Jury verdict: University of Colorado unlawfully fired Ward Churchill

- Raymond McGovern, PhD, former Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) and 27-year CIA veteran. “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke.” (According to the CIA, NIE’s are “the most authoritative written judgments concerning national security issues.”)

- William Christison, former Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis, overseeing 250 CIA analysts. 29-year CIA veteran. “I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. … An airliner almost certainly did not hit The Pentagon. … The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center almost certainly did not collapse and fall to earth because hijacked aircraft hit them.”

- Melvin Goodman, PhD, former Division Chief of the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs and Senior Analyst from 1966 - 1990. “The final [9/11 Commission] report is ultimately a coverup. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

- General Albert Stubblebine, former commanding general of U.S. Army Intelligence. 32-year U.S. Army veteran. “I look at the hole in the Pentagon and I look at the size of an airplane that was supposed to have hit the Pentagon. And I said, ‘The plane does not fit in that hole’. So what did hit the Pentagon? What hit it? Where is it? What’s going on?”

What he stated about foreign policy was actually on target, although I too believe his phrasing was irresponsible, though not worthy of his being fired.

"Should Ward Churchill be reinstated at the University of Colorado?"

Tough question, what Mr. Ward said was disgusting, unprofessional,and frankly stupid, albeit constitutionally legal. If his work aside from this was sub-standard, heavily biased and unprofessional he shouldn't be reinstated. However, if his work was at least decent, than he should be reinstated. One should be fired/hired on the basis of their abilities and performance, not on their political views.

From the article:

The University of Colorado unlawfully fired Ward Churchill for expressing his political beliefs, a jury decided this afternoon.

The jury of four women and two men awarded the former ethnic studies professor $1 in damages. The dollar amount was largely a symbolic move because the judge instructed the jury to award that amount if they ruled in Churchill's favor but found no damages.

Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves will decide at a separate hearing whether Churchill, 61, is reinstated at CU or given a lump sum of money instead.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, Churchill told reporters that getting his job back was more important than any monetary award.

"I didn't ask for money," said Churchill, who was joined by his attorney, David Lane. "What was asked for and what was delivered was justice."

Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for the CU system, said the $1 award offered "some vindication."

"Mr. Lane told the jury to send a message with a monetary award, and I believe they sent a message with that $1 award," McConnellogue said.

The jury's verdict in favor of Churchill, which came after 10 hours of deliberation, brings to a conclusion a four-year saga that began with the widespread discovery of an essay Churchill had written about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

The case prompted heated debates in the media and on college campuses around the country on the meaning of academic freedom, the limits of free expression and the role of tenure at universities.

In the controversial piece, which Churchill penned during the hours after the attacks, he lambasted American foreign and economic policies and called some of the victims in New York's twin towers "little Eichmanns" -- a reference to the infamous Nazi bureaucrat.

The essay, which remained under the radar until a student at New York's Hamilton College complained about it in advance of a scheduled speech by the professor in January 2005, sparked an immediate firestorm across the country.