A CAUTIONARY TALE . . .

ABOUT AN IDENTITY COMPROMISE AFTER THE RUSSIANS HACKED THE US OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT (OPM) COMPUTERS WHEN I HAD AN APPLICATION TO TEACH RUSSIAN AT THE DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE ON FILE AT THE OPM

Beloved, as you may know, my full name is Kathleen Ware Harris. I have had FB pages with my full name and with "Kathy Harris" for my friends from the time I was eight years old through high school.

But I did not set the FB page you can see through this URL -- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008711207300.  

I believe that FB page, with which I had NOTHING to do appeared because the Russians hacked the OPM computers at a time during which I had that application to work at a DoD installation, and also because I have traveled in Russia,and because the Russian government has a detailed file on all people who have requested to travel there.

Of course, beyond my travel there to be in mission with the United Methodist Church, beginning in 1993 through 2011, I was also a USAF intelligence officer beginning in 1980, and due to the openness of our society, and how much easier it has always been for the Soviet/Russian governments to gather intelligence here in the US than it has ever been for any other country, including us to gather intelligence in Eurasia, they have always had the advantage over us.

And I first met Soviets in the fall of 1977, right before I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One of the exchange professors that my family and my parents got to know well during the eight months we knew him and often hosted him and his wife when she visited him in January of '88, (and two other Soviet exchange professors -- one from Kiev and one from Moscow).

I got to know them so well, that one of them told me about the preparations and training that he had gone through in Moscow for two weeks before flying to Champaign to begin his time working with a professor from India in a post-doctoral position. He also said he was given $600 by the Soviet Gov't to use to buy textbooks concerning radio physics and other subjects that at that time, the US university faculty members and research staffs understood in an advanced way compared to the capabilities of the Soviet military or advanced research scientists in the fields of isle propulsion systems, advanced radar capabilities and other scientific and strategic developments.

The exchange professor I knew best in the Fall of '77 Semester, through the Spring of '78 semester, and his wife (Anatoly and Tanya) were from Kharkov, Ukraine, and I was blessed to visit them there sixteen years after we first met during the time that I was on my second UMC mission trip to Russia in the summer of '94. The mission trip had been to the village where the Tears had summer palaces, about a day's horse and carriage drive outside of what was again being called "St Petersburg", after having been called "Leningrad during the Soviet era.

The IREX (International Relations Exchange Program) had been agreed to when Detente was set up by the two governments in the early 70s, so that the Soviet Union could begin trading with the US. Nevertheless, the benefits of the program were very lopsided because the Soviets sent professors who were involved in advanced scientific developments, especially those connected to military capabilities, and the US was only allowed to send students and professors involved in the Humanities.

During that time, I didn't know anything about how the Soviet government, military and intelligence agencies worked, but during the six years I was on active duty and the nine years I was in the Reserves, I had occasion to learn a lot and spent time doing analysis, briefings, and being involved in the monitoring of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and other treaties.

I know that the Soviet Government knew who I was, because we made it easy, first of al by publishing the names of airmen and officers who graduated form the USAF Air Intelligence Training Center that at the time I studied there was located at Lowry AFB in Denver.

After each class graduated, the USAF Public Relations Office foolishly sent a list of the names of graduates from every class to the Denver Post, which openly published the lists.

After the US Government folks realized that the Russian Government folks had access to applications for jobs teaching Russian at a DoD institution, which should never have been compromised by them finding out about it, I was contacted by OPM and given access to a very comprehensive program guarding against identity theft.

Nevertheless, three times since October of 2016, I have had indications on FB that there were phishy things going on and I put my FB page in an offline mode and almost decided to delete it.

I was worried that I would lose too many friends if I did that, so I just did my best to keep checking to see if other indications of phishing or other compromises. Last May I all of a sudden began to get strange e-mails that notified me that I had opened a bank account in banks I had never heard of and that I had been refused for loans and credit cards that I had never applied for . . . and it happened again when I was in Colorado visiting my son in November.

So three times I have had to go to the trouble of changing bank accounts and there is no reason to believe the identity theft challenges will stop.

Of course, all of this happened beginning on FB in 2014, so even before the Russians interfered with the latest presidential election because the Republican candidate's campaign staff and son-in-law were engineering Russia's help to sway the election because of the candidate's close business association with Russia that all had to be approved by Putin and the Russian government.

Therefore, Beloved, I think you can understand why, among other things, I have had a jaundiced attitude toward this very unqualified, bigoted, hate mongering power hungry pseudo-president we have in the WH.

I know I wrote that I was sick of the politics and especially the disgusting and ridiculous "news cycle"concerning his tweets, ridiculous tweets and evil campaign rally-type meetings with the US citizens who were duped into voting for him amidst the treasonous activity that was being carried out on his behalf.

But I just noticed this "pseudo FB page" attributed to me today. I had nothing to do with it, and you can see that the hacking that led to the creation of it included knowing my birthday and even pretended that I myself from my true FB page had accepted a "Friend" request for the fake page. I never did. I would have remembered and told you about all this before now if I HAD seen it before or truly accepted a friend request.

Soooo . . . I hope that if you are on the fence about whether or not the candidate authorized his campaign manager and his son-in-law, among others to deal with the Russians and to authorize them to do the dirty tricks on the candidate's behalf, that you will get off the fence and start working HARD to impeach him.

Write your Congressmen and Senators . . . forward this post ti them if you would like to do that. It's okay with me because he and the Republicans in Congress have GOT to be stopped. We need to work harder and find whatever ways are necessary to make this happen.

For the sake of our sovereign nation under threat from our enemy, Russia, and for the sake of every American citizen and immigrant who needs the help, health care, Social Security payments and SSI payments, and fruit of other programs that help our people in need and are full of the mercy, justice, peace and kindness that are at the core of our Founders' values, even though they did not live up to the highest of their ideals, continuing to allow slavery for greedy, economic purposes, cruelty and bigotry that has now re-surfaced in a very sickening way with the administration we are suffering under unless we are millionaires or billionaires.

And we also must save the environment and the beauty of our national monuments, wilderness territories and national Forrests and other lands that will never be the same once the purveyors of greed who this administration has allowed and encouraged start destroying them.

May the Lord continue to help us do right by our people, our lands and our government of the people, by the people an for the people and get rid of the people on power who over 3 million Americans DID NOT VOTE FOR before they do any more damage to our people, our nation and our stamina in international relations among the progressive nations of the Free World.

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN GEORGIA . . . again!

(We were without power last weekend from midnight on Friday through 10 AM Monday morning.)

This morning I went to First UMC in Marietta, Ga where I used to sing in the choir before spending more than half my time with Dad during the last five years since Mom passed made it too difficult to keep up with what the choir was preparing to sing. I wish I had still been a part of the choir this morning, though, because the beautiful Service of Lessons and Carols was celebrated and the choirs for each age group -- the children; the teens; and the adults all performed, as well as the Bell Choir and an orchestra. It was very wonderful and I thank God I felt led to worship there this morning.

I went to the second service and was hurrying from the farthest part of the parking lot in order to get to the sanctuary in time for the service when I notices that there was a power company truck with a worker int he cherry basket at one of the electrical poles near the church building. As I saw it, a woman coming from the church came toward me and I asked, "How was it?" I meant the early service.

I was surprised when she answered, "Right in the middle of the service, a transformer blew and made loud noises, and the lights went out!"

And then when I got to the sanctuary, Rev Dr Sam Matthews, the Senior Pastor, had just started to explain that the electricity had gone off int he middle of the earlier service and the choir had to use the flashlights on their cell phones to see the music . . . he said it was the only time that he was glad that people had their cell phones, but otherwise he still wouldn't encourage people to have them during the service.

So no human-made power was available on the very dark and cloudy morning in Marietta today. But the good power company workers came to the rescue quickly and by the beginning of the 11:15 Am service just about the time I got there, the lights were back on!

It reminded me of my ordination to ministry in the middle of Hurricane Irene in early October of 1999. Right in the middle of the time of laying hands on me to pray for me and dedicate me to the Lord's service. I felt like when that happened, the Lord was saying to me, "You don't need any man-made power -- only mine."

And the memory has helped me many times as I have served Him in the church and overseas in mission.

And what happened today encouraged me, too, because it is still a dark day, overcast and now raining this afternoon. But in as Advent we observe the time of waiting for the Light and the Life of the World to be born on Earth, we remember that there is still the darkness of evil and immorality, greed, avarice, the thirst for power over other human beings, wars, poverty, homelessness, destitution and neglect, even on the part of people who claim to believe in God in Christ Jesus.

As long as we are still here on Earth people will still have the choice to choose to serve God and do good, or choose to reject God and succumb to evil.

Every Advent and Christmastime, those of us who believe have a chance to share the love of God we know in Christ Jesus in special ways.

We can donate money or food or time to those in need. We can invite people to our churches to share the Good News with them and bring them into the loving fellowship that we share together with the Lord. We can decorate our houses to witness to the world that we celebrate the Light and Life of the world as John wrote in the beginning of his Gospel about Jesus: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it."

No darkness, even that of evil being manifest, as in the case of the way this administration is taking away benefits for people in need and serving only the wealthiest people, can be overcome by the Light and Life of God in Jesus Christ when there are people who will work against evil in His Name.

As Christmas Approaches, my prayer for you, Beloved, is that you will ever more know in deeper ways how much God loves you, and that you will be able to rest in Him and trust Him.

If you do not already know the Lord, Beloved, my prayer for you, as ever, is that you will open your heart to the possibility of His love and ability to show you Who He is . . . and that the Holy Spirit will reveal Him to you in ways that you cannot mistake as He answers every question you may ever have for Him.

PROPOSED CULTURAL EXCHANGE TO SIBERIA IN FEBRUARY

I would like to propose a cultural exchange trip to the Far East, Oceanside (Primorskoye) area of Russia, to the city of Vladivostok and its suburbs; and to the city of Khabarovsk in Siberia, about 800 Miles N/NW of Vladivostok .. an overnight train ride. The purpose of the trip will be to fellowship with Eurasian folks with a cultural exchange presenting workshops on American musicals like "Oklahoma!", "The Music Man", "Carousel" and "Camelot" to kids and adults in drama clubs and ESL schools.

For one month in the spring of 2010, and for two months in the winter of 2011, I was blessed to stay with a friend I have known since childhood. At the time she was the Cultural Affairs Attaché at the US Consulate in Vladivostok. During that time, as you may remember, I was working on my Doctorate of Ministry in Missional Evangelism. My doctoral project was to develop a Seminar in Basic Christian Spiritual Practices in Russian for the people of the former Soviet Union. One goal was to see the connections between Russian Orthodoxy and the Social Holiness Movement of Methodism.

Along the way, in both 2010 and 2011, I attended a special meeting called an English Olympiad at a private foreign languages school near the Vladivostok Airport, with my friend, the Cultural Affairs Attache. It was delightful to meet and interact with the students who were between the ages of seven and seventeen. They were very interested in American plays and musicals, so I was enchanted to see their enthusiasm.

In addition, the first time I went to Russia on a UMC VIM trip, I arrived in Moscow in December 27, 1993. I was escort-interpreting for a group led by the chaplain from a college in Indiana that had been founded by the Methodist Church. We had exchanges with children, teens and adults who were involved in youth groups and special interest clubs including music clubs, English language clubs, archeology clubs and geology clubs.

There was much joy and enthusiasm as we spent most of their winter holidays with them in a town called Obninsk that was the center of the Soviet nuclear power research and development. It is about 180 Miles S/SW of Moscow in the Kaluga Oblast (like a county in the US). It is home to the first Soviet Nuclear reactor, six of which were built partly from plans of the first US nuclear reactors, plans that were stolen by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were incarcerated and then became martyrs to their cause.

Another of the first six Soviet nuclear reactors was the one near Chernobyl in Ukraine that destroyed itself in the spring of ‘86. Again, as you may remember, my special interests when I was an US Air Force Intelligence Officer were Soviet political and military affairs, space, missile nuclear and advanced weapons developments. That sheds a bit of light on my particular interest in Obninsk from my pre-Ministry background.

One of the highlights of the VIM trip was singing Christmas carols to and fellowshipping with patients in the city hospital in Obninsk. At the time there were dire deprivation conditions because of the break-up of the former Soviet Union. The system had failed in such a way that there was very little food and there were almost no pharmaceuticals. The hospital staffed focused on treating patients with cancer and doing research. Nevertheless, at the time that we were there, they had less than thirty patients in a hospital that had more than 600 beds.

Of course, for the 35 Americans on this VIM trip, we had pretty much emptied out drug cabinets to come omg the trip, so we were able to share everything we had left. And we made reports to the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries and its emergency mission and aid arm, UMCOR about the problems. From that time the UMC was very involved in helping the people of Russia and the former Soviet republics.

Besides singing the Christmas carols on Epiphany, which is also the celebration of the Nativity for Orthodox churches, I read the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel in Russian. The Bible that I used was one that some Americans had tried to smuggle to Russia in the packaging of some pipeline coating materials that the company my father worked for was selling to the Soviets from the late 60s. (This was in the pre-Detente Era, and was accomplished with permission of the US Government, and with the aid of the Italian government and Italian businesses.)

A Christian organization was operating in and around New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to smuggle the Bible’s to Russia. When the Soviets first detected the Bibles making lumps in heavy polyurethane wrapping around the stacks of boxes holding the pipeline coating materials together on the main deck of an ocean-going barge, they threatened to cancel the mult-million dollar deal.

At that time I was working on my BA in Russian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, so it was very special that my father was able to give me one of those Bibles and that I was able to read from it the first time I was in Russia, twenty-five years after I first began to study the language and culture while I was a junior in high school.

I hope people will want to join me on this cultural exchange trip. Being from the warmth of the US Southeast, they may be wary of going to Siberia in winter. However, it is really beautiful and it would mean a great deal to the Russians to see that we would make such an effort in the winter.

Houses and buildings are very warm, and when it is sunny in the city of Vladivostok, tucked into The Golden Horn inlets and islands off the Sea of Japan, even the air at 20 below zero Fahrenheit is very fresh. There are sports and celebrations like Ice Sculpture shows, and the Russians are wonderful hosts.

The city of Khabarovsk is about 800 miles North/Northwest of Vladivostok, on the longest of the great Siberian rivers, the Amur. It lies on the border with one of China's NE provinces. The weather might be 30-60 below zero Fahrenheit, which just means you need to bundle up and especially have good thick water-proof boots. On a sunny day ice crystals sparkle and float in the air.

The Russian cuisine is delicious, but the cities have a lot of international and cosmopolitan restauranrs as well. I am sure we would enjoy fellowship with the people we meet. There will no doubt be opportunities for concerts and cultural/historical tours as part of what we would do.

What do you say?

SOME OF MY MEMORIES OF MILITARY SERVICE

Always think of my dear friends with whom I was blessed to serve in Alaska.

From January 1983- February 1986, I was one of the wing intelligence officers serving the 21 TFW of the Alaskan Air Command and the pilots and staff its two squadrons -- the 43 TFS with F-15s; and the 5031 TFS With T-33s. 

Before that, I was blessed to be assigned on Patrick AFB from November, 1981- January 1983, as an air intelligence officer at the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC). I helped monitor the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and other nuclear treaties. Our shop also provided intelligence support to the commander of the Eastern Space and Missile Center. I took part by briefing intelligence aspects when missile test operations took place, including the Naval Ordinance Test Unit on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station when the first US solid rocket fuel submarine-launched ballistic missiles developed for the Ohio Class subs were tested down range into the Atlantic Ocean.

I also briefed on intelligence concerns before manned and un space missions. Then, for the same missions beginning with STS-4, I flew as a non-rated aircrew member flying with the pilots and aircrew personnel of the CH-3 squadron that cleared the launch danger zone and performed other missions before, during and after those same manned and un-manned space launches at Kennedy Space Center. The requirement to fly had to do with my B.A. degree in Russian language/Russian and East European Area Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Because I had been a non-rated aircrew member who was able to fly under aeronautical orders on all versions of the CH-3 -- "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter; on all versions of the C-135; all versions of the C-130; and all versions of the IUS Navy P-3 Orion Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft. (The last three aircraft were used to help monitor the nuclear test ban treaty in the Broad Ocean Area of the Pacific.) Because of the aircrew status I had (among other training) ejection seat training, altitude chamber training and barometric pressure cabin training. 

Due to having completed the aircrew training, I was therefore qualified to fly in fighter aircraft as well. So I was blessed to fly with the pilots of the 21 TFW, and was the first woman to fly an F-15 above 10,000'. I flew during a 4v4 Air Combat Training (ACT) Mission over the air space north of The Alaskan Range where Denali (AKA Mt McKinley) is In preparation for our deployment to RedFlag, the USAF version of 'Top Gun," the US Navy's Fighter Weapons School popularized by the Movie of the same name starring Kelly McGilles and Tom Cruise, etc all. 

We flew faster than the speed of sound several times, and they let me fly for a bit. Afterwards I called my parents and Mom answered the phone. At one point she interrupted my enthusiastic description of the flight, saying, "I can tell you are excited, Kath, but I don't know what an F-15 is!"

After quickly explaining that it is a fighter jet airplane, I replied, "Please put Dad on the phone!"

But I have written of this in the past in even more detail, so will leave it there, now . . .

😊❤️😊❤️😊

WHEN I AM ASKED . . .

SOMETIMES WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHY I SERVED OUR COUNTRY AS A US MILITARY OFFICER . . .  I tell them what it was like to hear about World War II when I was a child, and to see the photos of my uncles in their service uniforms on our grandmothers’ dressers in their bedrooms.  I explain that as little children we collected pennnies for UNICEF and dimes for the March of Dimes. We were encouraged to eat everything that we were blessed to have on our plates because there were still little children starving in Europe and in Asia and in Africa and in the Western Hemisphere — and very sadly, in our nation, also, especially amongst our minorities and indigenous peoples.

I tell them that as a Baby Boomer, we were the grandchildren and children of our citizens who in many cases had recently come to America for the freedom and opportunities they wanted for us and for themselves. They often had suffered and sacrificed great deal in the Depression and during the war, but they had gathered themselves together and worked the best they could for their families, their neighbors, their local communities, their states and our nation.

I was raised to be aware of the blessings of freedom; of the responsibilities that came with the rights and privileges we shared with each member of our nation and with each stranger and guest. I was raised to believe that service, sacrifice, honor, privilege and respect for our ideals as Americans were part of the sacred trust our Founders—men and women—had passed down to us.

There is no higher privilege than to serve God in whatever way anyone may conceive th Divine, true to a person’s culture, history, ethnic background, mind and heart. From that point, we serve our family members and our neighbors by serving our nation.

That patriotic service is grounded in duty and honor, but not (for the most part) required. So I always feel blessed to have volunteered and been accepted as an officer of the US Military serving my country. I learned how to do it through the examples and encouragement of my family members; my pastors and church family members; my teachers and the staff members of my schools; our neighbors and our friends show included Brownie and Girl Scout leaders and 4-H leaders.

I thank and bless God for all of them and for the blessings that God has bestowed on our nation.  We were not given all we have to hoard it, but to use it to help and serve others. 

I pray that with God’s help we will be able to return to the Lord and let God know that we are here as His servants to do whatever the Lord has for us to do with the help of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus.

May God bless America and may we all bless and thank God for any and every opportunity we have to do that with the Lord’s help.

In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray. Alleluia! Amen and amen.

MOONSET AT SUNRISE

When the moon stays up all night

to welcome the sun and changes

into the colors of the dawn . . .

it can be somewhat disorienting,

I know.

But as long as you keep

your sense of direction

while all’s looking out for newly hatched

green turtle

or loggerheads,

You’ll Be okay.

And anyway, if you have

been faithful to your dream

State and basically

Sleepwalked

out your apartment door,

‘down the hallway filled with

musky mold and spores,

Out the heavy exit door using

the panic bar,

Across The saw blade grass

heavy laden with dew that

is really thick ocean fog . . .

Being careful to look both ways

Two lanes each side of A-1-A,

then across the crunchy with

many mini broken shells,

Mostly white.

Up a few steps to the top deck

of the overlook

of the dune crosser.

Pausinf for a few minutes

to make sure the moon

is faithfully lingering above

The Western horizon over the B

Banana River and

the Indian River and

the East Northern Central

Florida manland

Swampy

Sandy

Rife with alligators

crocidiles

water moccasins

some cougars

Lots and lots of birds

Frogs,

other snakes

more mosquitos than you can imagine

Dung beetles,

tarantilas,

parakeets

eagles

pelicans

sandpipers, terns,

peacocks

glassy snakes that live in the rivers and

curl up around the childrens’ wrists

foxes

wolves . . .

I know I am leaving a lot out, but that

is what the Brevard County Zoological

park and the natural history museum

Busch Gardens and Walt Disney World

Sea World, but not Dino World

are all about.

But be sure and look east from the

Top of the overlook while

the Eastern Horizon is still

pinkish orange if your

lucky with only the prettiest

Dawn-enhancing clouds.

And please do stay up there so

yiu can keep close tabs on the setting

moon

As the rising sun gently pulls itself up

out of the big Atlantic drink

And for a while lines the breach

between you and the horizon

About seventeen miles away

with a bright shining golden path.

Even though my body can’t,

i encourage my soul to walk on

straight east over the path.

The view is worth it.

— Kathleen Ware Harris, October 22, 2017