By Christopher Chow

Thousands of copies of Berkeley's campus newspaper, The Daily Californian, were stolen from the school's newspaper racks on October 24th. In their place, a flyer was distributed expressing outrage over an ad the paper ran entitled, "End States Who Sponsor Terrorism."

The ad placed by the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), accuses every president since Harry S. Truman of appeasing terrorism in the Middle East and not taking a hard enough stance against Islamic militants. ARI suggests that President Bush should not make the same mistakes.

"The behavior of such militants is that of the regimes which make them possible. Their atrocities are not crimes, but acts of war. The proper response, as the public now understands, is a war in self-defense… A proper war in self-defense is one fought without self-crippling restrictions placed on our commanders in the field. It must be fought with the most effective weapons we possess. A few weeks ago, Rumsfeld refused, correctly, to rule out nuclear weapons."

The paper was replaced with a one-page flier entitled, "Stop Racist Speech, Boycott The Daily Californian." "We must take a stand against the continuation of a systematic policy of eliciting and reinforcing hatred and racism from our student newspaper," read the flier. "We do not believe that hate speech, which advocates the killing of entire nations and the innocent people who live in them, is protected... [The ad] clearly crosses the line between reasoned debate and inflammatory hate mongering." It called the ARI ad, "the last straw."

The theft of Berkeley papers has become practically routine since 1996, when an entire press run of the school newspaper was stolen for supporting the Proposition 209 ban on the racial preferences in state programs.

This most recent theft resembles the events of last February when an issue containing David Horowitz's ad "Ten Reasons Why Slavery Reparations Are a Bad Idea and Racist Too" was stolen from campus kiosks. Horowitz sparked more discussions about freedom of speech than he did about slavery reparations on the Berkeley campus.

In September, The Daily Californian ran a cartoon showing the hijackers burning in hell. Angry Berkeley students stormed the offices claiming the cartoon was negative toward all Muslims in general. Editor in chief Janny Hu told Campus Report that unlike the September incident concerning the cartoon, there have been few hate phone calls or e-mails. The Daily Californian has not stepped up security measures.

"I don't think that the ad advocates the genocide of a society. It's calling for the eradication of governments that sponsor terrorism-but it's their opinion," wrote The Daily Californian general manager Hubert Brucker in response to the most recent theft of issues. "By stealing newspapers and denying other people to form their own opinions, they are defeating the First Amendment right to free speech."

The paper published a response to the theft the next day. "The term hate speech does not apply to political advertisements, such as those printed in Tuesday's edition of The Daily Californian." An editorial on the 29th commented, "The overuse of words such as 'racist,' 'violence' and 'hate' has bankrupted the words of any meaning."

At least two other fliers began circulating the campus condemning the theft. One quoted the First Amendment, with the words, "freedom of speech, or of the press," highlighted. The other flier quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

The ad ran last month in The Washington Post, New York Times, and The Harvard Crimson, without controversy.

Problems did arise at Penn State University when the ARI ad ran in the college paper, The Collegian. Muslim students rallied against the ad, and a week later the paper apologized. "While we welcome and encourage diverse views, we identify a fine line between a voice of opinion and an impediment on others' rights and safety. This article crossed that line." The Collegian claims they never reviewed the ad before printing it. "If the ad had been properly screened, the [ARI ad] would have been omitted. I apologize for this breakdown.... We renew our dedication to increased attention to potentially harmful ads to the student body.

"We recognize the sensitive and timely nature of this issue, and as a staff, The Collegian's business division would like to promote unity and understanding in our community."

No group has claimed responsibility for the theft. The University of California Police Department is investigating the incident but has no suspects at this time. Police Captain Bill Cooper said that past thefts have never resulted in any arrests or prosecutions.

The anti-terrorism ad was placed by the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). Named after the early 20th century Russian writer, the institute was founded in 1985 and promotes free thought in academics.

ARI executive director Yaron Brook said he anticipated criticism but stealing the papers violated freedom of speech. "They do not want the debates. The last thing that they want is to respect freedom of speech….The fact that they stole it says that they have no respect for private property."