Each time a company tries to tout its registration under Part 122 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the claims for the meaning of this registration become more and more outlandish. Scaling peaks not yet scaled by an other registrants is a press release and the website of Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. Somebody in Aegis’s PR department is intent on not letting a red cent of the $2,250 registration fee go to waste.

First, the press release:

Receiving this registration demonstrates that Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. has the knowledge and understanding to fully comply with the Arms Export Control Act (AECE) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, as well as having corporate procedures and controls in place to ensure compliance.

Er, no. Registration demonstrates that Aegis figured out how to fill out a form DS-2032 and pay the registration fee. There’s no test of Aegis’s knowledge or audit of its corporate procedures and controls. All that registration certifies is that Aegis had $2,250 in its bank account when its check for the registration fee cleared.

And then we have the website. At the top of the site, we have this language:

Aegis Electronic Group, Inc. is proud to be recognized by the United States Government as an International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) registered manufacturer/exporter.

“Recognized.” Did I miss the awards ceremony?

But best of all, the website is adorned with a seal to certify registration. Yes, an official looking seal that someone in their PR department cooked up on Adobe Illustrator and emblazoned with the legend “International Traffic in Arms Regulations Compliant.” It’s gold too. The seal is shown in the illustration on the left side of this post.

I now predict an out-of-control seal proliferation race as new registrants come up with more and more elaborate and official looking seals to outdo the last one cooked up by a registrant. Buy stock in Adobe now and encourage your kids to become graphic artists to get in on the ground floor of all this.

Regular readers are no doubt familiar with this blog’s occasional posts poking fun of press releases from defense manufacturers noting that the company had “achieved” registration with the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”). A common feature of many of these press releases is to try to portray registration under Part 122 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations as an endorsement by DDTC of the company’s export compliance expertise and procedures.

Well, I think a new bar was set by this press release from Virginia-based Zestron Corporation

ZESTRON process and service solutions, recently renewed its official International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) registration with the US Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

After several weeks of careful review of ZESTRON’s corporate structure, security, record keeping and procedures for handling sensitive military and intelligence applications, the company successfully passed the system’s strict requirements. The renewal of this registration demonstrates that ZESTRON is dedicated to adhering to the regulations that control the export and import of defense-related articles and services on the United States Munitions List.

Honestly, that doesn’t just take the cake. It takes the table the cake is on, the house where the table is, and the city in which the house is located. There is no scrutiny by DDTC of corporate structure, much less “several weeks” of such scrutiny. Nor is there any review of a company’s procedures for handling military and intelligence applications. And don’t get me started on the import business in the press release. The only strict requirement that a registered company has passed is that it was able to fill out the registration form correctly and submit it with the required fee.

Here’s a new export reform proposal: the DDTC should revoke the registration of any company that issues a press release incorrectly describing the significance of registration.