http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,130378,00.html?ESRC=dod-bz.nl
this article is a little propaganda and sensationalist mixed in with the fact that ITT was convicted of an ITAR (Int'l Trade and Arms Regulation) violation.
ITAR is export compliance regarding the disclosure of controlled data or technology that the US government would find harmful to our intelligence or military advantages. http://www.authentica.com/solutions/ITAR.aspx
Companies that develop and are entrusted with sensitive US government information are subject to annual ITAR audits. You can see from this example that the boundaries are always subjective on exactly what data is sensitive and what is not. After tremendous internal scrutiny from mgmt and engineers, they felt that sharing certain specifications, drawings, or interfaces were isolated from classified data. Although ITAR can protect from accidental conversion due to carelessness, it is meant to punish those who would 'sell' secrets in a more straight forward legislation than trying to prosecute treason.
Companies are indicted every year for violation and even pay fines, but apparently this is the first company 'convicted.' ITT is a technology contractor that develops the most advanced optics. Clearly ITT wanted a higher profit margin than the US was willing to pay and attempted to cut costs repeatedly by outsourcing more and more of the component manufacture and assembly.
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