0 fareed zakaria gps is next. >> welcome to all of you in the united states and around a i'm fareed zakaria . it has been an extraordinary six days since two bombs exploded near the finish line of the boston marathon. today the lone surviving suspect in that attack lies in a hospital bed, unable to speak, unable to explain the destruction he and his brother are alleged to have wrought. in this hour, we will try to get to the bottom of the key issues around the attack. we'll start with an exclusive interview with ray kelly, the commissioner of the new york police department. he runs one of the largest counterterrorism teams outside of the federal government, and we will get his key insight. then, soft targets, ieds, high-value interrogation, chechnya and more. we will dig deep in to some crucial aspects of the case with a true all-star gps panel. also on the show we will take a few breaks from terror to look at gold, which isn't as glittery as it used to be and what lessons the u.s. congress could learn from these wilting legislators. but first here's my take. we're learning a great deal about the two men who police say planted bombs at the boston marathon. the brother dzhokhar tsarnaev and we will learn more and in the weeks ahead and learn the story of alienation, and brutal murder. were these men an unusual case, loners, or are they part of something larger? how and when did they turn? and in one important sense, however, this was text book terrorism. the plan was to frighten us. terrorism is an unusual tactic in that it depends for its success on the response of the onlooker. that's why people have often said about terrorists they want a few people dead and a lot of people watching. if we who watch are not terrorized, then almost by definition it didn't work. on that count, how did we do? pretty well. the people of boston handled the crisis with calm and determination. the authorities did shut down most of the city on friday for the manhunt. a decision that could be debated, but the people of boston stayed steady and are already getting back to normal. i spent seven years living in boston and i was struck by the city and the people's strength of character. they have a tough new england spirit. a that comprises doing one's job and not making a fuss. beyond boston we americans may have come to realize finally that the most important counterterrorism program out there is resilience. things were different after 9/11. it was a much larger attack, raising larger concerns. many things that followed, security measures, overthrow of the taliban were necessary. but others in retrospect were not. the vast homeland security bureaucracy, shutting down travel, turning counterterrorism in to ill-defined and ever expanding war on terror. osama bin laden show saw rationale from 9/11 and the reaction it produced from american hurricanes said so on several occasions. resilience is hardly a matter of character but it is also one of public policy. 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 sure the public understands the nature of these threats and how it can help identify and respond to them. above all, it needs to understand how not to respond to them. when bad things happen, it is easy to react out of fear, emotion and anger. let's hope in boston this week we begin to chart a different course. for more on this, you can read my column in a special edition of "time" on the tragedy in boston. let's get started. joining me now the man who runs the biggest police force in america and one of the country's best terror counterterror and intelligence division. ray kelly the commissioner of new york. >> good to be here. >> what do you have to tell us in the aftermath of this? is there a heightened sense of danger? are you seeing threats proliferate? >> no, we haven't seen an increase in threats, but our operating assumption is we are always at risk. we're a city that obviously had two horrific attacks here in 1993 and 2001. we have had 16 plots against the city since then. so, we are on alert all the time. we see no resource but to be on alert. >> i noticed most of the plots that you talked about, the 16 that you thwarted, they were against big symbolic targets often. what happened here in boston was an event. is that a difference that is meaningful? >> well, all terrorism is theater. this event was a major event certainly in the life of boston. it was a holiday. it was the end of the marathon. it was time to go off when probably the maximum number of people would be there, at the finish line. clearly it was meant to put on a show it was very significant. we had plots here against the subway system, the brooklyn bridge. i sort of see this in the same ballpark if you will. >> in 2007 you commissioned a report that i read on radicalization in the islamic community. what strikes me about it is these guys seem to be straight out of that report. they are unremarkable men. that is a term used in the report. self radicalized it appears to be and that leads me to wonder, what do you do about it? these are almost by definition people who have no history that suggest much. >> it is a very thoughtful piece. it brought together a lot of the thinking about this phenomena. when you take, as you said, unremarkable young people, obviously men in the cases that we looked at, men here, who become radicalized in some fashion. usually with a mentor of some sort and they decide to kill people in their own country. it's a phenomena that i don't think we have totally gotten our arms around but we see it again and again. we have seen it here on several occasions. we had azazi who went to high school here and decided to blow himself up on the subway system in new york. >> do you think the fbi should have made more of the trip to russia, more of a tipoff? >> hindsight is 20/20. it didn't seem to be of significance. apparently the russian authorities asked them to do it. they did it and nothing jumped out. it seems to me they could not have done anything more, reasonably. so, you know, we are going to -- we being the government, i guess at every level will look at that and the history of these young men, but they certainly didn't stand out in a dramatic way. >> if i look at the manhunt, 9,000 people going after these two, what appear to be untrained kids, many different agencies involved, it turned out well, but i wonder for a city like new york, this would be so, such a gargantuan undertaking. do you have a game plan in new york if something like this were to happen? >> i think it worked out well up there. they were able to mass resources. off lot of different jurisdictions, fbi and state police involved. it seemed to me it went well. in new york city we have the biggest police force in the country, 35,000 uniformed officers. we are able to amass officers in significant number if we have to. sure. we do variations of things almost on a daily basis in a city of this size, , 8.4 million people. if something like this happened in new york, god forbid we would have our own resources that i think would enable us to do a comprehensive search. >> stick with us. stay with me. a lot more to discuss with ray kelly. islamic radicalism. how to deal with it. we'll be right back. with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care, for you or your family.