Inside the Ring

Spy release

Former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst Ronald Montaperto, convicted last year on espionage-related charges that involved passing secrets to China, is scheduled to get out of federal prison Sunday. Prosecutors say he will be barred from meeting any Chinese intelligence personnel as a condition of his release.

Montaperto pleaded guilty in June to improperly storing classified intelligence documents and admitted as part of a plea deal that he verbally passed both “secret” and “top secret” intelligence to two Chinese military intelligence officers during 60 meetings over a number of years.

He spent three months at the minimum-security prison at Fort Dix, N.J.

The court order in the case states that Montaperto “shall have no contact with any foreign government or agents thereof, except with the express permission of [Department of Defense], and shall not seek or accept, personally or through another person or entity, any benefit from such foreign government or agent thereof.”

If Montaperto is paid or receives benefits from the Chinese or their agents, he will have to turn them over to the U.S. government.

“There’s also a provision in the plea agreement that prohibits him from disclosing classified information,” one law-enforcement official close to the case said.

Montaperto’s conviction was a major blow to a network of politically powerful pro-China intelligence officials and academics who share his views of China.

U.S. intelligence officials have said that Montaperto’s disclosures to Chinese intelligence coincided with the loss of a major electronic eavesdropping program against China that had helped track Beijing’s illicit arms exports.

Before sentencing, Montaperto received letters of support from several current and former intelligence officials, including DIA analyst and friend Lonnie Henley, who ultimately was reprimanded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for his defense of Montaperto.

Mr. Henley also had criticized the FBI for investigating Montaperto in an e-mail to a group of China specialists. The e-mail defended Montaperto as someone who only wanted to improve U.S.-Chinese relations and who was persecuted by the FBI as a result.

Despite the letter of reprimand, Mr. Henley recently was promoted to acting national intelligence officer for East Asia.

Montaperto was sentenced to three months in prison by federal Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, who said the light sentence was the result of the letters of support he received from current and former intelligence and military officials, despite what he called a “very serious charge.”

Montaperto claimed the passing of intelligence to China was unintentional and the result of being tricked by two Chinese officers.

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