stephen flynn who was written widely about this argues despite the billions spent we never made it a priority. in written testimony given last july to the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs flynn redikted small attacks carried out by one to three operatives particularly if they reside in the u.s. can be plan carried out with relatively little planning and unlikely to attention the attention of the national intel juns community. how to make ourselves more resilient? the steps we need to take are not that sexy. with we need to upgrade transit systems and infrastructure to make them less vulnerable to attacks. for example, flynn notes, the u.s. navy has invested more in protecting the single port of san diego that is home to the pacific fleet than the department of homeland security has invested in the ports of los angeles, long beach, san francisco, oakland, seattle and tacoma, come bind upon which the bulk of the u.s. economy relies. we must strengthen recovery in the event of a biological attack which is the most worrying threat out there. we need to make

in washington philip mudd, stephen flynn, jessica stern served on the national security council staffstevens won a prize this week for his columns in "the wall street journal." thank you all. stephen, when you watched the response to what happened in boston, what were your thoughts in terms of our ability to handle these attacks? >> i thought it was impressive and drove home a core realism with terrorist attacks. it's our response because it's local. it's the bystanders, neighbors supported by the local fire department and police and emergency management folks. there's little question that americans took great solace in people's response. that's an important message that we can hand tl and we can bounce back quickly. i teach at northeastern university, a mile from when the attacks went off. what was extraordinary for me was that the city was back up on monday. the trains were moving. students were going to classes. i went to do some interviews and the taxi drop ped me off right n the corner. free coffee was given out by starbucks. even though there was uncertainty about what happened,