Traitor: Ronald Montaperto, dean of military intelligence analysis on China, unmasked as spy

One of the most influential intellectual shapers of US military intelligence analysis on China, Ronald Montaperto, has been unmasked as a Chinese spy.

"A Pentagon official said Montaperto's value to China included both the secrets he shared and his role facilitating Chinese deception of U.S. intelligence by providing feedback on how those efforts were working," Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Times.

"A senior U.S. intelligence official bluntly stated, 'He was a spy for China.'"

A DIA analyst since 1981, Montaperto became dean of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies at the Pacific Command in Hawaii, under the wing of soft-line Marine Lt. Gen. Hank Stackpole (Ret).

"Montaperto also was part of an influential group of pro-China academics and officials in the US policy and intelligence community who share similar benign views of China. The group, dubbed the Red Team by critics, harshly criticizes anyone who raises questions about the threat posed by Beijing's communist regime," according to Gertz.

Montaperto was responsible for years of faulty intelligence analysis concerning China, and brought dozens of sinologists into the system. As with the case of Ana Belen Montes, the DIA Latin America analyist who was convicted as a Cuban spy, Montaperto influenced his underlings, recruited new people into the system, and tried to damage or destroy the careers of professionals who saw Beijing as a military threat.

The DIA must purge itself of Montaperto's proteges, and conduct a damage assessment of how much the traitor compromised the intellectual and professional integrity of other sinologists in the intelligence community.