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In a new federal indictment, prosecutors allege a Maryland couple tried to spy for Russia.
The indictment says one of the accused told her partner to read the book, “Inside the Aquarium.”
The book is by a former Soviet spy, Viktor Suvorov, who defected in the late 1970s.
The wife of an Army major encouraged her partner to read a book by a former Soviet spy in order to prepare them for leaking sensitive US military medical information to the Russian government, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
According to a newly unsealed indictment filed with the US District Court in Maryland, the Department of Justice is charging Maj. Jamie Lee Henry and wife Dr. Anna Gabrielian with conspiring to hand over medical information to a person they believed was working for the Russian government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Court documents reviewed by Insider said that the couple gave the personal medical records of US Army patients and their family members to the undercover agent last month under the impression that the information would then be passed on to the Russian government.
Henry, a doctor who worked at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, had secret level security clearance, which allows access to content that, if disclosed, could harm the country’s national security. Gabrielian in an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The indictment alleges that at an initial meeting with the undercover agent at a hotel on August 17, Gabrielian said she was motivated to help Russia in any way she could because she felt patriotism for the country, court documents showed. According to a listing on Johns Hopkins’ website, Gabrielian speaks English and Russian.
Prosecutors allege that Henry denounced the US to the undercover agent and even said he considered joining the Russian army after it invaded Ukraine in late February.
Wife urged partner to study Soviet espionage
During that meeting, Henry allegedly told the undercover agent that Gabrielian had them read ”Inside the Aquarium,” a book on becoming a spy for the Soviet Union. The book is by a former Soviet spy, Viktor Suvorov, who defected in the late 1970s. According to Publishers Weekly, the book provides a “brisk, readable account” of the author’s “recruitment and training as an agent of Russia’s ultra-secret GRU intelligence group.”
Henry told the undercover agent, per the indictment, that Gabrielian recommended the book because it details “the mentality of sacrificing everything… and loyalty from day one. That’s not something you walked away from.”
The indictment suggests Henry had some potential qualms about spying for Russia, however.
“My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want. At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through,” Henry said during the meeting, prosecutors allege. Henry’s wife then responded: “you’ll work through those ethical issues.”
At a meeting a week later, Gabrielian told the undercover agent that Henry was a “coward” because the Army officer had expressed concern about violating HIPAA, the law that protects patient privacy. She, by contrast, allegedly told the agent that she engaged in such violations “all the time.”
Later that month, prosecutors claim the couple provided the undercover agent medical information related to an Air Force veteran, a retired Army officer, a Defense Department employee, the spouse of someone employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the spouses of multiple deceased Army veterans.