San Diego based burn.ucsd.edu is being targeted as providing material support for terrorists because they LINK to a farc website. You see where this is going, right?



Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 17:52:51 -0700

From: Gary R. Ratcliff

To: che@libertad.ucsd.edu,xxxxxxx@hotmail.com, xxxxx@ucsd.edu, xxxxxxxx@ucsd.edu

Cc: cmvazquez@ucsd.edu;, mstrong@ucsd.edu;, naguilar@ucsd.edu

Subject: URGENT: Issue with burn.ucsd.edu web site

xxxx, xxxxx, xxxx, and Che Cafe Collective:

Pursuant to the Section II.A.2. and 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the UCSD and AS/GSA/Co-ops, this letter will serve to inform you that the Che Café is in violation of UCSD policies and Federal law by maintaining the burn.ucsd.edu web site and using UCSD computer network resources to provide access to a terrorist organization. Presently, the burn.ucsd.edu web site includes links supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), an organization listed by the U.S. Department of State as a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Providing material support or resources to a designated FTO is a violation of federal law (18 US 2339A, see http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2002/12389.htm). Using UCSD computing resources to violate federal laws is against UCSD Policies, specifically the Acceptable Use Policies of Academic Computing Services (see http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/lib/aup.html). Federal law also specifies that providing material support to support terrorists not only includes money and training but also includes communications equipment, personnel, and facilities. In this case, communications equipment is the use of the UCSD computer network resources, personnel are the Che Café members who maintain the server with burn web site, and facilities include the Che facility where the server is housed.

I am hereby instructing you to immediately remove the FARC from listing on the burn.ucsd.edu web site or any other web site that is uses the “ucsd.edu” domain name or any computer or other communications equipment or other resources or facilities used by the Che Café that are owned, leased or operated by UCSD. Your are further hereby instructed to immediately disconnect the link on burn.ucsd.edu to the FARC web site. Your failure to comply with the instructions noted in this notice will result in disciplinary action under the UCSD Student Conduct Code and/or the termination of the MOU as it may apply to the Che Café. Principal members of the organization will also be held responsible for the actions of the organization.

Please confirm your compliance with these instructions by no later than Friday, September 20. Additionally, you should review the U.S. Department of State’s listing of FTOs (see http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2002/12389.htm) and the content of the burn web site on a regular basis to be certain that links or material on the web site are in compliance with the UCSD Academic Computing Services Acceptable Use Policy and with all applicable laws.

Sincerely,

Gary Ratcliff

Director, University Centers

www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rpt/fto/2001/5258.htm

add your comments

The crux of the issue is for the UCSD administration, and by extension the US government, to prove and justify that a LINK = "communications equipment."

This, in my opinion, is an incredible stretch of the imagination and will fail if it were to pursued in a court. However, the kangaroo courts of the University of California will probably determine that a link is equivalent to computer hardware.

Now is the time for EVERYONE on the internet to put a link to the FARC-EP et al to challenge this nonsense. And more importantly, UC students system wide should be putting up links to the FARC et al and every alleged terrorist organization found here:

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2002/12389.htm

so that the Che Cafe doesn't have to defend itself alone. In that spirit, here goes:

http://www.farc-ep.org/

FTP

What overblown hyperbole. What a bunch of oily-faced meatheads. Take the flipping link off your site or get prosecuted, kiddies. FARC is a terrorist organization. They blow crap up and assassinate people. They occupy the Supreme Court building and butcher judges. They set off car bombs in the middle of cities.

No one is targeting you, they are telling you. And it is the UNIVERSITY that is telling you, not the government. They don’t want you to support FARC or Hamas or Islamic Jihad on their nickel. If you want to plug your laptop in at home and give the KKK or the IRA a link, fine. Universities have been telling other organizations with links to hate and terrorist sites to cut it out for a long time now. So grow up.

We want to protest! We want to support terrorist groups in other countries! We want someone else to pay for it! We are a bunch of screaming jackasses!

This is a first amendment battle. If Mr. O'Brien actually believes that providing a link to an organization constitutes material support in the form of communications hardware, then it's clear that you would prefer censorship over constitutionally protected speech.

Here's an article worth reading:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959544.html?tag=fd_top

from the article above:

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) said UCSD's reading of the USA Patriot act was laughably censorious.

"I think their interpretation of materially supporting terrorism is dreadfully overbroad and a massive threat to freedom of speech," said Greg Lukianoff, FIRE's director of legal advocacy. Lukianoff said FIRE was willing to represent the Che Cafe against the university, which must abide by the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech because it is a government school.

"All you'd have to do is declare someone a terrorist organization to prevent someone from knowing who the enemy is or what they stand for," Lukianoff said. "That's not how democracy works."

FTP

This is a first amendment battle. If Mr. O'Brien actually believes that providing a link to an organization constitutes material support in the form of communications hardware, then it's clear that you would prefer censorship over constitutionally protected speech.

Here's an article worth reading:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959544.html?tag=fd_top

from the article above:

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) said UCSD's reading of the USA Patriot act was laughably censorious.

"I think their interpretation of materially supporting terrorism is dreadfully overbroad and a massive threat to freedom of speech," said Greg Lukianoff, FIRE's director of legal advocacy. Lukianoff said FIRE was willing to represent the Che Cafe against the university, which must abide by the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech because it is a government school.

"All you'd have to do is declare someone a terrorist organization to prevent someone from knowing who the enemy is or what they stand for," Lukianoff said. "That's not how democracy works."

FTP

People will find this extremely interesting:

http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/tergps/tgtup.htm

This is an Air Force research page called "Air University Library Publications" where they link to the MRTA page on burn.ucsd.edu. What's interesting is that they have a disclaimer for the link, in the same way burn does for the university. It reads,

"Inclusion of a link to a web site does not imply endorsement by the Air University Library or the United States Air Force."

Well, gee, according to University of California, San Diego officials, it constitutes "material support" in the form of "communications hardware." Will the Air Force be targeted? Can you smell the hypocrisy?

FTP

What a load of crap. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Patriot Act or the first amendment or the government at all. The flipping SCHOOL is telling the jerks to take the link off of the sight. The SCHOOL is using statutes to back up their position, but this is a far cry from being ‘targeted’. No government official has said anything to anyone concerning this subject. I don’t think I heard you moralizing and wringing your soft little hands when the SCHOOL restricts free speech elsewhere. Where it enforces codes of speech and punishes violators without due process. Where was your concern? Isn’t this the same SDSU that prosecuted a witch-hunt against a student newspaper for parody? Where was your concern then?

I reiterate: If you want to link to a TERRORIST group, don’t make the SCHOOL pay for it.

It's UCSD, not SDSU. You obviously aren't reading carefully.

you say, "If you want to link to a TERRORIST group, don’t make the SCHOOL pay for it." It demonstrates how little you know about the situation, or even care about the implications for freedom of speech. I'm not sure what you mean by "pay" for it since you are pretty incapable of making a cohesive argument, but if you mean materially, the school isn't. If you mean the school could face a lawsuit, then you are more naive then you lead on. The school will never get sued over this, they are simply using it as an excuse to justify a crackdown.

FTP

"this letter will serve to inform you that the Che Café is in violation of UCSD policies and Federal law by maintaining the burn.ucsd.edu web site and using UCSD computer network resources to provide access to a terrorist organization."

I realize you are so much smarter than all of us, Mr. FTP, but the above passage seems to indicate that the SCHOOL is telling the JERKS to take a link to a TERRORIST organization off of their website which is hosted on the SCHOOL’S COMPUTER NETWORK. The school pays for the network, Einstein. They also pay for the electricity to run it. If the worshippers of Che the Bolivian bullet catcher want to associate with terrorists, let them do it on their own server. The school is responsible for the content that is found on it’s network.

Bottomline:

1. it is legitimate for any student organization to link to any website on the internet, regardless if they are controversial or not. student organizations have the right to use university resources for legitimate first amendment activities. YOU have not justified how a link constitutes "communications hardware." If the FARC hosted their site on the students server, then the argument has more weight. But that is not the case.

2. stretching the patriot act to censor a website's LINKS (!) is ludicrous, frivolous, and constitutes an act of state censorship.

3. if you believe in free speech, you support those views you disagree with, otherwise you do NOT believe in free speech. the link, in this case, is an act of free expression. if you support censoring it, you do not believe in free speech. period.

FTP

First thing: This is the second time in one conversation that a Leftist has called me a fascist. I am no more of a fascist than you.

Second: A student organization can do exactly what the university says it can do. Universities have, as I said above, for years enforced draconian ‘speech codes’. These represent actual violations of free speech. This is no such thing. This little tiff is about the SCHOOL telling the JERKS to take their link to a TERRORIST organization off of a website the SCHOOL is paying for. If you want to support terrorism pay for it yourself.

Third: No one is stretching anything. Has anyone from the government (including your local dogcatcher) said anything about this? NO. This letter is from the SCHOOL not the GOVERNMENT. If you want to get all puffy and hyperventilate, then do so in the dean’s office. You can’t complain about ill treatment until you’ve been ill treated.

Fourth: I absolutely believe in free speech. I also believe in the right of an organization to decide what is done with its resources. The SCHOOL owns the network. The JERKS are being told to take a link off of a site that the SCHOOL pays for. The SCHOOL is not saying that the JERKS can’t support their pet terrorists; they’re merely telling them to support them elsewhere.

Finally: I don’t need to justify how a link constitutes ‘communication hardware’. In the letter above it clearly says:

“In this case, communications equipment is the use of the UCSD computer network resources, personnel are the Che Café members who maintain the server with burn web site, and facilities include the Che facility where the server is housed.”

I don’t particularly agree with this definition, but again it is the SCHOOL who is the author of the letter. If your pet Socialist/fascist club wants to fight it, then fight it. But don’t claim to be ‘targeted’.

This is the most idiotic thing I've seen on the internet so far. People arguing back and forth over something so insignificant. Doug, are you for real? Why would you waste your time arguing when it is with an obvious idiot that doesn't read a word you write?

I'm reeeeeeeeelllllly bored at work, Friday.

I can assure you that the students will fight this and they WILL WIN. Let's just see how far the administration is willing to push this issue.

O'Brien, do recall something called the free speech movement at Berkeley? Remember that the administration claimed that students couldn't table on the plaza because the administration said so? Remember that they claimed it was university property and they had to abide by university rules in regards to political speech?

Well, guess what happened? IT WAS CALLED THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT. And it won, and successfully allowed student organizations to have political opinions on campus. University proclomations about "university property" being used for political speech was beaten by students. The same thing will happen here, and for the same reasons.

Remember that the UC system is a GOVERNMENT system. It is not a private institution. It has the governor on the board of REGENTS. They are accountable to the constitution. Just because some bonehead administrator claims that they are violating the Patriot Act doesn't make it so. The administration will have to do more than make absurd claims, they will have to fight to uphold that nonsense. AND I ASSURE YOU, the students will not give in so easily.

FTP

College Questioning Site's Link

By Amit Asaravala

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55450,00.html

2:00 a.m. Sep. 28, 2002 PDT

Officials at the University of California at San Diego are reconsidering a

recent decision that would have forced a student activist group to remove

from its website a link to a known terrorist organization.

The activist group, known as Burn, hosts its site on university equipment

and provides links to other radical organizations. One link directs visitors

to the official site of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) --

one of the 34 groups on the U.S. government's list of foreign terrorist

organizations.

UCSD University Centers director Gary Ratcliff said the administration is

"taking a step back" while it learns more about the site through the

university's legal counsel in Oakland, Ratcliff said.

Ratcliff sent the initial cease-and-desist letter to the Ché Café

Collective, the university group that sponsors Burn, on Sept. 16. The letter

cites a section of the USA Patriot Act that deems it unlawful for any U.S.

citizen to provide "material support or resources" to foreign terrorist

organizations.

The Patriot Act has been heavily criticized by civil rights groups who claim

it violates constitutional rights.

A UCSD student and member of the Collective who says her name is Allie Katz

noted that Burn would not take down the link if the university decided to

stand by its initial demand. "We see this as a free-speech issue," she said.

"Merely having a link doesn't constitute material support."

Bret Fausett, an Internet attorney with Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft, agrees

with Katz's assessment. "I simply find it a stretch to contend that a link

to the farq-ep.org site provides 'material support' to a terrorist

organization," said Fausett.

The site provides more than just a link to FARC, though. Visitors who click

on the link are taken to a splash screen hosted at burn.ucsd.edu before

being redirected to the FARC site.

Ratcliff believes the splash screen might be an indicator of extended

support for FARC. "The academic computing department has found that some

outside groups have Unix accounts on the Burn server," said Ratcliff. "We're

not sure if FARC does, but that's why we'd like to talk further with the

students."

The Burn site also hosts a number of Web pages promoting the Kurdistan

Worker's Party (PKK) -- which the State Department also considers to be a

terrorist organization.

"Between the extremes of a scholarly article and an actual terrorist site,

there is a lot of gray," said Fausett. "If the link comes in the context of

a website that promotes terrorist activities and encourages readers to give

aid to FARC, then that likely is in violation of the law."

Dade Murphy, who is listed as a primary contact for Burn, did not respond to

repeated requests for comment.

The FARC issue is not the first time the university has clashed with Burn.

Katz said the university threatened to shut down Burn in 1997 because of the

group's Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement Solidarity Page, a portion of the

site that hosts news and statements about Peruvian rebels.

In April, UCSD officials succeeded in having the Groundwork Collective,

Burn's previous sponsor, remove a link to the PKK.

If the university stands by its initial demand and succeeds in having the

FARC link removed by way of the Patriot Act, the decision could set a

precedent for other public institutions looking to eradicate controversial

links and sites.

Members of the Ché Café Collective hope the situation does not reach that

point. "I would hope that, being a public university, UCSD would see the

importance of free speech," said Katz. "We choose to fight this."