Churchill explained his "Eichmanns" comment:
The ethnic studies professor and American Indian Movement activist called some Sept. 11 victims "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organized the Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jews.
Churchill said he was referring to "technocrats" who participate in what he calls repressive American policies around the world. He said those include Iraqi trade sanctions after the first Gulf War that have been blamed for the deaths of 500,000 children.
Churchill and his lawyer, David Lane, were interviewed before the speech:
Before he spoke Tuesday evening, Churchill was asked why he felt his message should be heard.
"That's the function of a professor. That’s the function of the institution. That seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of whether people like what I said or not. I'm supposed to say what they don't like to hear in order to force them to confront it," Churchill said in an exclusive interview with 7NEWS.
Churchill attorney David Lane said CU was obligated to provide security for Churchill -- and that the real reason officials canceled the lecture was because they're embarrassed by him, and don't want to deal with the controversy.
Other reports on tonight's speech:
Denver Post :
"If someone were to ask me, 'Do you feel sorrow for the victims of 9-11,' of course I do," he said. "Let's begin with the children. Yes, they were innocent. And I mourn them. But they were not more innocent than those half-million Iraqi children."
...In the interview with AP, Churchill said he did not mean to say the World Trade Center "technocrats" were Nazis but were, like Eichmann, bureaucrats who participated in an immoral system.
"He did not necessarily agree with the goals of the Nazis with regard to the Jews, but he performed his functions brilliantly," Churchill said. "This is Eichmann: He's integral. The Holocaust could not have happened without him." Churchill, an American Indian Movement activist, said he shares some guilt because he participates in the system he accuses of wrongdoing: "I could do more. I'm complicit. I'm not innocent."
..."The regents should do their job and let me do mine."
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