Presidential Documents

24571 

Federal Register 

Vol. 77, No. 79 

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 

Title 3— 

The President 

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; 

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24572 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 24, 2012 / Presidential Documents 

(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; 

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(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. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, 

April 22, 2012. 

Billing code 3295–F2–P 


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24574 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 24, 2012 / Presidential Documents 

[FR Doc. 2012–10034 

Filed 4–23–12; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 4811–33–C 


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