the "wannabe" Indian Churchill. Dr. LaVelle is a good example of a real Indian professor. When Indian nations want a lawyer, they often choose Dr. LaVelle.

Media and Scholarly Research:

The Rocky Mountain News wrote a five-part series of articles about Ward Churchill's "scholarship."

Shadows of Doubt (Overview)

Confirmed: Ward Churchill is a Fraud, Part 1--The Charge: Fraud

Confirmed: Ward Churchill is a Fraud, Part 2--The Charge: Plagiarism

Confirmed: Ward Churchill is a Fraud, Part 3--The Charge of Mischaracterization

Confirmed, Ward Churchill is a Fraud, Part 4--The Charge of Misrepresentation

The University of Colorado also investigated and fired Ward Churchill for violating the ethics of scholarship all CU professors must abide by.