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I frankly have no idea what to think of the following story, but it is fascinating and needs to be considered. The questions I had after reading the story was, “Does government make us safer or more at risk?”

Today’s U.K. Daily Mail posted a story about Haig Melkessetian, a former US intelligence operative, who was an overlooked intelligence resource in the days and years before September 11, 2001.

The article reports:

A Christian Lebanese of Armenian descent who has been a naturalised US citizen since 1984, Melkessetian, 49, has revealed his story to the Mail on Sunday for the first time. But inside the secretive community of counterterrorism experts, he has long inspired awe.

‘We see movie characters like James Bond and Jason Bourne, and we assume they’re simply fiction,’ says a former US State Department official who knows Melkessetian well.

‘But then you meet Haig and realise he matches the fictional narrative with fact.’

Mr. Melkessetian was in a position on a number of occasions to gather intelligence that would have been helpful in preventing the hijackings that occurred on September 11. Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic red tape and internal turf wars, his information was never taken seriously or reached the right people. His story is one of a patriot who tried to protect his adopted country. Please follow the link above to read the entire story. It is encouraging to read the story of a man who adopted America as his country because he loved America. It is discouraging to realize that, if taken seriously, his information could have prevented what happened on September 11, 2001.