... welcome to al jazeera america. i am richelle carey. a new report says the u.s. has been spying on germany's chancel la angela merkel for more than a decade. >> syria meets a crucial deadline outlining its chemical weapons program. >> undocumented workers who helped rebuild after hurricane sandy are fashioning an issue of assistance a year later. germany'ssponding to claims that the nsa spied on german chance la angela merkel for years.

the isn't tree is sending senior intelligence officials they say leaked documents show the u.s. has been tracking her phone since 2002, before she became chancellor. peter king defended the surveillance saying nsa intelligence programs keep everyone safe. >> the reality is the nsa has saved thousands of lives not just in the united states but also in france and germany and throughout europe. and, you know, the french are someone ones to talk. the fact is they carried out spying operations against the united states, the government and industry. as far as germany, that's where the hamburg plotted began which led to 9-11. they have had dealings with iran and iraq, north korea and the french and the germans and we are not doing this for the fun of it. protesters took to the stree streets out the capitol to demand congress research the nsa and say it needs to come clean about its surveillance program.

>> but i think the revelations from snowden and the secrets that have been revealed are doing significant damage to our bilateral relationships with germany, with mexico, with the other countries where the suggestion is that we have listened in. so, i think we have repair work to do, and i think we have hard questions we need to ask of the nsa about what's really happening in this program. >> for more now on just how the nsa revelations will impact foreign policy is tom rodden, a writer for "the guardian" thank you for your time? >> thank you. >> there is a camp that says everyone spies on everyone. what is all of the outrage about? how accurate is that? if there is a world where everyone spies on everyone, are there rules in that world for how to do it? >> well, that's a very good question. i think that, yes, everyone does spy on everyone. >> that's especially true with france, tgsc, the french

equivalent of the cia and nsa. it's a combined intelligence agency. it's known for its aggression in terms of collection operations including against the u.s. the u.s. intelligence community regards france as one of the key counterintelligence scope adversaries which means the french regularly spy on the united states. so everyone does do this. but the problem becomes the calibration of what type of operation do you conduct? and here, when we look at merkel in germany, a firm atlantisis, an allie of the united states over the long-term. the damage that spying on merkel may do to the personal relationship between her and the american president, president obama is pretty significant. in intelligence terms, that's what's called blowback. what we are seeing is blowback, a miss calibration in terms of the cost/benefit analysis of cletting information but balancing against the need to maintain strong relationships with key allies.

so it's an equilibrium, if you will. sometimes, it doesn't pay off as you are seeing at the moment in germany and across europe. >> okay. let's talk about that because there seems not to be any equilibri equilibrium, a balance, if you will. talk more about the relationship between the u.s. and its allies. there is a lot of information sharing that goes back and forth. >> right. >> within the spy community. is there a risk now that the u.s. possibly won't be trusted by its allies because so much information has been leaked? >> i can almost guarantee you that that will be a key concern in the u.s. intelligence community, especially at the senior level because information sharing is absolutely critical to the national security of the united states. you need -- and for that to happen, an intelligence service has to trust that the united states can protect the sources and methods of a foreign intelligence service. so when you have these leaks, the snowden leaks continuing,

and such a significant way, and that he was able, as a contractor to gain access to so much information, the merkel targeting operation would be what's called a specially compartmented information caveat, which is the very highest level of classification. so the fact that this information is coming out suggests -- it will suggest to some foreign intelligence services the united states can't be trusted, and that might produce a degree of trepidation in terms of future sharing. and that's a concern. >> this morning, on the savant talk sho-- sunday talk shows, congressman peter king was unapoljetic about what is happening, saying these things have to happen to make everyone safer. ? >> right. >> what are the worthwhile reasons for this type of intelligence gathering? >> so from what -- you know, my personal analysis is that the real reason the u.s. is pretty aggressive in terms of collection operations,

intelligence collection operations in europe is that there are a significant number of individuals in europe who have a manifest hatred for the united states, whether they are aligned with sini salopis groups, or like lebanese hezbollah, there are adversaries an the u.s. has a national imperative to monitor that provide for the united states. at the same time, it is again a political balancing act in terms of, you know, being able to maintain these relationships first in terms of trust with leaders and at the same time, trust with foreign intelligence services. i think one distinction that should bedron is actually, peter king, you saw the i am politic indication inmplication in how robust he was as france being slightly hypocritical here or more than slightly hypocritical. that speaks to the fact that he has seen -- and it is a well-known fact in the intelligence community, that

france really is a very aggressive collector, themselves, and frankly, i think the french government is jumping on the band wagon a bit here in terms of popular opinion because they really don't want to have scrutiny towards some of their programs. the german side is a little bit different. b & d has a close relationship with the united states and i think actually, again, we are talking about the notion of blowback. there will be some certain yes, sir concern in the u.s. government about how this is gone down now. >> as we have been report,ing, germany is sending officials this week. thank you so much? >> thank you. thank you. syria has met a crucial deadline for the removal of its chamcal weapons stockpiles. they filed details of poise gas and an additional plan to destroy them. the declaration was in line with an enter national agreement led by the organization of the prohibition of chemical weapons. it hopes to eliminate all of syria's chemical weapons by mid

2014. kilhemy dukehart has more. >> an ambitious deadline set by the prohibition of chemical weapons otherwise known as opcw to destroy its lethal stockpile by next year. syria handed over the details of poison gas and nerve agent program thursday, ahead of its october 27th deadline. opcb is not releasing what their report says but it did say the syrian government disclosed 23 chemical weapon sites. the head of the ocpw u.n. team said last week that the country has so far been cooperative. >> we have had very good meetings with the syrian government at the 7 level. there is continued strong cambrics with the secretary. op cd and opcw and we build on this because we have a shared goal: elimination of the

program, which is of benefit to all and particularly the syrian people. >> chemical weapons are being catalogued. the inspectors are in there. >> we will see. i am a skeptic. i think like a lot of other people are. i know there are friends in the region who are worried. >> syria is believed to possess around 1,000 metric tons of chemicalcal weapons including mustard gas and saron which they denied for years. they continued to deny any involvement in the august 21st chemical weapons attack that killed 1,400 people there. under threat of u.s. military, russ russia, an ally of the assad government brokered a deal for syria to destroy its chemicalcal stockpile. this process is complicated. it still has not been decided how or where syria's chemical weapons will be dismantled. the next step comes november 1st when syria is scheduled today dismantle its production and

mixing facilities. kilmeny duchardt, arizona. >> some very long refused to take part in the upcoming conference that is scheduled in november. a u.n. team is scheduled to meet with the syrian government to gain support for the talks but for now, the fighting continues close to syria's capitol. this from the jordan capital, aman. >> according to different activist groups, kurdish fighters in the province have ceased control of the border crossing between syria and iraq as well as the town of arrabya over heavy fighting over the last few days. they seized control and snatched these areas from cyprus that belongs to the islamic state linked to al-qaeda. we understand that several fighters on both sides were killed in this fighting. now, ethnic kurds ain syria hav

a complex role in syria's conflict. some of them have joined the rebels in fighting against the government. some of them remain loyal to the government, and some of them simply just care about the future of failure their minority as a group in syria and the parish they live in, close to the borders with turkey and iraq. we understand from activists that the group of kurdish fighters that was able to snatch control is actually close to the syrian government. now, the syrian national group has blamed iraq for allowing security forces based at the shared border crossing to shell the border crossing in order to help the kurds gain control and blame them of medaling in the syrian revolution and syrian affairs.

however, the syrian observatory for human rights, quoting residents who live there confirming that the iraqi forces and in one from the iraqi side had anything to do with the border crossing. but i guess it's safe to say that the iraqi government would feel more comfortable living next to kurds and sharing a boarder crossing with them than being that close to members of a group that is allegedly linked to al-qaeda a road side bomb hit a bus in afghantan skikilling 18 peop returning from a wedding celebration. it happened near the border with pakistan. the dead include 14 women and one child. five people were wounded in the blast. two of them critically. roadside bombs like the one that struck the bus are common in

this region where taliban forces are active. at least 54 people are dead after a wave of bombings today. shoulders around baghdad killing 39 people and injuring more than 150 others. the bombings raise this month's death toll to 554. a lot surge in sectarian violence has killed more than 5,000 people across iraq. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is scheduled to appear before a congressional committee this week to answer questions about technical problems with the online exchanges that rolled out with the launch of the affordable care act. they are blamed for low enrollment in the health exchang exchanges. darrell issa said the government is thinking about change, the staff. >> the president has been poorly served in the implementation of his own signature legislation, so if somebody doesn't leave and if there isn't a real restructuring, not just 60 days

somebody come in and try to fix it, then he is missing the point of management 101, which is these people are to serve him well and they haven't. >> in mississippi, only a few dozen people have signed upstatewide. a few dozen, stephanie boswell went there to find out why. >> cliff miller is a chef at the i wanted alian grill until picayune, mississippi. he says for the last year and a half his family of 4 hasn't been able to afford insurance. >> i worry about that every day because all it takes is one accident and then you could be, you know 20 to $100,000 in debt or more than that. you just never know. >> miller says he and his wife are searching for healthcare. but they couldn't even get on the new federal healthcare exchange website. in jackson, barber shop owner chris paige and his customer, terri harper say they have insurance but both plan to look at their options understand the aca?

>> i may get better coverage for the same amount that i am paying because i just got the minimum level coverage. so i can at least have something that would cover me if something was to happen to me. >> neither paige nor har per have gone online to compare rates? >> i haven't because they are saying every time you try to go log in, there was something wrong with why you couldn't sign up, had some computer sglichz. >> mississippi is the only state that applied to run its own healthcare exchange and was rejected. the federal government turned it down because the concerns the state wouldn't provide enough support for it. that leaves people here trying to use the troubled federal exchange and mississippi's insurance commissioner says as of october 21st, only 35 people had signed up. healthcare advocates are playing catch-up. >> a lot of the add voc casey groups, a lot of the providers groups did a lot of work preparing for a mississippi-based exchange so we have been mind. we have been behind other states in trying to get the word out

about the exchange. >> jarvis george is training to be a federally funded navigator, a person who helps people deal with the new healthcare marketplace. >> right now, our focus is going to be enrolling mississippians so they can bet health insurance and the tax credits they are eligible for. >> that may be easier said than done because many residents don't have internet access or even computers. plus... >> reporter: according to the u.s. department of health and human resources, mississippi is the unhealth iest state in the nation and has the third highest 3r50e78iums in the country under the new healthcare exchanges yet mississippi only received $1 million in federal aid to publicize the plan. neighboring arkansas received 24 million. >> the university of mississippi medical center got most of that money: $800,000. it's navigators have helped almost 4,000 patients. covermississippi.org which got less money is mapping out a statewide outreach effort to bring computes to the people.

>> there is definitely a neal for more funding in mississippi. we are a state where you are going to need to go out and actually knock on doors to help people enroll in these plans and actually walk people through the process. >> chris miller says he may take another look at the knew healthcare exchanges but will wait until the federal website is more reliable. >> stephanie boswell, al jazeera, picayune, mississippi. >> helping hands after super storm sandy, now they are in need of their own a assistance. a devastating fine overnight inside a brooklyn home. top documentary directors tonight, a sherrif who implements the law... >> we investigated, arrested and detained 33,000 illegal aliens... >> the young girl who sufferes from it... >> i never thought this would happen to my parents... >> one issue, different sides, yet they remain two americans.

premiers tonight, 9 eastern

welcome back. police are questioning a person they believe stabbed 5 people to death overnight in brooklyn and four of those found dead were children ages 1 to 9 years old. the children's mother was found dead. police have not identified the accused killer or revealed whether the suspect is related to the vict imides.

>> one year ago, the east coast was bracing for what was super storm sandy. communities have tried to rebuild themselves. there is a shadow group of workers who have done the lion's share of the clean-up: undocumented workers. >> kaelynn ford has their story >> reporter: luciano and a.m. alfredo have worked here for years. during the days after hurricane sandy, they took to the streets to do what they do best. together with other undocumented immigrants, they formed volunteer clean-up brigades. >> right after sandy, thousands of day labors who lived in the same neighborhood that were affected were among the first responders, way before fema, way before the red cross. they went into the neighborhoods. they brought relief to the many people that give them jobs, the homeowners that have given them jobs for years. >> day laborers here worked for free clearing debris and

distributing food and water. >> the people were grateful and very happy we were there working. they didn't know who we were. we just came up and started working without being asked to. we felt compelled to do it. >> it's not the first time undo you think immigrants have been on the front lines. one quarter of the workers who helped rebuild new orleans after hurricane katrina were undocumented. those researchers say the reconstruction after hundred sandy is no different. >> in katrina, aecame after the hundred to participate in the recoxstruction effort. in new york we have ten of thousands that were directly affected themselves by the hurricane so they are helping others who can afford the rebuilding process, but they could not afford rebuilding their own dwelling. >> without access to federal assistance, many rely on centers like this for help rebuilding

themselves they offer safety equipment and training. >> we didn't know anything about safety untin the beginning. we didn't even have gloves. now, we are going to osha classes to learn about safety, to learn how to clean up mold, to be prepared. >> a year later, day laborers say their communities have also changed. >> people looked at us differently after the help we offered them. the americans who once looked at us suspiciously in the street, now when we see them, they say hi to us. >> that's when we realized what changed after hurricane sandy. >> the ivory is that while the -- the ivory -- the irony is while they discuss the 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country, they are defining the future of many neighborhoods. this is a case of sandy, of new orleans, day laborers who rebuilt that, who brought back the sense of community. >> communities these immigrants say are stronger than ever.

kaelynn ford, al jazeera, new york. we have a change in weather pattern across the southeast where temperatures are warming up. in the west, though, we are throttling ourselves for much cooler air as we get into the work week ahead. for now, things are fairly quiet across the nation. i have been tracking this area of low pressure that's been moving across the southern plains making its way into the lower miss value. the ray has kind of broken up as it pushed off to the eat. we are seeing light rain showers and across the delta, mississippi and also around southern areas of louisiana, not the heavy rain we had to deal with earlier this morning around houston where we are still in line for some scattered activity for the remainder of the evening. as far as temperatures go, we are in the mid 60s around atlanta and 67 in birmingham. now, 62 in charlotte, 6 i can't in savannah and 73 in new orleans. temperatures are running 5, upwards to nearly 20 degrees

warmer than where we were at this time yesterday. a nice warm-up will continue as we go through the day and really, the next couple of days ahead. across the northwest, we will have temperatures in the '50s across much of the northwest and really feeling that heat here in the southwest up to 91 degrees in phoenix, but here is a look at the northwest. the next storm system taking shape, light rain showers across washington, northern areas of idaho but look at that pink shading waiting where we are starting to see a little bit of a rain/snow mix moving down into northern areas of montana where conditions are going to be at their worse, that winter storm getting brewing overnight today into monday upwards to about a foot of snow, mainly in the smith areas but some of the lower elevations could see anywhere from three to six. temperatures will pham and we will see single digits and teens for overnight lows. anyway we get that rain, it's going to freeze and we will feel that cool down trend southwest for monday on into tuesday.

richelle, back to you. >> eboni, thank you. still ahead onaj america, a glimpse into the big apple's past. scientists recreate new york city.

>> welcome back. we are tracking a breaking news alert. this is coming out of columbia. they had frieda former u.s. marine kevin scott today. local media are reporting and al jazeera confirmed it. he was kidnapped when he trekked through a non-gur rila area. he has been freed. in new york city, archeologists are defining a trove of realics. cath turner takes a look at the treasures being found. >> a part of everyday life, roadblocks, under the south

seaport, the preast and present have collided. heavy machinery rehas been interrupted for more delicate work. >> working toward the east river. we knew there was a possibility of finding some artifacts. >> that's why we hired a team to assist us, to work with us. >> a top team of archeologists is being called in to help preserve an era long going. they have been wiping the dirt off thousands of realics buried several meters below the city. some dating back 250 years. >> so we are getting a good sense of how new york city was developed, how the city was built, how people were living in the 18th, 19th century, how some things are similar, they stayed the same. and, also, how things have changed throughout time. >> each piece is cable cleaned, packaged and labeled using books, photographs and other historical references, alyssa and her team have been able to identify most of their findings. >> this is a broken end of a wig curler. >> and establish how they were

used long before electricity and other modern conveniences. >> things women do to look pretty? >> and women and men. >> among the more intriguing items, a tooth brush with bald bristless and in early days it was sentencerred around ports and docs and gradually grew to other areas. >> alyssa and her team have been sharing their discoveries with younger generations. >> we can make history become more alive with the objects that people were using in day-to-day life as opposed to facts and figures and names of famous people in a text book. >> they are hoping the artifacts will be made into a historical exhibit. >> this part of manhattan has been a mix of the old and new. historic buildings alongside 13ing new high-rises. people have been moving back to the neighborhood, a reminder of how life used to be just a few

feet below. kath turner, al jazeera, new york. >> i am richelle carey. "earth rise" is next. thanks for watching al jazeera america. >> i'm mei-ling mcnamara in canada here to discover how the great bear rainforest is being protected. >> i'm amanda burrell. i'm in london to find out how to make old houses green. >> and i'm yaara bou melhem in indonesia's south sulawesi looking at how the efforts of local people are restoring this mangrove forest.