The spokesman added that State is now "working with like-minded countries" to press WIPO's director general, Australia-born Francis Gurry, to "conduct an independent, external fact-finding exercise into past WIPO projects in countries under [Security Council] sanctions" presumably to discover if there are further unpleasant surprises in store, and also to "ensure future development projects are properly reviewed prior to being approved and implemented."

Word of the new revelations first surfaced at a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee last week, in which two California Democrats, Howard Berman and  Zoe Lofgren, raised questions with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Teresa Stanek Rea about the transfers, which Berman declared "highly distressing and Lofgren called "an outrage."