For starters, it has the FBI actually doing its job. Shocking, I know.
Not so much “leak” as “sell.” The medical information seems to be medical records of military personnel and their families, a pile of data that does not immediately seem all that terribly useful. But then, the Russians do not seem to have actually been involved here; these people were baited by the FBI. And what people they are:
During an initial Aug. 17 meeting in a Baltimore hotel room, (Anna) Gabrielian told the agent she was “motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail.”
Nice. But where it gets more interesting: the female doctors spouse, also arrested, has been in the news before:
(Jamie Lee) Henry received attention in 2015 after becoming the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender. A Buzzfeed article from that time said she was also, to her knowledge and to the knowledge of LGBTQ advocates, the first and only active duty service member who had changed her name and gender within the United States military.
In the one photo in the article Henry looks like a dude. But I guess Henry considers Henry to be female. Shrug.
“My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want,” Henry, 39, told the agent, according to the indictment. “At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I’ll have to work through.”
“You’ll work through those ethical issues,” Gabrielian replied.
Henry also told the agent she had looked into volunteering to join the Russian Army after the conflict in Ukraine began.
Wonderful. *These* are the sort of people the military is hiring *and* promoting.
It seems that both of these characters consider themselves women. So the fact that they have some number of children is a bit unusual; once again, biology ain’t what it once was. But also:
Gabrielian did fear what might happen to the couple’s children if she put herself at risk of arrest, demanding that the kids be put on “a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation” if arrest seemed imminent.
What the hell is in Turkey awaiting these kids? “Gabrielian” is an *Armenian* surname. I may not be a world-reknowned historian, but I do seem to recall some unpleasantness between the Turks and Armenians that would tend to suggest that they’re not real fond of each other.
