Column: Annapolis couple's alleged espionage leaves many questions

There's something almost poetic about using a sandwich to convey secrets about a sub. At the same time, it feels a bit like a missed opportunity. If guilty as charged, the Annapolis couple that stands accused of sliding a computer disc into half a peanut butter sandwich will have lots of time to think about it, but how much more symmetry if they'd employed a confection by, say, Jersey Mike's. A sub Above? No, a sub below, get it? But seriously. Of course, there's nothing funny about betraying your own government. Except, after Jan. 6, we've passed that point, haven't we? If you're not going to be incensed over a violent attack on the very seat of government, the Capitol Building of the United States of America, who cares about some boat? And sure enough, after an initial flurry of stories following the arrest of nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and his wife for subterfuge, we haven't heard squat. I was certain this story had juice, that we'd be reading about it for days. As a spy thriller, it had everything. A husband-and-wife team with no known motive as yet, allegedly selling secrets of a nuclear propulsion system not to an adversary but to a friendly nation in a sandwich and a pack of chewing gum in dead drops in the countryside in exchange for cryptocurrency — are you telling me Tom Clancy couldn't have done something with that? But it can't even knock Squid Game off the front page. And speaking of media coverage, this has to be the only espionage case covered by, I am not kidding, Food & Wine Magazine. I guess that's the problem, there's nothing particularly sinister here. No one with an eyepatch or metal teeth, no poison-tipped umbrellas. Just peanut butter. So the press has moved on and we are left with so many questions. Why did they do it? What nation were they trying to sell the secrets to? Smooth or extra crunchy? I also hope they at least sold secrets about our good sub, not the Mr. Magoo sub that doinked off of something underwater a week or two ago. According to The New York Times, "An F.B.I. affidavit described the Toebbes as employing somewhat sophisticated encryption methods but extremely sloppy practices as they communicated with who they thought were representatives of a foreign power but turned out to be F.B.I. agents. They insisted on careful use of cryptocurrency and encrypted their messages, but they were lured into depositing the information, usually on small digital cards, at sites where they could be easily observed." I also don't know why you would try to pass this information off to a "friendly nation." It's like trying to sell revenge porn to your ex-girlfriend's sister, it's not going to work. The friendly nation did exactly what you would expect a friendly nation to do, it contacted the State Department and said, "Uh, guys? You may want to check this out." I understand there's no road map for this sort of thing. They have yet to come out with "Espionage for Dummies." The key mistake, the Times wrote, was in letting the "friendly nation" (which was in fact the FBI) pick the location for the drop. That, apparently, is a rookie mistake, like letting loose with the smoke before you've selected the pope. It was almost like the "friendly nation" saying, "Gosh, Mr. Toebbe, we're really busy today, would you mind just bringing the sandwich to the J. Edgar Hoover building in northwest Washington?" Oh well, I'm sure there's more to the story, and we'll know it in time. But given the state of the nation today, maybe you could get by with just giving them a good talking to. Or at worst impeach them and then vote to acquit. — Tim Rowland is a columnist for Herald-Mail, a columnist and staff writer for Sun Community News, and a New York Times bestselling author. His books include "High Peaks; A History of Hiking the Adirondacks from Noah to Neoprene" and "Strange and Unusual Stories of New York City".

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Column: Annapolis couple's alleged espionage leaves many questions

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