Decision ‘08

Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out…

I didn’t get to chance to blog this yesterday, but this is one W. Churchill we can all do without:

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.