Editorial.

The article focuses on the policy of the United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to enforce economic embargoes against countries the U.S. government considers unfriendly. Normally, these embargoes cover tangible "assets," like computers, vehicles, oil, medical supplies, and money. However, in late 2001, OFAC informed the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that it considers these embargoes to also apply to intangible "services," such as editing of technical journal articles. Consequently, the editors of the IEEE journals are prohibited by law for conveying reviewer comments and suggestions to authors who reside in any of the "embargoed" countries.