Churchill denies American Thinker quotations

Ward Churchill is denying to the Denver Post having made remarks at an address at DePaul University, which we reported on yesterday.

Churchill, speaking Thursday night at a Denver forum on academic freedom, said he was misquoted in two articles in The American Thinker, which said Churchill told De— Paul University students that "Hitler exterminated the wrong people."

"It's not something I said," Churchill told about 80 students. They're "not the brightest bulbs in the world and not the most honest."  [snip]

 In the DePaul speech, Chicago attorney Chaya Gil writes about hearing Churchill tell students that Hitler should have exterminated "your American grandparents instead of the Jews." Jonathan Cohen, a math professor at DePaul, makes a similar reference in another article for The American Thinker. Neither could be reached for comment Thursday.

Churchill said that he was telling the students about the hateful e—mail he received since the controversy broke about his 9/11 statements.

Churchill said he quoted one e—mail that said American Indians should have been exterminated instead of Jews and another that said Churchill's grandparents should have been sterilized. He said American Thinker writers misquoted him.

Here is what Chaya Gil reported:

He said that Madeline Albright admitted that 500,000 Iraqi children were killed in Iraq because of the UN sanctions imposed by the US, and that it was justified in order to fight Sadam Hussein.  (Albright never said any such thing, of course).  After watching our stunned reaction, he added: 'Hitler exterminated the wrong people. He should have exterminated your American grandparents instead of the Jews,' because of the evil deeds the Americans have done for generations, exploiting and oppressing people all over the world, killing 500,000 Iraqi children who are not less valuable than any American, and perhaps more valuable.

DePaul Professor Jonathan Cohen reported:

The Churchill lecture shows that on a college campus, an applause line these days is that one's grandparents should have been exterminated by Hitler.

Churchill is able to deny having made the remarks noted by two witnesses because tape recorders were banned. Such a ban does not encourage the belief that Chruchill is willing to stand by remarks that he makes. Why else would he be unwilling to allow hard evidence of his remarks to be created?

We received no inquiries from the Denver Post yesterday.

And as for honesty, Churchill faces his own problems in that sphere. The Denver Post reports in the same article:

Churchill, who is being investigated by CU for plagiarism and academic dishonesty  after he wrote an essay likening 9/11 victims to a Nazi, said he has seen a list of academics who will investigate him.

"They are people whose competency I respect," he said, declining to release their names and saying he was not sure they all accepted the assignment.

We take an accusation of dishonesty from him as a badge of honor. And we wonder how often he has read this site, so as to be able to freely slur our intelligence and honesty?

UPDATE: John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit has posted an audio file (courtesy of Walking Eagle Productions) of Churchill's talk, which is very muffled, since obviously it was covertly recorded. John says that it confirms our account. I am listening right now.

UPDATE 2: John Ruberry has listened carefully and now says:

After listening to this tape about a dozen times, Churchill, when he did say "Hitler killed the wrong people" he was quoting from an e—mail. The e—mailer, according to Ward, then said "sterilaztion should've begun with your grandmother."

UPDATE 3: Thanks to Andrew Marcus's cleaned—up audio version available here, we can now hear Churchill's words clearly. It is evident that he was quoting from an email, as he claimed in the Denver Post article. We regret the error in failing to note the context of the quotation, which itself was reasonably accurate, considering that no note taking was possible. The intent of  the thought was not attributable to Churchill directly, as was originally indicated. Incidentally, the quoted words were spoken in a louder tone of voice than the remarks about  an email, which may account for the omission of the context.

It appears that all other aspects of our reporting of his address were fully accurate. Had DePaul and Churchill permitted open recording and note taking of his remarks, the error would not have been made. The forbidding of recording of remarks and banning of the press is both suspicious in itself and an invitation to errors.

There is plenty else in Churchill's talk to raise eyebrows. But because we are committed to accuracy, we have corrected our reporting as soon as we had evidence of any mistakes. That is an example Churchill might consider for himself.

Thomas Lifson   10 28 05