Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 18:54:54 +0100 From: gevers@csam.ucl.ac.be Subject: Great news: IEEE has all but lifted its embargo
Dear colleague,
In these times of rather depressing news, I am pleased to announce some great news indeed.
Faced with the prospect of losing thousands of members because of the continued embargo it was applying against some of its members, the IEEE President has announced that it was lifting just about all sanctions it had applied on its own initiative, such as access to Senior Member and Fellow grade, access to IEEE webpages, etc. The only remaining sanctions are those that are almost certainly within the confines of the US trade embargo laws.
You will find details about the decision and some comments on the Petition News webpage (http://www.csam.ucl.ac.be/%7Egevers/Petition_News.html)
or on the IEEE webpage (http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/mainsite/menuitem.818c0c39e85ef176fb2275875b...)
This decision, announced by IEEE on October 11, was taken to coincide with the start of the campaign for renewal of IEEE membership. (Note: I have been too busy in the last few weeks to organize this announcement earlier).
It is great to see that our campaign has reached its goal, and that our fellow members (if there are still any) in Cuba, Iran and Sudan, are no longer discriminated against. It is of course sad to see that the IEEE leadership has lifted these sanctions only because thousands of members had expressed their outrage, with many of them threatening not to renew their membership.
Thank you for the great response to our petition initiative.
Yours sincerely,
Michel Gevers Coordinator of the petition.
--
- Michel GEVERS *
- Center for Systems Engineering and Applied Mechanics (CESAME) *
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