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| | Words Without Borders -> Doors, Windows, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control |
 | | Then, in September of 2003, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury Department bureau that monitors transactions with countries under embargo, issued a ruling that informed the U.S.-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that “the collaboration on and editing of manuscripts submitted by persons in Iran” was prohibited. |
 | | In another ruling later that month, OFAC stated that an U.S. entity could not publish a book written by an Iranian living in Iran because “inherent in the publication of a book are marketing, distribution, artistic, advertising and other services not exempt from” the OFAC regulations. |
 | | In response, an OFAC official stated that there was a standing exemption from the OFAC regulations for Cuban literature—an exception which, if it actually existed, would indeed have been bizarre (why Cuban literature alone and not Iranian, Sudanese or North Korean?). |
| www.wordswithoutborders.org /article.php?lab=EAllen (2357 words) |
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