IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 69

towards all inquiries in this
regard. A large number of
letters, faxes, and email
messages from members
worldwide have remained
unanswered. A petition
signed by over 1200 IEEE
members last year (including 117 Fellows and 158
Senior Members) objecting to
IEEE's discriminatory policies and demanding explanations was totally ignored. This
petition also included signatures of 177 scientists and
professors working in top universities in the United States
who, like others, believed that
IEEE's policies and practices should not be politically
motivated.
In exceptional cases
where IEEE has provided
verbal or written responses,
only vague references were
made to "U.S. laws and regulations" and to policies dictated by the U.S. Department
of Treasury, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
Instead of citing specific regulations for each of its discriminatory policies against
Iranian members IEEE has
asserted that such regulations exist, and directed the
inquirer towards a fruitless
search for finding the nonexistent regulations on their
own.
More specifically, on
behalf of its members and
other Iranian electrical engineers and scientists, SUTA
asks for clear and unambiguous explanations for the
following specific restrictions imposed by the IEEE
on Iranian nationals residing in Iran:
1) Rejecting
applications
and nominations for
membership elevations.
2) Depriving members from
any form of web-access.

3) Limiting members (and
non-members) from publishing papers in its
journals.
4) Disallowing any local
activity under the name
of the IEEE, and cancelling all supports normally given to local
organizations.
As mentioned above IEEE
has kept its Iranian membership, or for that matter all
other members, in [the] dark
regarding the above policies
and practices. One notable
exception is a kind response by
Professor Michael Lightner,
IEEE's 2003 Vice President
for Publications, who relayed
parts of IEEE's positions on

constraint on the relationship of
IEE (now called IET) with Iran.
The IEE Council had a "representative" in Iran, Dr. Sadegh Jamali,
and IEE co-sponsored the 10th
Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering in 2002, held at
the university of Tabriz, which
attracted an attendance of 2500 [6].

Publications of Papers
with Iranian Authors
Initial information from IEEE
related to member benefits and the
Iran Section closure, but did not
reveal much about its position on
publications by Iranian authors,
although this came to dominate the
subject later.
The American Association of
university Professors (AAuP),
reported on January 12, 2004, to its

There were uncertainties over the
regulations about joint publications
with Iranian authors.
the above issues to us.
In the following attachments we elaborate on each
restriction, the brief explanation provided by Prof.
Lightner, and our comments
on why OFAC regulations do
not support or justify IEEE's
decisions.
Gentlemen: what is being
jeopardized here is not only
the rights of Iranian members, but also the prestige
and credibility of the IEEE,
............
We are also ready to meet
with you if you find such a
dialogue is helpful in resolving these issues...."
This letter is somewhat typical of
views expressed by many IEEE
members around region 8 (e.g., not
only in Iran).
During this difficult period for
IEEE, there was no corresponding

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

|

SuMMEr 2013

members as follows:
OFAC apparently held initially that publishing manuscripts submitted by authors
in Iran (apparently the test
case involved an author in
Iran specifically) was prohibited under the embargo,
because publication would
require the investment of
U.S. funds in a product ("the
manuscript") produced on
enemy soil. It would therefore be trading with the
enemy, which carries serious
criminal penalties.
It seems clear in retrospect that
IEEE's leadership were aware of
this but hoped to keep it confidential in the hope of a resolution. If
so, such confidentiality-intent was
unsuccessful.
In later discussions, it became
clear that acceptance of papers by
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