Anna Gabrielian

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epidural man

epidural man

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Anybody know this person?

edition.cnn.com

US Army doctor and anesthesiologist charged with conspiring to provide US military medical records to Russian government | CNN Politics

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.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com

I have to say, I find it somewhat comical.

If someone comes to me and says “hey we think we can win the war in Russia if we know the results of Major Johnson’s routine colonoscopy” - I probably should be suspicious that the person asking me to commit espionage is an undercover agent.

I also think it was really funny that the husband was okay with the espionage part, but just really felt uncomfortable about violating HIPAA.
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I wonder if the conversation went like this

Anna to the undercover agent “you tell the Kremlin about me. I want them to know that because they now know that Major Johnson had a rotator cuff injury in ‘09, that their win is my win. And I’m so glad you found out that Colonel Angus has plantar fasciitis. That should be the ticket to success”
 
The point of obtaining medical information about military servicemembers is to identify who might be ill and in need of expensive medical care, or sick/injured from a military service related cause, who might have a grudge.

These are the people foreign intelligence agencies will then target as assets, because they might be more receptive to bribes, or they might have ideological sympathies. For example they'd probably be keenly interested in who's in the Burn Pit Registry, because that pool of people with chronic illness that they believe was caused by lousy living conditions on an Afghanistan deployment, is going to be a richer recruiting ground than random people.

Same reason individual financial information is of interest to adversaries, and why a history of gambling or bankruptcy can prevent people from obtaining security clearances. The Russians aren't interested in your purchases at Bed Bath and Beyond. They want to know if you have $70,000 of credit card debt and a mortgage that's 90 days overdue.
 
pgg said:
The point of obtaining medical information about military servicemembers is to identify who might be ill and in need of expensive medical care, or sick/injured from a military service related cause, who might have a grudge.

These are the people foreign intelligence agencies will then target as assets, because they might be more receptive to bribes, or they might have ideological sympathies.

Same reason individual financial information is of interest to adversaries, and why a history of gambling or bankruptcy can prevent people from obtaining security clearances. The Russians aren't interested in your purchases at Bed Bath and Beyond. They want to know if you have $70,000 of credit card debt and a mortgage that's 90 days overdue.
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Yep. Target the vulnerable
 
pgg said:
The point of obtaining medical information about military servicemembers is to identify who might be ill and in need of expensive medical care, or sick/injured from a military service related cause, who might have a grudge.

These are the people foreign intelligence agencies will then target as assets, because they might be more receptive to bribes, or they might have ideological sympathies. For example they'd probably be keenly interested in who's in the Burn Pit Registry, because that pool of people with chronic illness that they believe was caused by lousy living conditions on an Afghanistan deployment, is going to be a richer recruiting ground than random people.
Click to expand...
Joke is on them when they end up trying to recruit a bunch of service connected people with “PTSD” and a strange propensity for cluster B traits.
 
pgg said:
The point of obtaining medical information about military servicemembers is to identify who might be ill and in need of expensive medical care, or sick/injured from a military service related cause, who might have a grudge.

These are the people foreign intelligence agencies will then target as assets, because they might be more receptive to bribes, or they might have ideological sympathies. For example they'd probably be keenly interested in who's in the Burn Pit Registry, because that pool of people with chronic illness that they believe was caused by lousy living conditions on an Afghanistan deployment, is going to be a richer recruiting ground than random people.

Same reason individual financial information is of interest to adversaries, and why a history of gambling or bankruptcy can prevent people from obtaining security clearances. The Russians aren't interested in your purchases at Bed Bath and Beyond. They want to know if you have $70,000 of credit card debt and a mortgage that's 90 days overdue.
Click to expand...
I get this in theory.

But a few records obtained in this manner is going to have such a low yield that it seems so so stupid. Hence my sarcasm.

To get the data you explain, the Russians would have to have TONS of records.

And even then, not sure how it wins a war in Ukrain.

I know that being in debt or angry makes you more vulnerable, but the turn rate has to be 1:10000, maybe lower? How does a few medical records even come close to being helpful?
 
epidural man said:
I get this in theory.

But a few records obtained in this manner is going to have such a low yield that it seems so so stupid. Hence my sarcasm.

To get the data you explain, the Russians would have to have TONS of records.

And even then, not sure how it wins a war in Ukrain.

I know that being in debt or angry makes you more vulnerable, but the turn rate has to be 1:10000, maybe lower? How does a few medical records even come close to being helpful?
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They're playing a longer game. This was a FBI agent, but if it had actually been a Russian spy, Ukraine would've just been the hook for the initial recruitment.

A common tactic when developing an asset is to get them started with small things. Especially meaningless things, that the person can rationalize away as unimportant, to lower the moral questioning they have to do. Once they cross the line with something small, it lowers their resistance to future asks. Maybe 2 or 5 or 10 years from now an Army major doc grinding out clinic visits, is now a colonel who's the OIC for a FRSS and sitting in on classified intel briefs. Maybe then you ask for more useful information - at this point you have a person who's already broken the law in a small way (incrementalism works), and you have blackmail material (if you don't give us THIS info we'll make sure they find out you gave us THAT info). First rule of being a spy/traitor is that it's over when your foreign handler says it's over, and it's never over. They own you forever.

Didn't you do your mandatory counterintel online training modules when you were on active duty? 😉
 
pgg said:
A common tactic when developing an asset is to get them started with small things. Especially meaningless things, that the person can rationalize away as unimportant, to lower the moral questioning they have to do. Once they cross the line with something small, it lowers their resistance to future asks.
Click to expand...
Hmm that sounds exactly like what the heathcare administrative class is doing to us! Do this MOCA minute (it's just a minute!), do this yearly fire safety training, hey you need to score this an ASA3 "to help the hospital out", and give us your Medicare billing password and photocopies of your diplomas... also why don't you just sleep in the hospital overnight, and by the way you're taking call for free now.
 
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pgg said:
They're playing a longer game. This was a FBI agent, but if it had actually been a Russian spy, Ukraine would've just been the hook for the initial recruitment.

A common tactic when developing an asset is to get them started with small things. Especially meaningless things, that the person can rationalize away as unimportant, to lower the moral questioning they have to do. Once they cross the line with something small, it lowers their resistance to future asks. Maybe 2 or 5 or 10 years from now an Army major doc grinding out clinic visits, is now a colonel who's the OIC for a FRSS and sitting in on classified intel briefs. Maybe then you ask for more useful information - at this point you have a person who's already broken the law in a small way (incrementalism works), and you have blackmail material (if you don't give us THIS info we'll make sure they find out you gave us THAT info). First rule of being a spy/traitor is that it's over when your foreign handler says it's over, and it's never over. They own you forever.

Didn't you do your mandatory counterintel online training modules when you were on active duty? 😉
Click to expand...
I mean, someone hasn't been reading their John Le Carre...amirite?😎
 
pgg said:
They're playing a longer game. This was a FBI agent, but if it had actually been a Russian spy, Ukraine would've just been the hook for the initial recruitment.

A common tactic when developing an asset is to get them started with small things. Especially meaningless things, that the person can rationalize away as unimportant, to lower the moral questioning they have to do. Once they cross the line with something small, it lowers their resistance to future asks. Maybe 2 or 5 or 10 years from now an Army major doc grinding out clinic visits, is now a colonel who's the OIC for a FRSS and sitting in on classified intel briefs. Maybe then you ask for more useful information - at this point you have a person who's already broken the law in a small way (incrementalism works), and you have blackmail material (if you don't give us THIS info we'll make sure they find out you gave us THAT info). First rule of being a spy/traitor is that it's over when your foreign handler says it's over, and it's never over. They own you forever.

Didn't you do your mandatory counterintel online training modules when you were on active duty? 😉
Click to expand...
Yes I did it and now they will add this story to it.

If that is Russia’s long game, they are much stupider than I thought. No wonder they are getting their butts kicked in Ukraine.

Again- the probability of any of these two physicians being in a situation where they ever have ANY useful information to give is so small.

That’s like playing the long game of waiting for 12 to hit three times in a row. Sure, it probably will eventually.
 
epidural man said:
Yes I did it and now they will add this story to it.

If that is Russia’s long game, they are much stupider than I thought. No wonder they are getting their butts kicked in Ukraine.

Again- the probability of any of these two physicians being in a situation where they ever have ANY useful information to give is so small.

That’s like playing the long game of waiting for 12 to hit three times in a row. Sure, it probably will eventually.
Click to expand...
Except, did they even have ANY communication with Russia? Or just an undercover FBI agent? Seems to me she (the anesthesiologist) concocted this plan herself and reached out to try to help "the motherland".
 
epidural man said:
Yes I did it and now they will add this story to it.

If that is Russia’s long game, they are much stupider than I thought. No wonder they are getting their butts kicked in Ukraine.

Again- the probability of any of these two physicians being in a situation where they ever have ANY useful information to give is so small.

That’s like playing the long game of waiting for 12 to hit three times in a row. Sure, it probably will eventually.
Click to expand...
Um 🙂

You realize Russia had nothing to do with this story, right? These clowns reached out, the FBI noticed, and they hung themselves.
 
epidural man said:
I wonder if the conversation went like this

Anna to the undercover agent “you tell the Kremlin about me. I want them to know that because they now know that Major Johnson had a rotator cuff injury in ‘09, that their win is my win. And I’m so glad you found out that Colonel Angus has plantar fasciitis. That should be the ticket to success”
Click to expand...
Touche on the Colonel Angus reference if it is what I suspect. That was a great SNL skit.
 
epidural man said:
Anybody know this person?

edition.cnn.com

US Army doctor and anesthesiologist charged with conspiring to provide US military medical records to Russian government | CNN Politics

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.
edition.cnn.com edition.cnn.com

I have to say, I find it somewhat comical.

If someone comes to me and says “hey we think we can win the war in Russia if we know the results of Major Johnson’s routine colonoscopy” - I probably should be suspicious that the person asking me to commit espionage is an undercover agent.

I also think it was really funny that the husband was okay with the espionage part, but just really felt uncomfortable about violating HIPAA.
Click to expand...

which is the husband?
 
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