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| Fifth Column |
| FormerSpook: Spies Among Us or Another Ames? |
| 2006-06-27 |
| Story by Spook86 This story broke on Friday, but it received comparatively little attention except in the blogosphere, and in Bill Gertz's story in the Washington Times. A former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, Ronald Montaperto, has pleaded guilty to the illegal retention of classified documents, and admitted (in a plea agreement) to passing "top secret" information to Chinese intelligence officials. There a number of things that bother me about this case. First, Montaperto was more than just a "line" analyst at DIA. Over a 20-plus-year-career in government, he advanced through the ranks, enventually becoming Dean of a U.S. Pacific Command think tank in Hawaii. In that position, Montaperto was at least a GG-15 (civilian equivalent of a full Colonel), or more likely, a member of the Senior Executive Service, equivalent to a military flag officer. In other words, a man with extensive, high-level contacts within the military and intelligence communities, a man that, potentially, could have passed large amounts of sensitive information to his Chinese contacts. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #11 What's the big deal? If he were Sandy "stuff it in your pants" Berger he would be sipping Lattes in Georgetown now. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-06-27 12:53 |
| #10 Unless they ship him off to the Florence, Colorado Supermax, there is a strong possibility that while he was pipelining, what he was pipelining may not have been all that reliable. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-06-27 10:02 |
| #9 The real problem is that the past tense of plead is pled, not pleaded. You don't say someone bleeded to death. Sorry, that one is nails on the chalkboard for me. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-06-27 09:33 |
| #8 ...has pleaded guilty to the illegal retention of classified documents, and admitted (in a plea agreement) to passing "top secret" information to Chinese intelligence officials. So what's the real problem? Like it wasn't the NYT, LAT, or WaPo. He gets stiffed because of who he gives them to and not just the act? It's not like the CIA doesn't have a current telephone directory with the address for the others. |
| Posted by: Elmert Jinetle8240 2006-06-27 09:18 |
| #7 The sooner DIA is closed down the better. Absolutely NO degradation on collection or analysis would result I assure you. It is a quagmire of high-grade bureaucratic civilians, political correctness, petty politics, affirmative action, and inefficiency beyond measure. We have been ill-served by DIA for many years. It is nothing more than a government jobs portal. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-27 06:43 |
| #6 I wouldn't be surprised one bit if foreign agents were those blowing all the operations to the newspapers interesting |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-06-27 05:14 |
| #5 Gut this scum on Pennsylvania AVE. We have got to get this stuff and all these leaks under control. Fear of swift and certain death is the only thing that will do that |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-06-27 04:30 |
| #4 Doc - I went to my doc and got some meds before posting this. Saved my blood pressure. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-06-27 00:56 |
| #3 The U.S. intelligence apparatus is full of turncoats. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if foreign agents were those blowing all the operations to the newspapers. |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-06-27 00:54 |
| #2 A final thought: one reason for the plea deal (and potentially light sentence) may be the "contact" program that Montaperto participated in. At one point, DIA appparently encouraged some sort of contacts between selected employees and Chinese embassy officials. There may have been concern about potential disclosures within that program, if the Montaperto case was tried in an open court. A lot of information made its way to the PRC in the 1980s and 1990s, and there are probably a lot of government officials--current and former--who may be nervous or embarassed about what we gave the Chinese, under the aegis of an "official" program. If your jaw hit the keyboard and your blood pressure just spiked report to RB Sick Bay, Doc Steve is on duty just get in line and wait. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-06-27 00:52 |
| #1 Treason in time of war used to be punishable by death, by firing squad. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-06-27 00:36 |