DENVER, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Colorado lawmakers have joined Gov. Bill Owens in denouncing a University of Colorado professor for his remarks about victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack.
The Colorado House voted 65-0 Wednesday to denounce Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies, the Rocky Mountain News reported. He resigned as head of the ethnics studies department, but has refused to resign from the faculty.
The controversy erupted this week over an essay in which Churchill said the United States invited the attacks because of its own foreign policy. He compared the "technocrat corps" working at the World Trade Center to Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
The essay came to light after Churchill was invited to a panel discussion at Hamilton College in upstate New York. The event was canceled after death threats were received.
In a formal action, the Colorado House voted 65-0 to denounce Churchill, saying his essay "strikes an evil and inflammatory blow against America's healing process."
Owens earlier urged Churchill to resign from the faculty, but he now is pressing the university to fire him. He believes regents have the legal standing to fire the tenured professor.
