haggis:

I am absolutely for more investigation. It's really unfortunate that there are people who turn the notion of looking into it as though it somehow bad. I think the 9/11 commission themselves have pretty much acknowledged that their scenerio for why the building collapsed is only the best they can come up with, and not necessarily even likely.

I was especially disgusted with the calls, in particular by politicians, to get rid of professors just because of the position they took on 9/11. It shows a total lack of respect for the academic freedom, which protects research no matter how controversial. If we disallow people to investigate things just because they are controversial, we will only regress as a society.

I agree. I don't really buy into the conspiracy theory view of 9/11. However, this professor clearly has spent time critically thinking about it, and he has come to a different, highly controversial, conclusion. Due to this, he's being accused of being a nutcase, and pundits and politicians are trying to get him fired.

This is a direct and distrubing attack on academic freedom. If someone feels he is wrong, they can certainly make the case. Firing professors because you don't agree with them, whether they are liberals or conservative, is wrong. Students will not be somehow tainted because they took his course. What they learn in university is critical analysis skills, and they should be able to figure out whether or not they think this prof is wrong, or whether ot not blowhards like Hannity who would rather silence his opponents are wrong.