joining me now is the co director on 21st century security, michael o'hanlan.et's talk about the fact that al qaeda in yemen might be claiming responsibility for this attack. >> it's been a while since awlaki has been killed in yemen but it's is a cell that has been potent and the political turmoil in yemen has prevented us from having a strategy. so we tried to improve the government in yemen over the years and pushed out the previous leader hoping that his successor could be more effective in dealing with al qaeda. however there is a civil war superimposed on that mess meaning that the government or the u.s. or the shia based insurgent group have been able to suppress al qaeda. yemen is a sanctuary for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and it worries not only us but it worried the saudis to death. it's a potent capability unfortunately in that country. >> what about the news that both brothers may have met with anwar awlaki. again some of this is not confirmed. but reuters is confirming that cherif kouachied me awlaki in 2011. and he trained in yemen or met a

and codirector on the center for security and intelligence at the brookings institution, michael o'hanlan. in terms of belgium, we don't know if there's any connection between the raid and a belgium arms dealer. i want to focus on the dealer. in terms of the belgium arms network, could there be feasibly a connection between al qaeda and the arabian pen sue? >> it's possible. i think the first thing to say about arms in europe this kind of weaponry the small arms. automatic weapons. they're not as easily available as in the united states. so on balance, it houb should be harder to pull it you have. in france they became suspicious a larger cell was behind the attacks. they wondered how the weapons got into the hands of these brothers. in belgium, we could be seeing the same thing. in other words, there has to be some kind of illicit arms network behind the law and cell working with it to make it feasible to get these automatic weapons, grenades et cetera. they're not as easily available in europe as the united states. europe may have a slight advantage on bans over us in terms ofty. they h

at the far end, michael o'hanlan, senior felling here and co-director on the 21st century security and research. he's written several books, most recently one with steinberg on u.s./china relations. he worked with the congressional budget office. so did bob hail, who left the congressional budget office and went on to worry about even more bigger numbers. he was for five year the under secretary of defense and comptroller at the pentagon. that means he had a $600 billion checking account to worry about. he's been the assistant secretary of the air force for financial management. he spent time as executive director of an organization never heard of before, the american society of military comptrollers. and i bet that christmas party was just wild and crazy. after a distinguished career in government, he left the pentagon in 2014 and is now at boothe allen. next to him is my colleague who is co-director on senior families, consultant and spent 14 years on the staff of the house ways and means committee where he played a key role in welfare reform and spent some time but less than a year