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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   35356 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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This one just baffles me.

FBI sting on an army officer nets an spying bust. Dog bites man, except there's a lot more not mentioned in the press release. It's culture war because the accused is the first openly trans officer in the Army. However the baffling thing is, why is an openly trans officer willing to spy for Russia which is widely known for its anti-LGBT policies.

The other odd thing about this case is the DoJ's release uses a lot of pronouns that don't don't seem to be Henry's preferred pronouns.

Looks like the initiative came from the wife, Anna Gabrielian, who was genuinely sympathetic to the Russian cause (there more such people in the US then you think - but then if you read history, in the 1940s there were enough people in the US sympathetic to the Nazi cause) and wanted to do something to help Mother Russia. She got the husband involved, and the trans angle seems to be coincidental to this. This is a weird coincidence, but from what is publicly known about the case, I don't see any play for the trans angle here.

This is a weird coincidence, but from what is publicly known about the case, I don't see any play for the trans angle here.

When I did a lot of case review for SVP civil confinement cases, I would go through the big binders of case histories with Green/Red/Blue post-it flags and highlighters in three colors for the three kinds of facts you find: good, bad, and sad. Good facts were things in his history that make him seem like a good guy who is reformable , bad facts are those that make him seem like a monster, sad facts are those that make him seem like a victim of society which drove him to these acts. I suspect that the trans angle, if it comes in, is a Sad Fact here; it's a symptom/cause of a great deal of mental anguish and alienation.

I recall reading somewhere that the only common thread among spies and defectors during the Cold War was that there was no common thread. Some turned cloak for ideological reasons. Others for personal gain. And still others for bizarre and inscrutable reasons. Many were severely unhappy in some way, but not all.

This one is very strange. On a cursory reading it looks like the wife (to keep things clear, I'm going to refer to the cis woman as the wife and the trans person as the husband, otherwise we're going to be trying to figure out which wife thought which wife was a coward) is the one driving all this, pushing Henry (the trans army officer) into helping her spy - or attempt to be a spy - for the Russians.

Gabrielian told the UC that she had previously reached out to the Russian embassy by email and phone, offering Russia her and her husband’s assistance.

Yeah, if I'm some guy in the Russian embassy and I receive these messages, I am not going to touch them with a ten-foot barge pole because it sounds way too like some FBI sting. "Hi, I'm a doctor married to a US army doctor and we're ever so eager to give you private health info on American military personnel!" Sure, glowie, why don't you go back to setting up far-right losers?

Is Gabrielian Russian or of Russian descent? This is hard to get things straight, and by this clip of the pair of them leaving court, Henry seems to have de-transitioned or isn't presenting as female here, anyway. So maybe that's why the release is using male pronouns for him?

(to keep things clear, I'm going to refer to the cis woman as the wife and the trans person as the husband)

Interestingly, CNN is doing the same thing:

"A wife and husband from Maryland have been charged with conspiring to provide the Russian government with personal medical records from the US government and military, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment.

" Anna Gabrielian, an anesthesiologist practicing in Baltimore, along with her husband, Jamie Lee Henry, a major and doctor in the US Army, allegedly provided "individually identifiable health information," which is protected under federal law, to an FBI undercover agent posing as a Russian government employee."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/29/politics/us-army-doctor-anesthesiologist-russian-government-medical-records/index.html

Russia might not have the same budget the USA does, but they probably have the ability to pay their spies- in dollars, gold, euros, whatever.

Ok, this a weird request, but maybe someone will know. I read this bit in a deadpan newscaster voice and cracked up laughing:

she told the agent her husband was a "coward" to be concerned about violating HIPAA, but she broke the law "all the time"

It gave me a really strong feeling of deja vu. Was it just the cough syrup, or has there been some other case where the accused pled not guilty but was recorded saying something like "doing <crime> isn't a big deal. I do <crime> all the time"?

However the baffling thing is, why is an openly trans officer willing to spy for Russia which is widely known for its anti-LGBT policies.

That's the best kind of asset. Ideologically motivated assets are fickle and draw unwanted attention. Someone who spies for the money is much more reliable.

Not just the first openly trans officer, but some articles specify the first enlisted service member to change their gender!

It’s possible that some instances of transgenderism are predicated on a fleeing from one’s true identity. If so, it makes sense that a person who changes their identity away from Male will also change their identity away from American. We can’t ignore this possibility as Bradley Manning changed their identity to Chelsea Womanning and also fled from their identity as an American and as an army officer (by leaking). The underlying psychological phenomena would either be a fear response to one’s identity or a fetishistic autogynephilia around subverting one’s identity (like the Canadian teacher who wants everyone to see his giant boobas).

On what basis do you infer that Manning leaked the documents because she wanted to "[flee] from their identity as an American and as an army officer"? Her official statement in court says:

The more I read, the more I was fascinated with the way that we dealt with other nations and organizations. I also began to think the documented backdoor deals and seemingly criminal activity that didn't seem characteristic of the de facto leader of the free world.

(...)

I thought these cables were a prime example of a need for a more open diplomacy. Given all of the Department of State cables that I read, the fact that most of the cables were unclassified, and that all the cables have a SIPDIS caption.

I believe that the public release of these cables would not damage the United States; however, I did believe that the cables might be embarrassing, since they represented very honest opinions and statements behind the backs of other nations and organizations.

Which to me does not seem at all anti-American. My conclusion would be that she loves her homeland and wants it to be better, to live up to its ideals.

We can’t ignore this possibility as Bradley Manning changed their identity to Chelsea Womanning and also fled from their identity as an American (by leaking, and then also fleeing into Russia).

a) The pun is not funny enough to justify the outgroup swipe, IMO

b) It was Snowden that fled to Russia. Manning was court martialed, and transitioned in prison.

Confused Snowden and Manning, thanks for correction.

The pun is imbued with negativity and swipe only if this is considered intrinsically negative by the reader. In other contexts such name punnings are totally innocuous and in fact used for thousands of years (“Karl Lumbard became a Lumbard-jack” would not be seen as denigrating Karl or his profession). Jesus used a name pun to liken Peter to a rock because the etymology is from Petros (rock), and this was his highest honor, not a swipe.

the baffling thing is, why is an openly trans officer willing to spy for Russia

Some sort of galaxy-brained double agent plot, perhaps? Leaking medical records of a few US officers is unlikely to matter too much for the war itself, so I'd guess it was mostly so they could be part of an exciting spy plot. If that's true, trying to set oneself up as a double agent is only marginally more delusional.

Not everybody can bag a high-level State Department official. Third-grade spymasters must be doing something too. I imagine that's the kind of people they're dealing with.

He looked like a man in the perp walk video. Not in a failing-to-pass way, but literally like a very average man making no attempt whatsoever to look like a woman. Either his earlier coming-out was just a grift, or he's had a change of heart since.

I thought it was her and her lawyer. Nope.

https://www.crimeonline.com/2022/09/30/u-s-army-majors-evil-wife-plots-to-secretly-give-confidential-documents-to-russia/

Actually, that's not a perp walk. The article says that they were put on home detention. That seems really weird for someone accused of trying to sell secrets to Russia.

As a staunch far right conservative, I unironically support the trans-officer in this situation as I did the Rosenbergs, who were time travelers, sent back to spare us from the darkest timeline, even though I do not believe that men can magically become women. (But when in clown world...) I do believe that humans are a sexually dimorphic mammalian species and that time travel is rare.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4320656

Edit: Futurists will hate me for this but my position is that time travel should be safe, legal, and rare.

  • -17

I'm getting downvoted by blackpilled neofuturists and entrenched believers in the technological singularity because they shun their outgroup.

So much for rationalism.

  • -17

I will die on this hill!

God damn it, I can't read any more of that paper but I am dying to know where it goes. Does anyone know how I could? Preferably without having to go back to school.

Also just based on all the weasel words in the description of her crimes I assume she is innocent of spying and this is about something else entirely.

Often, searching for the paper on Google Scholar turns up a copy, as it did in this case. Though sometimes it is a draft version.

Use Sci-Hub. (Note: not legal)

Oh man, cheers but that was disappointing. If I want to read a bunch of pedantry I can just go through my post history.

The fed govt. it seems can look for any excuse to indict someone. Sharing health info somehow threatens national security.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy, and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each count of disclosing IIHI. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Usually the counts are wrapped as one, so the worst case would likely be 10 years.

However the baffling thing is, why is an openly trans officer willing to spy for Russia which is widely known for its anti-LGBT policies.

Because in spite of such polices, Russia is known for having progressive cultural elements too it (literature, chess, ballet, figure skating ,etc.) Sans Putin, it's not that conservative of a country.

In what sense are literature, chess, ballet, and figure skating “progressive cultural elements”? If you just mean that in the current year the average Westerner who is interested in one of those four things is more likely to identify as progressive than as conservative, you’re not wrong, but I see absolutely nothing about any of the four that could even remotely be said to be inherently progressive.

I think Russian culture values those things more than American culture does. Ballet in the US has to compete with all other popular forms of entertainment and also cultural divides.

Sharing health info somehow threatens national security.

Well, for a fucking start, you are my doctor and you are not supposed to be shopping around my private medical information as a means of blackmailing me, whether or not I am in the military of my country, or the spouse/family of a member of the military of my country.

Bitch should have her ass thrown in jail for that alone. Clarification: this is the Johns Hopkins doctor wife who wasn't a soldier, though Soldier Boy shouldn't get away with it, either. Also I note that Johns Hookins have deleted her page on their website pretty damn fast 😁

Sharing health info somehow threatens national security.

When you are an officer in the military? Fuck yes it does.

Soldiers are going to fight to the death at the order of the military. Those soldiers give you critical information necessarily for their survival. And if you somehow decide that this information should be used for your own personal aggrandizement, that is bullet-in-the-head bad.

It is mercy that this person is only facing imprisonment.

literature, chess, ballet, figure skating

I would not describe those as "progressive cultural elements". They are traditional high culture, not something the left would probably be enthusiastic about. (The modern, Western left, that is. The Soviets believed in the value of high culture and wanted to make it available to the masses.)

Sans Putin, it's not that conservative of a country.

Putin is widely popular in Russia, or at least was before the current kerfuffle. Conservative, traditionalist views on society and culture are widespread. There may be a certain feminist streak, a holdover from the Soviet era, but LGBT stuff is a big no-no. (That is my understanding, at least. I'm not Russian, but as far as I know, neither are you.)

Russian society doesn’t seem notably traditionalist, although it’s clearly pretty opposed to blue tribe values.

Releasing personally identifiable health information is a big deal for civilian doctors, including loss of medical license at the extreme end. I'm sure the army takes a similarly dim view of it. Going out of your way to try and contact the Russian embassy to become a spy, then committing a crime to prove your commitment to future treason is a far cry from the feds "looking for any excuse to indict someone". When the FBI goes on a fishing expedition with 80 IQ ne'er-do-wells, sure, but I'd hope a pair of married doctors would have enough spare brain cells between them to know what they're getting into.

Releasing personally identifiable health information is a big deal

So why is this so sacred, anyway? Medical privacy has always seemed like a moderately cruel joke to me, considering that one's secrets are kept with the uttermost strength away from anybody who couldn't do much to harm a person with them, anyway, but delivered right into the hands of the organizations who hold a person's life in their hands already. Considering how many rights and privileges a person can lose for getting treatment for mental health problems (crucially: for getting treatment;) fighting so hard to protect people from lesser humiliations seems perverse.

People don't want random people knowing they have AIDS, or dick fungus, or chronically shit their pants as a kid, or what have you. All kinds of reasons.

His/her wife is Russian, and it seems like she was leading the operation. She even had to overcome some hesitancies from the officer, apparently.

Truly a sinister people, those Russians! (jk)

I’m shocked his/her could even get a clearance, typically marriage to a foreign National is disqualifying

That'd be news to all the Sailors and Marines marrying Filipinas and Thais.

I mean there might be exceptions but I’m shocked that marriage to a Russian didn’t raise a million flags. https://news.clearancejobs.com/2015/06/24/will-partners-nationality-threaten-security-clearance-doha-hearings/

Is she Russian, though? The surname Gabrielian is Armenian, and fiddling around on ancestry websites one guy with that name was born in Turkey and a couple others in Armenia before immigrating to the US. If her grandpa was an Armenian who emigrated to Massachusetts, she wouldn't show up as Russian.

"Ivan, this cover story can't possibly work"

"You do not know the Americans like I do, comrade. Is bulletproof. Now hand me that tutu"

That really is a weird sting op. I guess they've been running these since the start of the war on anyone with Russian family or friends, but why? Inter-agency status games? Did he get thrown under the bus? Wrapping the whole thing up in less than a month is pretty amazing too; if you've gone to all that work, why not entrap a bit harder to get better charges to stick?

Edit: oh for fuck's sake she just called up the most heavily tapped phone line in the country to offer her and her husband's services lmao

(John Hopkins already memory-holed her bio page, btw. That was quick)

Edit: oh for fuck's sake she just called up the most heavily tapped phone line in the country to offer her and her husband's services lmao

Yeah, that was brilliant. The Russians plainly had more sense than to buy her story, but she pretty much walked into the FBI net begging to be arrested with that stunt.

"Gosh, Special Agent Jones, our arrest records are very scanty this month. Head office won't be pleased!"

phone rings

"Not to worry, Special Agent Smith, here's two more we can add to the tally!"

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