On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:03:42 -0700, Neil Fraser wrote:

On Apr 16, 12:24Â*am, Fred J. McCall wrote:
2) Even if someone went nuts and said that said plate was no longer
reexportable due to ITAR, so what? Â*It's a TEMPLATE. Â*You don't need to
reexport it. Â*The Russians already know where the bolt holes were,
right?

3) We don't mount armed guards over stuff just because we think it's on
the Munitions List.

Since it fit the bottom of the satellite perfectly, it was being used as
the bolt-down interface between the satellite and the shipping
container. The whole thing was successfully exported to Russia with
appropriate security. The issue was once the satellite was unbolted and
launched, they tried to ship the template back to the US in order to
assist with the construction of the next satellite. This template had
already made the Russia-US trip once before without issues, but the
first time it was just a template for a Russian missile. The second
time it was also the template for an American satellite. Thus the
people enforcing ITAR required that if it were being shipped via a
container, it be provided with armed security for its journey.

Don't send the plate back. Why would they need to once they have the
drawing? Something about this story is doesn't wash.