Radical students let off over terror group hyperlinks

The University of California has abandoned plans to discipline a student group for linking to an alleged terrorist website.

On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors and nine other groups wrote a letter asking the University to abandon its threats of disciplinary action against the Che Cafe Collective.

The Collective had linked to a site supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the US government has designated as a terrorist group.

In an interview later Tuesday, Joseph Watson, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of California, said that the school had made a mistake and would not pursue its earlier warnings of disciplinary action for linking.

"We agree with the signers of this letter that links are a First Amendment right," Watson said.

Watson added, however, that UCSD would require the Che Cafe Collective to delete a collection of files on university computers that included political statements by a second alleged terrorist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

According to the FBI, PKK is a communist group that hopes to overthrow the existing government in southeastern Turkey. Like the Colombian group, which has kidnapped Americans, it appears on the US government's August list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Declan McCullagh writes for News.com