Full text:
Author Brad Meltzer was recruited in government agency, 'horrified' at how easy it is to attack U.S.
BY
Brad Meltzer
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Tuesday, January 11th 2011, 4:00 AM
![[Image: alg_brad_meltzer.jpg]](http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/01/11/alg_brad_meltzer.jpg)
Brown/Getty
Author Brad Meltzer will speak about his experiences being recruited by the Department of Homeland Security's Red Cell program at a book reading Tuesday.
Take our Poll
Secret agent man
Should the government hire novelists to help prevent terror attacks?
Yes, novelists can think up terrorist scenarios that military and intelligence officials may overlook. No, it is silly to think a writer could help save the country from an attack. I don't know.
Related News
I was a real-life secret agent. I didn't have the hand-grenade cuff links or the poison-dart pen, but in 2004 I was recruited by the
Department of Homeland Security for its Red Cell program.
As they described it - and as
The Washington Post later reported - Red Cell was the government's way of trying to anticipate how terrorists would next attack the
United States. To do that, the government brought together what they called "out-of-the-box thinkers."
As a novelist who writes thrillers with scenes that take place in the underground tunnel below the
White House, I was somehow identified as one of those thinkers.
Sometimes I was paired with a psychologist or a philosopher. Sometimes I was contacted alone, via email, and given a target to attack.
I'm not allowed to tell you what the targets were. Or where they were. But I can say that we'd destroy major cities like my hometown,
New York. In minutes. And when I went home at night, I felt horrified, because I saw how easy it was to kill us.
But what inspired me more than anything else were the other people sitting next to me in that room. Sure, there were "real" heroes, members of the
FBI and
CIA, who helped us with vital facts. But there were far more professors and transportation employees, musicians and software programmers - regular people whose names will never be known and whom you'll never hear about.
Let me be clear: Those unseen heroes are everywhere. And they help us every day. And the best part? It's been true throughout our history. Indeed, as I researched my newest thriller, "Inner Circle," I found that back during the Revolutionary War, a secret presidential spy ring was started by none other than
George Washington.
Washington called it the Culper Ring, and it was made up of ordinary citizens who operated throughout New York and
Long Island. People just like you. Throughout the war, they moved information, gathered secrets about the British and never told anyone about their existence. In fact, even George Washington didn't know all their names. But this ring of civilians was so amazing at transporting secret information for Washington, they helped win the Revolutionary War for us.
And you'll never read about them in most history books.
These days, nearly every New Yorker knows at least one unseen hero. Most of them will remain "invisible" forever. But that invisibility may just be the most beautiful part of the story.
Indeed, most people don't set out to be heroes. Most people are just living their lives - until a moment arrives, and they're called to serve.
But as I saw in the Red Cell program, that's how history always works. History is a selection process. But it doesn't just choose people and moments. History chooses all of us. Every single day.
Brad Meltzer's newest thriller, "The Inner Circle," hits stores Tuesday. The author will read from the book at the
Union Square Barnes & Noble, at 17th St. (off Fifth Ave.), Tuesday night at 7.
