Blocking the Property and Suspending Entry Into the United States of Certain Persons With Respect to Grave Human Rights Abuses by the Governments of Iran and Syria via Information Technology, 24571-24573 [X12-10424]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 24, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 24571-24573]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: X12-10424]



[[Page 24569]]

Vol. 77

Tuesday,

No. 79

April 24, 2012

Part II





The President





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Executive Order 13606--Blocking the Property and Suspending Entry Into 
the United States of Certain Persons With Respect to Grave Human Rights 
Abuses by the Governments of Iran and Syria via Information Technology


                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 24, 2012 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 24571]]

                Executive Order 13606 of April 22, 2012

                
Blocking the Property and Suspending Entry Into 
                the United States of Certain Persons With Respect to 
                Grave Human Rights Abuses by the Governments of Iran 
                and Syria via Information Technology

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, including the International Emergency Economic 
                Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the 
                National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), 
                section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
                of 1952, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), and section 301 
                of title 3, United States Code,

                I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of 
                America, hereby determine that the commission of 
                serious human rights abuses against the people of Iran 
                and Syria by their governments, facilitated by computer 
                and network disruption, monitoring, and tracking by 
                those governments, and abetted by entities in Iran and 
                Syria that are complicit in their governments' malign 
                use of technology for those purposes, threaten the 
                national security and foreign policy of the United 
                States. The Governments of Iran and Syria are 
                endeavoring to rapidly upgrade their technological 
                ability to conduct such activities. Cognizant of the 
                vital importance of providing technology that enables 
                the Iranian and Syrian people to freely communicate 
                with each other and the outside world, as well as the 
                preservation, to the extent possible, of global 
                telecommunications supply chains for essential products 
                and services to enable the free flow of information, 
                the measures in this order are designed primarily to 
                address the need to prevent entities located in whole 
                or in part in Iran and Syria from facilitating or 
                committing serious human rights abuses. In order to 
                take additional steps with respect to the national 
                emergencies declared in Executive Order 12957 of March 
                15, 1995, as relied upon for additional steps in 
                subsequent Executive Orders, and in Executive Order 
                13338 of May 11, 2004, as modified in scope and relied 
                upon for additional steps in subsequent Executive 
                Orders, and to address the situation described above, I 
                hereby order:

                Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property 
                that are in the United States, that hereafter come 
                within the United States, or that are or hereafter come 
                within the possession or control of any United States 
                person, including any foreign branch, of the following 
                persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, 
                exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:

(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order; and

(ii) any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in 
consultation with or at the recommendation of the Secretary of State:

  (A) to have operated, or to have directed the operation of, information 
and communications technology that facilitates computer or network 
disruption, monitoring, or tracking that could assist in or enable serious 
human rights abuses by or on behalf of the Government of Iran or the 
Government of Syria;

  (B) to have sold, leased, or otherwise provided, directly or indirectly, 
goods, services, or technology to Iran or Syria likely to be used to 
facilitate computer or network disruption, monitoring, or tracking that 
could assist in or enable serious human rights abuses by or on behalf of 
the Government of Iran or the Government of Syria;

[[Page 24572]]

  (C) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, 
material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in 
support of, the activities described in subsections (a)(ii)(A) and (B) of 
this section or any person whose property and interests in property are 
blocked pursuant to this order; or

  (D) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act 
for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and 
interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.

                    (b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this 
                section apply except to the extent provided by 
                statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or 
                licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and 
                notwithstanding any contract entered into or any 
                license or permit granted prior to the effective date 
                of this order.

                Sec. 2. I hereby determine that the making of donations 
                of the type of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) 
                of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the 
                benefit of any person whose property and interests in 
                property are blocked pursuant to this order would 
                seriously impair my ability to deal with the two 
                national emergencies identified in the preamble to this 
                order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided 
                by section 1 of this order.

                Sec. 3. The prohibitions in section 1 of this order 
                include but are not limited to:

                    (a) the making of any contribution or provision of 
                funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of 
                any person whose property and interests in property are 
                blocked pursuant to this order; and
                    (b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of 
                funds, goods, or services from any such person.

                Sec. 4. I hereby find that the unrestricted immigrant 
                and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens 
                who meet one or more of the criteria in section 1 of 
                this order would be detrimental to the interests of the 
                United States, and I hereby suspend the entry into the 
                United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of such 
                persons. Such persons shall be treated as persons 
                covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 
                2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United 
                Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International 
                Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions).

                Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction by a United States person 
                or within the United States that evades or avoids, has 
                the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation 
                of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set 
                forth in this order is prohibited.

                    (b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the 
                prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

                Sec. 6. Nothing in section 1 of this order shall 
                prohibit transactions for the conduct of the official 
                business of the United States Government by employees, 
                grantees, or contractors thereof.

                Sec. 7. For the purposes of this order:

                    (a) the term ``person'' means an individual or 
                entity;
                    (b) the term ``information and communications 
                technology'' means any hardware, software, or other 
                product or service primarily intended to fulfill or 
                enable the function of information processing and 
                communication by electronic means, including 
                transmission and display, including via the Internet;
                    (c) the term ``entity'' means a partnership, 
                association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, 
                subgroup, or other organization;
                    (d) the term ``United States person'' means any 
                United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity 
                organized under the laws of the United States or any 
                jurisdiction within the United States (including 
                foreign branches), or any person in the United States;

[[Page 24573]]

                    (e) the term ``Government of Iran'' means the 
                Government of Iran, any political subdivision, agency, 
                or instrumentality thereof, including the Central Bank 
                of Iran, and any person owned or controlled by, or 
                acting for or on behalf of, the Government of Iran; and
                    (f) the term ``Government of Syria'' means the 
                Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, its agencies, 
                instrumentalities, and controlled entities.

                Sec. 8. For those persons whose property and interests 
                in property are blocked pursuant to this order who 
                might have a constitutional presence in the United 
                States, I find that because of the ability to transfer 
                funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to 
                such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this 
                order would render those measures ineffectual. I 
                therefore determine that for these measures to be 
                effective in addressing the two national emergencies 
                identified in the preamble to this order, there need be 
                no prior notice of a listing or determination made 
                pursuant to section 1 of this order.

                Sec. 9. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation 
                with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to 
                take such actions, including the promulgation of rules 
                and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to 
                the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out 
                the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the 
                Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other 
                officers and agencies of the United States Government 
                consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the 
                United States Government are hereby directed to take 
                all appropriate measures within their authority to 
                carry out the provisions of this order.

                Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation 
                with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to 
                determine that circumstances no longer warrant the 
                blocking of the property and interests in property of a 
                person listed in the Annex to this order and to take 
                necessary action to give effect to that determination.

                Sec. 11. This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.

                Sec. 12. The measures taken pursuant to this order with 
                respect to Iran are in response to actions of the 
                Government of Iran occurring after the conclusion of 
                the 1981 Algiers Accords, and are intended solely as a 
                response to those later actions.

                Sec. 13. This order is effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern 
                daylight time on April 23, 2012.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    April 22, 2012.

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