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.