March 12, 2004
Mr. R. Richard Newcomb
Director
Office of Foreign Assets Control
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania, NW
Washington, DC 20220
Dear Mr. Newcomb:
I am writing to express the deep concern of the American Association of University Professors, the paramount professional organization in the United States devoted to advancing principles of academic freedom, over the reported action of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to bar scholars in this country from traveling to Cuba to attend, and participate in, an international conference on brain injury.
We understand that American scholars have attended similar conferences in Cuba in the past. We further understand that this year's conference began on March 9, that on February 27 OFAC requested detailed information about the participants and the conference, and that the requested information was forwarded to your office on the same day. You stated, in a letter dated March 10 to the tour company handling travel arrangements for conference participants, that OFAC, after consultation with the Department of State, had determined "at this time" to deny permission for the scholars to travel to Cuba. You referred to the "limited information we have received . . . concerning each individual" as the reason for the denial of permission.
This Association has long held that the free circulation of scholars is an inseparable part of academic freedom. We are dismayed by OFAC's sudden last-moment decision, precluding as it did any opportunity for a timely and meaningful response by the American scholars and their travel company. We urge that OFAC and the Department of State facilitate, not impede, the granting of permission to American scholars who wish to attend academic conferences in Cuba. We do so out of the conviction that the unfettered search for knowledge is indispensable for the strengthening of a free and orderly world.
Sincerely,
Mary Burgan
General Secretary
cc: Mr. Kevin Whitaker, Director, Office of Cuban Affairs, Department of State
Dr. Alan I. Leshner, Executive Officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Stuart J. Youngner, Department of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University Robert Guild, Marazul Charters, Inc.