Re: [Marxism] How to support Ward Churchill (from Jim Craven)-in defense of Ward Churchill

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Chancellor DiStefano,

Just read the following story and then tell me how there can be love of the
United States Government in the hearts of the people of Iraq. This truth is
at the center of the attack against Ward Churchill--he exposes the truth of
U.S. Policies in Iraq. The policy this government is following in our name
and with our tax dollars flies in the face of all reason. It is gendering
hatred for anything that represents this country let alone our military and
our politicians. 

The criminal here is not Ward Churchill but the U.S. Government in its
entirety for the wanton murder of thousands of people on the basis of what
it knew full-well was a lie since it was they who invented it.

Everyone else in the world knew that Iraq had no weapons of mass
destruction--the UN inspectors said it again and again. So a lie was
invented to justify mass murder for profit. Look to who raked in the profits
and there you will find the real criminals. Both the Democrats and the
Republicans get their hands greased by "Big Oil" and the other wealthy elite
of big business; that has been documented time and again. It's no secret.

Let Ward Churchill tell the truth. We are massively bombarded with the lies
day in and day out. Can't the truth have any time? Not even in a house of
higher learning? Who's the criminal? The tyrant? The "terrorist"? The one
who fights for free speech or the one that attempts to curb it? Good God!
Man! Come to your senses! Your position is unbecoming of an Educator.

Peace,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021

(415) 824-8730 
Stories from Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail

 

These are the stories that will continue to emerge from the rubble of
Fallujah for years. No, for generations...

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor sits with me in a hotel room
in Amman, where he is now a refugee. He¹d spoken about what he saw in
Fallujah in the UK, and now is under threat by the US military if he returns
to Iraq. 

³I started speaking about what happened in Fallujah during both sieges in
order to raise awareness, and the Americans raided my house three times,² he
says, talking so fast I can barely keep up. He is driven to tell what he¹s
witnessed, and as a doctor working inside Fallujah, he has video and
photographic proof of all that he tells me.

³I entered Fallujah with a British medical and humanitarian convoy at the
end of December, and stayed until the end of January,² he explains, ³But I
was in Fallujah before that to work with people and see what their needs
were, so I was in there since the beginning of December.²

When I ask him to explain what he saw when he first entered Fallujah in
December he says it was like a tsunami struck the city.

³Fallujah is surrounded by refugee camps where people are living in tents
and old cars,² he explains, ³It reminded me of Palestinian refugees. I saw
children coughing because of the cold, and there are no medicines. Most
everyone left their houses with nothing, and no money, so how can they live
depending only on humanitarian aid?²

The doctor says that in one refugee camp in the northern area of Fallujah
there were 1,200 students living in seven tents.

³The disaster caused by this siege is so much worse than the first one,
which I witnessed first hand,² he says, and then tells me he¹ll use one
story as an example.

³One story is of a young girl who is 16 years old,² he says of one of the
testimonies he video taped recently, ³She stayed for three days with the
bodies of her family who were killed in their home. When the soldiers
entered she was in her home with her father, mother, 12 year-old brother and
two sisters. She watched the soldiers enter and shoot her mother and father
directly, without saying anything.²

The girl managed to hide behind the refrigerator with her brother and
witnessed the war crimes first-hand.

³They beat her two sisters, then shot them in the head,² he said. After this
her brother was enraged and ran at the soldiers while shouting at them, so
they shot him dead.

³She continued hiding after the soldiers left and stayed with her sisters
because they were bleeding, but still alive. She was too afraid to call for
help because she feared the soldiers would come back and kill her as well.
She stayed for three days, with no water and no food. Eventually one of the
American snipers saw her and took her to the hospital,² he added before
reminding me again that he had all of her testimony documented on film.

He briefly told me of another story he documented of a mother who was in her
home during the siege. ³On the fifth day of the siege her home was bombed,
and the roof fell on her son, cutting his legs off,² he says while using his
hands to make cutting motions on his legs, ³For hours she couldn¹t go
outside because they announced that anyone going in the street would be
shot. So all she could do was wrap his legs and watch him die before her
eyes.² 

He pauses for a few deep breaths, then continues, ³All I can say is that
Fallujah is like it was struck by a tsunami. There weren¹t many families in
there after the siege, but they had absolutely nothing. The suffering was
beyond what you can imagine. When the Americans finally let us in people
were fighting just for a blanket.²

³One of my colleagues, Dr. Saleh Alsawi, he was speaking so angrily about
them. He was in the main hospital when they raided it at the beginning of
the siege. They entered the theater room when they were working on a
patient...he was there because he¹s an anesthesiologist. They entered with
their boots on, beat the doctors and took them out, leaving the patient on
the table to die.² 

This story has already been reported in the Arab media.

The doctor tells me of the bombing of the Hay Nazal clinic during the first
week of the siege. 

³This contained all the foreign aid and medical instruments we had. All the
US military commanders knew this, because we told them about it so they
wouldn¹t bomb it. But this was one of the clinics bombed, and in the first
week of the siege they bombed it two times.²

He then adds, ³Of course they targeted all our ambulances and doctors.
Everyone knows this.²

The doctor tells me he and some other doctors are trying to sue the U.S.
military for the following incident, for which he has the testimonial
evidence on tape. 

It is a story I was told by several refugees in Baghdad as well...at the end
of last November while the siege was still in progress.

³During the second week of the siege they entered and announced that all the
families have to leave their homes and meet at an intersection in the street
while carrying a white flag. They gave them 72 hours to leave and after that
they would be considered an enemy,² he says.

³We documented this story with video-a family of 12, including a relative
and his oldest child who was seven years old. They heard this instruction,
so they left with all their food and money they could carry, and white
flags. When they reached the intersection where the families were
accumulating, they heard someone shouting ?Now!¹ in English, and shooting
started everywhere.²

The family was all carrying white flags, as instructed, according to the
young man who gave his testimony. Yet he watched his mother and father shot
by snipers?his mother in the head and his father shot in the heart. His two
aunts were shot, and then his brother was shot in the neck. The man stated
that when he raised himself from the ground to shout for help, he was shot
in the side. 

³After some hours he raised his arm for help and they shot his arm,²
continues the doctor, ³So after awhile he raised his hand and they shot his
hand.² 

A six year-old boy of the family was standing over the bodies of his
parents, crying, and he too was then shot.

³Anyone who rose up was shot,² adds the doctor, then added again that he had
photographs of the dead as well as photos of the gunshot wounds of the
survivors. 

³Once it grew dark some of them along with this man who spoke with me, with
his child and sister-in-law and sister managed to crawl away after it got
dark. They crawled to a building and stayed for 8 days. They had one cup of
water and gave it to the child. They used cooking oil to put on their wounds
which were of course infected, and found some roots and dates to eat.²

He stops here. His eyes look around the room as cars pass by outside on wet
streets...water hissing under their tires.

He left Fallujah at the end of January, so I ask him what it was like when
he left recently. 

³Now maybe 25 percent of the people have returned, but there are still no
doctors. The hatred now of Fallujans against every American is incredible,
and you cannot blame them. The humiliation at the checkpoints is only making
people even angrier,² he tells me.

³I¹ve been there, and I saw that anyone who even turns their head is
threatened and hit by both American and Iraqi soldiers alike...one man did
this, and when the Iraqi soldier tried to humiliate him, the man took a gun
of a nearby soldier and killed two ING, so then of course he was shot.²

The doctor tells me they are keeping people in the line for several hours at
a time, in addition to the U.S. military making propaganda films of the
situation. 

³And I¹ve seen them use the media-and on January 2 at the north checkpoint
in the north part of Fallujah, they were giving people $200 per family to
return to Fallujah so they can film them in the line...when actually, at
that time, nobody was returning to Fallujah,² he says. It reminds me of the
story my colleague told me of what he saw in January. At that time a CNN
crew was escorted in by the military to film street cleaners that were
brought in as props, and soldiers handing out candy to children.

³You must understand the hatred that has been caused...it has gotten more
difficult for Iraqis, including myself, to make the distinction between the
American government and the American people,² he tells me.

His story is like countless others.

³My cousin was a poor man in Fallujah,² he explains, ³He walked from his
house to work and back, while living with his wife and five daughters. In
July of 2003, American soldiers entered his house and woke them all up. They
drug them into the main room of the house, and executed my cousin in front
of his family. Then they simply left.²

He pauses then holds up his hands and asks, ³Now, how are these people going
to feel about Americans?²

 

?Iraq Dispatches , February 8, 2005



On 2/9/05 1:09 PM, "Louis Proyect" <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> How to Support Ward Churchill!
> 
> The University of Colorado is threatening to fire radical professor Ward
> Churchill after right-wing students protested the contents of one of his
> essays, which was critical about the way the 9/11 massacre has been cast.
> Despite the fact that he is a tenured professor, he has already been forced
> to step down as co-head of the ethnic studies department at University of
> Colorado. Students are organizing to call / write / email the Chancellor of
> the University of Colorado in support of Churchill's right to hold
> unpopular views. If he is successfully removed, this will undoubtedly cause
> a domino effect, and be the start of a blacklist against progressives.
> 
> Contact: Interim Chancellor DiStefano Send email:
> chanchat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Phone: 303-492-8908 Snail mail: 17 UCB, Regent
> 301, Boulder, CO, 80309 http://www.colorado.edu/chancellor/
> 
> =====
> 
> 
> COLORADO AIM CONDEMNS RACIST ATTACKS AGAINST CHURCHILL
> 
> http://www.coloradoaim.org/blog/2005/02/colorado-aim-press-release.html
> 
> Wednesday, February 02, 2005 Colorado AIM Press Release 1 FEBRUARY 2005
> 
> Denver, CO
> 
> THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT (AIM) OF COLORADO CONFIRMS ITS SUPPORT OF WARD
> CHURCHILL AS A MEMBER OF OUR LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
> 
> COLORADO AIM CONDEMNS RACIST ATTACKS AGAINST CHURCHILL
> 
> CONTACT: Dr. Tink Tinker (303) 229-7756 ? Elder's Council representative
> Colorado AIM ? 303-871-0463
> 
> The Elder's Council and the Leadership Council of the American Indian
> Movement (AIM) of Colorado confirm our support for Ward Churchill as a
> member of our chapter, and as a member of the Leadership Council of
> Colorado AIM. Colorado AIM further condemns the transparent, racist attacks
> against Churchill by those who seek to silence alternative voices. While
> Churchill's particular statements about events of September 11, 2001 were
> his personal views, his broader critical analysis of U.S. domestic and
> foreign policy is consistent with Colorado AIM's perspective.
> 
> Colorado AIM is one of the largest and most active AIM chapters in the
> United States. Our strength, power and authority springs from our
> spirituality, from the example of our ancestors, and from the members of
> our community who embrace our principles.
> 
> We neither recognize, nor do we accept, the dictates of any person or
> persons who pretend to speak for us. Any person or entity that purports to
> speak on behalf of Colorado AIM other than our Elder's Council or the
> Leadership Council, is being dishonest. Each AIM chapter is independent and
> autonomous, and our authority emerges from the voice of the people in our
> community, and we support Ward Churchill.
> 
> Ward Churchill has been an important member and leader of the American
> Indian Movement (AIM) of Colorado since at least 1984. His analysis of U.S.
> law and policy has been an essential tool in educating both indigenous and
> non-indigenous people on the history and the current circumstances of
> native peoples in the Americas. Ward has been tireless in his defense of
> indigenous peoples' aspirations for freedom and justice around the world,
> and we applaud him for his numerous contributions.
> 
> Colorado AIM is painfully familiar with racist attacks against our
> movement, and against individuals in our movement, of which this is simply
> the most recent. We do not have to agree with every statement, or with
> every position that members of our chapter take in order to rally to their
> support when they are subject to an unprincipled, anti-Indian lynch mobs.
> 
> Churchill is not under attack because of a couple of statements that he
> made about the events of September 11, 2001. He is under attack because he
> has exposed the pain and the suffering caused by U.S. domestic and foreign
> policy. He does so without apology, and from the perspective of an
> indigenous scholar. He is under attack by racists who would prefer to
> silence indigenous voices altogether, and who would erase the history of
> indigenous peoples from the memory of the Western Hemisphere.
> 
> Our view of Ward Churchill is not through the lens of a few sentences taken
> out of context for calculated purposes. Our view is of an indigenous man
> who has devoted decades of his life to the defense of indigenous peoples'
> self-determination and freedom.
> 
> The fact is not lost on us that the attacks on Churchill began immediately
> after the acquittal of him and others in the Columbus Day trials in Denver.
> Colorado AIM is proud of the actions of Churchill and the other Columbus
> Day resisters. We will continue our efforts to remove the slave-trading,
> Indian killer Columbus as a national hero, and we will continue with our
> numerous other initiatives to promote indigenous peoples' freedom.
> 
> We are especially mindful of Governor Bill Owens' hypocritical statements
> condemning Churchill. By making such statements, Owens takes his place
> along side other racist governors such as John Evans, one of the main
> instigators of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. Just this past fall, Owens
> had the audacity to refer to the Cheyenne and Arapaho people as
> "blackmailers" and "extortionists" for their economic development plan in
> Colorado. Now, he is attacking one of the few tenured American Indian
> professors in the state, using such McCarthyist claims that Churchill is
> "un-American" and a "terrorist defender." Owens should immediately
> apologize to Churchill, and should keep his uniformed and ignorant
> statements to himself.
> 
> We also call on the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado to
> respect their own rules on academic freedom, and to affirm Ward Churchill's
> right to speak openly and freely as a scholar and a freethinker, and to
> continue his duties as one of the few indigenous academics in the
> University of Colorado system. posted by Colorado AIM @ 2:56 PM
> 
> 
> --
> 
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> 
> 
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