dr. burger, and michael hoff meyer from an conventional hoff meyer and dr. ken stanley cuply, former department assistant secretary and department of state for bio-defense policy and homeland security to defense for president bush. we are behind schedule but we won't truncate your opening remarks. >> can you define counter proliferation for me. >> sure. the way in which we prevent the -- [ inaudible ]. >> the easiest way to define counter proliferation would be to prevent the transit of illicit materials from one actor to another. >> okay. >> so first, thanks very much for the opportunity to -- >> what about nuclear arms in iran's hands? >> thank you very much for the opportunity to present here. i appreciate it. first, i would like to give a couple of framing remarks both on context and then how response and recovery i think are interrelated in the bio-event. so first as everyone here is aware, when outbreaks occur, whether they are natural or come from an intentional release can cause a massive loss of life and even when the loss of life is limited, of cou