IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 73

which powerful agencies, particularly the National Security Agency
(NSA), wanted to keep completely
out of the public domain. This
was linked with ITAr rather than
OFAC.
The concerns at that time seem
to have been initiated by a letter
from Joseph Meyer to the IEEE
Staff Secretary sent in July 1977,
stating cryptographic systems were
covered by ITAr and implying
that publication of papers on the
subject would require prior u.S.
Government approval. Although
apparently from a private citizen,
it was later revealed that the writer
was an employee of the NSA, and
so it has since been assumed that
he wrote the letter at his employer's behest.
IEEE took a very strong stand
in support of authors, and in due
course, much of this kind of research
did enter the public domain, generally leading to great benefits now
taken for granted, e.g. the use of
secure methods for on-line banking and commerce, etc. and the
almost universal use of bank cash
machines (ATMs). It became a legitimate research field for academics. It appears that ITAr currently
imposes restrictions only on systems and equipment with a clearly
defined military application.
By contrast with the approach
taken by IEEE for the cryptography area, the approach to the
OFAC sanctions on Iran, Cuba,
etc. was characterized by extreme
timidity. Whether that was necessary or wise is a matter for others
to judge. As an example, the interpretation of OFAC laws to forbid
elevation of Iranian IEEE members to Senior Member status and

yet to be willing to accept their
membership dues and send them
printed copies of IEEE journals
appears with hindsight to have
been irrational, inconsistent and
unnecessarily cautious.

Current Status and Position
The Iran Section is now again in
operation and active. It produces
a regular Newsletter (mostly in
the Farsi language) which is available on-line via the IEEE Iran
Section website.
Obstacles to the transfer of
money in and out of Iran influences
the ease of paying legitimate travel
and accommodation expenses of
IEEE volunteers in Iran such as
those of the IEEE Iran Section
Chair when attending the IEEE r8
Committee meetings.
The Iran Section Website [9]
lists 26 IEEE Student Branches
in the Section, five of which have
their own websites.
The Iranian conference which
may have "triggered" this whole
episode (the International Symposium on Telecommunication
[10]) has continued to be held at
two year intervals every autumn
at various locations in Iran
(except that a change to evennumbered years occurred from
IST 2008).
IST 2005, held in Shiraz, has the
IEEE logo on its documentation (as
well as the IEE and IFIP logos). The
IEEE logo is, of course, not present on IST 2003 documentation
(although the IEE and IFIP logos
are present).
From IST 2008 onwards, the
papers of this conference have been
listed in IEEE Xplore, and in the
IEEE conference database.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SuMMEr 2013

The IEEE website has the
following statement [11]:
IEEE continues to monitor
United States OFAC regulations to ensure that our policies and practices comply
with the applicable laws.
There is now an IEEE Sudan Subsection, which includes at least one
IEEE Student Branch.

Author Information
The author is Visiting Professor, Kingston university, Penrhyn rd., Kingston-upon-Thames,
Surrey, KT1 2EE, u.K. and
Emeritus Professor, King's College London, Strand, London,
WC2r 2LS, u.K.

Acknowledgment
"In a Persian Market" is the name
of a once popular piece of music
composed by Albert W. Ketèlbey.

References

[1] The Institute, Oct. 1999, p. 9.
[2] OFAC, "Office of Foreign Assets Control."
u.S. Department of the Treasury.
[3] The Institute, July 1999, p. 3.
[4] ITAr,"International Traffic in Arms
regulations," u.S. Department of State,
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.
[5] F. Hojabri, Letter to IEEE, Aug. 6, 2003;
http://hojabri.net/dr-hojabris-original-letterto-ieee/, accessed May 28, 2012.
[6] IEE News, Autumn 2002, p. 8.
[7] O. Gaffney, Science, vol. 301, p. 1646,
Sept. 19, 2003.
[8] S. robinson, "risk-benefit analysis: Open
scientific dialog in a time of security concerns," SIAM on-line newsletter, Apr. 3, 2002;
http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=412.
[9] IEEE Iran Section, ieee.org; http://www.
ieee.org.ir/, accessed June 2012.
[10] http://ist2012.itrc.ac.ir/, accessed on 17th
June 2012
[11] "IEEE & united States Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC)," ieee.org; http://www.
ieee.org/about/corporate/compliance/regulatory/
ofac/index.html, accessed May 29, 2012.

http://www.hojabri.net/dr-hojabris-original-letter http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=412 http://www.ieee.org http://www http://ieee.org.ir/ http://ist2012.itrc.ac.ir/ http://www.ieee.org http://www http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/compliance/regulatory/

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