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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   35340 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.

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.

Most of those guys don't have a clearance.

You don't need access to SIPR to be in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or whatever. Even when you're in a controlled access facility the classified shit is kept locked up for a reason.

Not everyone has clearances, but in my experience the vast majority of career soldiers do. It's something you're expected to get within your first enlistment, certainly by the time you make NCO. Not sure if other MOS are different, I assume some are.

I assume the rules are different for Secret vs. Top Secret clearances. Googling suggests that a foreign spouse who is in regular contact with their foreign birth family is disqualifying for TS.

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