The University of California at San Diego has ordered a student organization to delete hyperlinks to an alleged terrorist Web site, citing the recently enacted USA Patriot Act.

"School administrators have told the group, called the Che Cafe Collective , that linking to a site supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would not be permitted because it violated federal law. "

"In a letter to the Che Cafe Collective, UCSD University Centers Director Gary Ratcliff said the hyperlink violated a law that bans "providing material support to support terrorists." Ratcliff warned that the student organization would face disciplinary action if it did not immediately remove the link to FARC."

We found this item via BestoftheWeb, a conservative Wall Street Journal blog, which has this to say about the policy (after denouncing the students as "idiots" and their actions as "deplorable", language we've deleted in the part of the post we agree with below):

"...a link to a Web site--as we did in the previous paragraph--is not "material support"; it is merely information. It is not illegal... to speak in favor of terrorist organizations, so long as one does not cross the line into actual incitement or conspiracy. In the UCSD case, the civil libertarians are right."