IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 72

interpretation of the law') and
recommended that OFAC grant
exemption from the need for a special license, etc.
In April 2004 IEEE received a
response from OFAC which fully
resolved that no licenses were
needed for publishing works from
Iran and that the entire IEEE publication process including peer
review and editing was exempt
from restrictions.
As a consequence of this and
other letters, etc., a final decision of exemption from the OFAC
regulations regarding publications
took place and restored IEEE's

groupings of student members took
place, making, in effect, IEEE Student Branches in every way but the
formal sense.
Shortly after that IEEE President Mike Lightner visited Iran and
with other adjustments, there was
a gradual increase in "normality"
- the development of "unofficial"
active student branches continued (in name only, they were not
allowed any financial resources,
etc., and could have no formal
recognition in IEEE), and then
GOLD and WIE activities began
to develop too (see present Iran
Section website).

IEEE seems to have "led the way" in
its compliance with what appeared
to be the interpretation of the
OFAC laws.
"commercial" concerns - but left
uncertainties regarding regions,
Chapters, Student Branches, etc.
Because these did not have a dominant influence on IEEE's income
flows (e.g., unlike publications),
IEEE did not pursue these issues
with the force that it had used over
publications issues.

Reestablishment
of the Iran Section
It was later decided (from new and
different legal advice to IEEE) that
the closure of the Iran Section had
been unnecessary, simply because
the formation date of the Section
preceded the passing of the laws
which made the Section "illegal."
So, with some caution, the Section was reinstated, but with the
clear proviso that new operational
units (Chapters, Student Branches)
were not permitted in Iran, nor
were the IEEE Student Branches
to be re-established (on the basis
that they had been formed after the
passing of the OFAC laws about
Iran). Soon after, some unofficial
72

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The visit of Mike Lightner was
reported in The Institute, by Kathy
Kowalenko, in February 2006:
To help the IEEE re-establish
its relationship with its
Iranian members, IEEE President Michael Lightner, then
President-Elect, attended the
conference. While there he
visited the research facilities
of Sharif University of Technology, Shiraz University,
and the University of Tehran,
and met with some faculty
members at the universities,
many of whom were former
IEEE members. Lightner
also updated members on
lingering OFAC issues and
encouraged them to rejuvenate their programs during
the first meeting the section
held since the May decision.
... ....Lightner says of
his visit to Iran. "They were
happy that I came, that they
are being recognized as a
Section again and that their

members are able to participate in activities, and receive
IEEE awards. As you might
expect, they were perfectly
clear about the fact that the
restrictions should not have
happened and concerned
about why they did, but they
were happy with the progress
we made."
Jawad Salehi, chair of
the section and a professor
of electrical engineering at
Sharif University, in Tehran,
says it was extremely important for members and others
to see the sincerity of the
IEEE's top leader. "It really
was touching and had a tremendously positive effect
on us," he says. "He was
extremely effective in regaining the confidence of former
IEEE Iranian members. He
gave us the moral support we
needed to get active again."

Where We are Now
As a result of the distributed
volunteer-led nature of IEEE,
many holding office in IEEE at
the time of the OFAC "difficulties" have now been replaced, following elections, etc., and the more
recent volunteers do not have any
knowledge of the details of what
happened, events which are now
"history." As a result, they have
no awareness of the interpretation
of the OFAC laws with respect to
the "embargoed" countries, and
so there is a general trend towards
normality without a feeling of
any strong need for caution about
legality.

A Previous IEEE
Interaction with U.S.
Government Legislation
There is an interesting comparison with a prior situation around
1977 when authors of publications
submitted to IEEE conferences
and journals began to report on
research results in the area of cryptanalysis and encryption, topics

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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SuMMEr 2013



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