o. >> hi everyone this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. special ops in syria. more u.s. troops on the ground. more questions about the mission. off air. the gop boycott for nbc, calling this week's debate biased and off the message, is the media to blame, freedom for federal inmates, a closer look at the

mass release. plus law and author. it is true crime that fascinates patricia cornwell, tonight she talks to us. mission creep or mission reconsidered, no matter what the description president obama's strategy for syria pearchtion to bappears to bechanging. part of that calls for more forces ton ground. the elite special operations unit. what will be their orders and how big of a role and risk will they i taking? jamie mcintire is at the pentagon. jamie. >> on numerous occasions president obama said he would not put u.s. boots on the ground in syria but today the white house announced that yes, some will be planting their boots on

the ground at least so far not iin a combats mission. >> the pentagon says the small number of u.s. special operations troops be sent to northern syria will not be going along with local forces in raids or engaging in offensive combat. a senior defense department official briefing on background said those forces will be doing strictly an advise and assist operation, not joint operations. the white house called it no intensification of the strategy. >> the fact is our strategy in syria hasn't claingd. the corchanged. the core is to build up the capacity of local forces to take the fight to i.s.i.l. in their own country. >> the pentagon is a straight up no kidding advise and assist role, limited to helping moderate syrian forces with

planning and logistics, will not call in raids or statistics or establish their own headquarters at least initially. the pentagon says the force of fewer than 50 commandos, will deploy from the united states in the next few weeks to an area near raqqa, where a loose coalition the u.s. has dubbed the syrian coalition is fighting i.s.i.l. while the pentagon says it hasn't communicated or coordinated with moscow, it expects the russians to stay a safe and responsible distance away. the u.s. is also doubling the number of strike aircraft at turkey's incirlik air base, adding odozen f-15s to the dozen attack airplanes that just rotated in last month. that's to make good on the

promise to step up the force of the air campaign that had lack of targets. >> special operations forces going into syria will have no combat duties it is not ruling out an expanded role in the future. a senior pentagon official explained that right now u.s. is not as comfortable with the syrian fighters as it was with the kurdish peshmerga fighters that were in that raid last week. the u.s. says this is just a start to gauge to see what's possible, john. >> jamie thank you. roger carsons is a former legislative liaison for secretary of defense. senior fellow at the senior policy research institute in washington tonight. roger why the flip-flop on boots on the ground policy by this administration? >> i think it's evident that the policy isn't quite working. i think the administration's pretty much admitted that.

frankly in a small shift like this, even if you want to call it a large shift that's probably a show of strength. if the war is not going well it's very smart to reevaluate it and come up with different ways to try to win it. putting boots on the ground is very rational and doing it at this time is the right thing to do. >> don't you have groups fighting both i.s.i.l. and the assad regime as well? how do the united states make sure the special forces are helping those fighting i.s.i.l. or is that possible? >> not really, they are going to an area controlled by kurdish fighters, the ypg but working with syrian airbus. arabs. they could perhaps extend their territory and recapture raqqa. what you might find is direct focused training and advising to accomplish specific missions and

part of the advising is to come up with the plan and marshal it as it goes forward. >> i look at the history of the mission in other administrations and i look at afghanistan and iraq and syria and i'm wondering if these training missions ever work. >> well, i think you have to delineate what's being accomplished here. 100 green be ber berets, where e building up a 352,000 security force structure that's difficult and hard to do and we aren't doing it very well. iraq when we tried to build up a whole army, very difficult we didn't do a very good job. i would almost argue, dining

when the president suggested, small units, training, advising assisting, that might be our sweet spot, we may help troops going on. in. >> what if it doesn't work? >> you're going to learn something regardless. if this is the first time we have actually had troops on the ground and they are going through a process over the next three, four, five, six months, what you learn is invanl how best tcome up withyour best strs and execute your plan. >> i'm sure americans and the families of those soldiers wonder how long will it take to defeat i.s.i.l? >> i'm sure it's everything that they say. it's going to probably be a five, ten, 15 year fight, it's probably not going to be pretty.

the coalitions are going to be strange and uncomfortable. but the alternative to not progress, rather, not chase after i.s.i.l. and try to degrade them, is unpalatable. so i think we're in for a good long fight. and i still kind of think that we're at the beginning of it. >> roger carson, thank you, we appreciate it. >> thank you john. >> it was another bloody day inside syria. more than 60 people die when syrian forces shelled a market inside duma near damascus. and 50 were killed in a government strike near aleppo, another 70 died in russian air strikes east of the city. as diplomats met in vienna, secretary of state john kerry said an agreement was come to to restart the talks, but the

details were sketchy. mohammed jamjoom reports. >> they were long arduous days but at last some common ground on syria was forged. at the conclusion of this last round of talks, u.s. secretary of state john kerry was happy to read the list of agreements. >> syria's independence territorial integrity and secular unity are fundamental, we agreed that the rights of all syrians regardless of ethnicity or religious determination must be protected. >> authorities hoped the presence of iran might finally lead to a break through and while the sense of guarded optimism might have been present it medi yielded no results.

a missile was launched on a crowded marketplace in duma, and russian and syrian regime air strikes claimed more than eight more lines. ing demonstrators were so angry. chanting against syrian president bashar al-assad while expressing how unsatisfied they were with the efforts in their home land. >> we know they will thought work. but otherwise, five long years, can you imagine, with all this blood all this mass terror. how will we expect any good from them? >> for its part, russia heavily citi sized for its involvement in syria went to great pains to suggest it was heeding the concerns of the international community. >> translator: russia is committed to fighting terrorism

on the basis of international law. whether we're talking about military interventions from the air or on the ground, both need to be conducted on the agreement of the government or the u.n. security council. >> with this renewed sense of urgency for syria everyone now wonderful what will come next. with diplomatic talks scheduled to take place in two weeks time here in vienna, it is still unclear whether members of the syrian opposition or syrian regime will be invited to come in. and while certain agreements were reached in vienna, no matter who participates, the talks will be difficult. mohammed jamjoom, al jazeera, vienna. >> firefighters are searching for survivors tonight. 145 were rushed to the hospital, more remain trapped in the rubble.

the explosion happened around midnight as a rock band was celebrating an album launch. the group used pyrotechnic effects. symac nemazee was arrested while visiting a relative. nemazee is now the fourth american in custody in iran. for the second conservatives consecutive day, a fourth prisoner was released from goodma gawment bay.

guantanamo bay. there are now 113 at guantanamo. those wanting to reach a better life in europe. 33 people lost their lives in the crossing. the prime minister of greece called the attempt inept. >> this pleasure boat was lucky to reach the island of lesbos. many swam the final few meters to the rocky shore but in the aegean, on lesbos alone they have averaged 7 to 8,000 a day. authorities say it's partly due to pressure from turkish smugglers to maximize business before winter. >> when you enter into this type of criminal business there is no i think respect for human lives

and i think for smugglers all of this is like dealing with cargo shipments, probably. >> reporter: the surge means more loss of life at sea. still waiting for his travel documents is afghan faisal, he paid the price by being hunted down by the resurgent taliban. >> they shoot bullets this front of my home and they put a letter on my door, whether my dad got the letter my dad told me, i told you don't believe these guys, if you work with these guys cause my family life is at risk. take the money and get out of afghanistan, go wherever you want to go. don't come back in my home. >> faisal has waited two years for an american vee is a. visa, he can wait no more and is taking his

chances in europe. this camp now spills over barbed wire fences, no running water, flog to eat and nowhere to sit down. only children manage to escape briefly from these daily realities. this is greece's first eu hot spot. there is room for 10,000 people in camps like this across the country. now greece has been forced to raise that capacity to 50,000 most of it in government-built tretreatemporary shelters. the rest in private housing. >> translator: i want to say as a european leader, i feel shame, shame to deal effectively with this crisis, also for the quality of the debate. >> reporter: greece now has to build its new capacity.

john siropolous. al jazeera, greece. >> demanding to be released, tristan atone has more. >> i can't take this punishment anymore. i am dying of desperation from this injustice. >> from honduras and one of 17 women who wrote to the immigration advocacy group grass roots leadership to say they were on a hunger strike. in all they say 30 women detained at the residential center in taylor, texas have joined in. >> the women are really, really clear in their letters, although there are a lot of things wrong with detention, they are in complaints they are striking for one thing and that's to be released. >> about 500 women are held here caught after crossing the u.s. mexico border illegally many in

search of asylum. we spoke on the phone to the daughter of a woman who has been detained for seven months. she asked thought to be identified. >> she said that it's so tense they could feed them rotten milk, they are not criminals, they can be released, all we're asking is for her to be here. >> this center used to house undocumented families but since 2009 only women have been detained inside. in 2007 the aclu filed a lawsuit against ice on behalf of ten juveniles being held here saying the children were being detained in inhumane conditions while their parents were being held in prison. the conditions improved, today female detainees say the conditions are still substandard. one woman from el salvador says she is in fear of going back to

her country because her life is in danger here. she traveled here from guatemala. she was held in the huddle center for four months and knows exactly what the women feel. ice deny the allegations saying ice takes the health safety and welfare of those in our care very seriously. no one was identified as being on a hunger strike. >> ice always says the same thing. they deny that the hunger strike isn't happening. regardless, they always say it is not happening. they say well the hunger strike is happening but the outside agitators make this happen. they never break the party lines. >> grass roots leadership plans on holding nightly vigils until the hunger strike ends. tristan atone, al jazeera, tyler, texas. >> some areas got 16 inches of rain in just a few hours.

forecasters say they can't handle any more. raging rivers forcing roads closed and in san antonio tornadoes and gusty wind storms have ripped apart buildings. in austin, the airport briefly closed after six inches of water flooded the aircraft control tower. up next, republicans fighting mad or wednesday night's debate. is the party itself to blame plus. >> jailing for not paying. >> debtor's prisons, americans jailed for not paying their bills. bills. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around.

>> the senate approved a new budget deal that will stave off threats of a government shutdown and a possible debt default for two years. >> the ayes were 64 the north ne 32. >> military and dplisk spefng president obamdomesticspending. president obama plans to sign it. jeb bush lost his highest

paid rg supporters. cut the payroll by 40%. well, the bush campaign struggles the republican party seethes over this week's debate hosted by cnbc. the gop accused the network of bad faith and until further notice is suspending its relationship its partnership with nbc. there's reports. >> is this a comic version? >> no it's not. >> reporter: after two days of intense criticism, the head of the republican national committee wrote to andy lack, we are suspending the relationship of the republican party with the nbc, pre rvetionbis went on tora

lot like what texas senator ted cruz said from the stage, just 20 minutes in. >> the questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the american people don't trust the media. [applause] >> this is not a cage match. and you look at the questions, donald trump are you a comic book villain. ben carson, can you do math, john kasich, can you insult, jeb bush, why don't you resign, how with talking about the substantive issues people care about? >> a few minutes later moderator becky quick made an accusation about donald trump and could not back it up. >> where do you read this -- >> you people write the stuff, i don't know where --

>> cnbc's john harwood rlg encouraged particular scorn. >> i don't know do you want to answer? even in new jersey what you're doing is called rude. >> and towards the end harwood got caught telling a whopper about the debate itself. a few weeks ago several news organization he reported that donald trump pressured officials to shorten the event from three hours to two, something trump bragged about. >> in about two minutes i renegotiated it down to two hours so we can get the hell out of here. not bad. not bad. >> just for record the debate was always going to be two hours. senator rubio. >> that is not right, absolutely not right, you know that is not right. >> trump in fact was correct. it all prompted headlines like

this, mainstream debate moderators total debate fail. blaming the renal national committee chairman himself. should never have agreed to certain formats. but lauded the committee's action, as for nbc news, the spokesman responded saying this is a spowg development. development. a disappointing development. >> coming up next on this broadcast, u.s. boots on the ground, the tactics logistics and what they can accomplish. plus, the federal government setting thousands of nonviolent offenders free, the challenges they face, finding jobs. jobs.

o. >> hi everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. >> fighting i.s.i.l, u.s. troops heading to syria. the open ended deployment and the criticism. debtors prison, accusin jailings

for being poor. >> you have to listen, this is not about construction sentences, it is about recreating what people do. >> patricia cornwell about fact, fiction and what's next. the obama administration announced today that the united states is increasing its presence in syria. the white house says about 50 special operations troops will be deployed to northern syria. they will work with local forces who will, quote, advise and assist moderate syrian rebels. president obama had repeatedly said woe not send u.s. troops to syria. >> the president has been quite clear. that there is no military solution to the problems that are plaguing iraq and syria. there is a diplomatic one. the president has put in place a multifaceted to degrade and ultimately detrio i.s.i.l. and the military component to that strategy is a important

part of the safety and security of the american public. >> the white house says the u.s. troops will not conduct joint raids or call in any air strikes. mike kikei is a retired senior officer in the british air force and an advisory in the british air force. awhat are these people going to be doing on the ground? >> i've done three tours in afghanistan and two in iraq. it's sort of like an umbrella title which gives them dispensation really to do a number of roles. the ones that stand out for me is the jtac role, joint terminal attack role, which allows guys to determine with precision targets on the ground. we know we'll never get anywhere by air strikes at all, you have to have ground presence. lending connection to the

occurrence. nonkinetic, fire power, snr and sni, support and reconnaissance and sporand support and influen. what we have in syria is the lack of human intelligence. there are drones in the air sucking up military intelligence, signals -- >> unless you're on the ground. >> unless you're on the ground you need to build that human intelligence picture because that will then give them really close up what is going on and allow them to sort of make some sort of tactical strategy. >> but it's not just helping syrians fight i.s.i.l. there are moderate syrians who want assad out as well as i.s.i.l. so how do you help fight i.s.i.l. and not help the syrian rebels fight assad? >> if you look at it in terms of scales you've got i.s.i.l. and you've got assad. i would argue that 99% of the rebel groups in syria is to have

one keys common objective to up-root assad and get him out of that. i.s.i.l. has become a hindrance to that objective. so the focus offing i.s.i.l. versus assad was one of the key problems to begin with. one of the things we have to be careful and clever with is that now the russians and iranians have got involved in this. what we are seeing is this gall vannization of rebel groups anti-assad rebel groups the moderates to the jihadists. we have the free syrian army that are in cahoots with nusra, so the problem is, is that when you go outside of the ypg, the syrian kurds who do you actually support? if you end up supporting the free syrian army training and equip for example they are in

cahoots with nusra. where do you draw the line. i think because there is no political solution here, as we've seen from vienna, there is no political mandate, they are still split, rudd an russia ande are effectively going into a tactical situation without a political plan which is dangerous. >> how do you protect 50 people without -- i mean you have air power, but you don't have the forces on the ground to do the job to really protect them well. do you or not? >> look one of the key capabilities of special forces operators is that they're going in under the radar. they operate under the radar and they do it with a minimal logistical tail because of the cover they get. they will embed, they will grow beards and look as much -- >> it is dangerous position. >> it is massively dangerous.

just to that point whether we talk about obama saying he's never going to put boots on the ground there is kind of this hazy area of what those boots on the ground actually mean. is it conventional forces, is it 100,000 conventional forces is it armor artillery and tanks or sit a couple ever boots on the ground with this special niche capability. >> what do the forces know which group to trust, which people to trust? >> a lot of these dynamics are about the situation ton ground. onto ground on the ground. if we look at assad assad has had, there's this notion that assad has had this juxtaposition with the islamic state, the islamic state give assad a ray soraison detre .

why does assad not target raqqa, why is he targeting idlib and homs? that's where the threat is biggest to latakia. the assad component and then you've got the rebels who are operating in the idlib province, you've got hama and homs. that's where they're all operating. you mentioned duma, there are people in syria that just will not accept any future political alternative if it involves assad. and i think that's in vienna that is what the two main protagonists russia and america have to come to terms on. >> you point out how this situation is so dangerous and there are very few answers at this point. mike it's great to see you hope you come back. thank you. kentucky police say they killed a fugitive spending six

days on the run allegedly fighting a police officer. floyd lee cook shot a police officer during a traffic stop. he was tracked to a wooded area and killed in a shootout. wood had a extensive criminal history. in missouri charges have been filed in connection with a string of church arsons. 35-year-old david jackson, accused of setting two of the seven fires set this month. most of the churches have black congregations. they don't believe they were hate crimes. starting today some 6,000 federal inmates with it will be getting out early. released to ease prison overcrowding. life on the outside can be tough for those crrls wit criminals ga job is not easy. ash-har quraishi reports. >> with three months of training under his belt, cameron wright

is racking up credentials for a job in advanced manufacturing. >> i want to be active, i figure the sky's the limit, in this industry, what i've done my research on it's almost recession proof. >> but wright with it will have a tough hurdle to overcome. the fact of his prison sentence will deare the many employers. >> i'm pretty up front. i have nothing to hide, i didn't steahurt anybody, didn't steal anything, i just want stowed pay the rent. >> inspector jacques has been teaching advanced machining to inmates for the last two years. he says plugging them into manufacturing jobs can help give them a chance at earning a living wage and turning their lives around. >> they have a wonderful

opportunity to grow to make a lot of money and to have a career, you know, that's the big word to have an actual career. that alone should motivate them to continue and again make good money make a good life for themselves. >> a study conducted between 2005 and 2010 of ex prisoners showed 66% were rearrested within three years, and 78% reoffended within five years. >> if you get a person employed you can drop that recidivism rate significantly. >> an organization that helps former inmates successfully reenter society. >> there are enormous barriers to getting and keeping a job. however, most people who were released from prison they have very little when they're released. they may not even have a state issued i.d. and from there they start.

>> safer offers everything from mental health services to high school quvenzhan equivalencey p. cameron wright hopes he's done everything he can staying on the right are track. >> coming from where i came from, i've come a long way, on the right path and i can only look up now. >> ash-har quraishi, al jazeera, cli. >> incarceration is also for the poor. the group is suing several u.s. cities for locking up residents just because they can't pay their pills. jonathan martin reports from biloxi, mississippi. >> a single mother of two teens,

she says it's a constant struggling trying to make ends meet. she takes home less than $700 a month cleaning at a baseball stadium in biloxi, mississippi a city she says is making her life even harder. >> it's just not right to jail people for something that they can't pay. >> in july kennedy was the passenger this a car police pulled over for running a stop sign. when the officer checked her i.d. he found kennedy had an outstanding arrest warrant. she owed $1,000 in fines and fees from a traffic violation two years earlier. kennedy was handcuffed and taken to jail. >> it was scary wondering what was going on. where am i going? i sat in jail for five nights worried, cold. >> still she says she couldn't pay and was put on probation and ordered to pay an additional $40 a month to a private probation

company. >> so every month they charge me $40 you know if i can't pay my tickets, how can i pay an extra $40 every month? it's going up every month. >> reporter: her story is the latest to grab the attention of the american civil liberties union who fired an action against city of biloxi. the lawsuit accuses the city of biloxi of running pooh modern day debtor's prison. >> it's a two tiered system of criminal justice because the poor are punished more harshly because they don't have the money to pay their sentence. the probation company adds on fees. >> close to 27% of people in biloxi live in poverty, nearly dumb the number six years ago. and the aclu says the city has

energiesly relied on fines and fees for revenue. it's not alone. there are lawsuits against six cities under allegations they are criminalizing poverty. some have already led to policy changes. >> ferguson is probably the most visible example we have seen of offender funded justice. it came to light after the tragic death of michael brown that ferguson had actually relied on municipal court fines to close 20% of their entire nearly $13 million budget. >> rebecca valis calls it a offender funded justice. >> they are grasping at straws to find the constituency to go after, basically what they have settled on is low income people of color. >> says in fact the court has used community service in cases where defendants are unable to

pay their fines. she hopes her lawsuit will promote a change in policies. for now she remains on probation, in constant fear of landing back in jail, with no way to pay back what she owes. >> it is a dairy feeling with that hanging over your shoulders. >> jonathan martin, al jazeera, biloxi, mississippi. >> new rules will allow these small businesses to sell stock in their companies directly to people online. jake ward is in san francisco with that. jake. >> reporter: john, you and i may know a little something about the kick starter model where you trade a basically a donation in return for maybe getting a tee shirt out of a company that you're helping to get off the ground. but this is something entirely new. this is how president obama described the prospect of this new law when he signed this it

in just a few years ago. >> and for startups and small businesses this intil a potential game changer. right now, you can only turn to a limited group of investors including banks and wealthy individuals to get funding. laws that are nearly eight decades old make it impossible for others to invest. but lot has changed in 80 years and it's time our laws did as well. for the first time ordinary americans will be able to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in. >> reporter: that's really the thing here john is thatting this changing it from thattingthat'sy everybody is going to be able to buy stock in any kind of business in the united states. >> so jake what kind of companies are likely to come out of this new system of investing, and are we talking about tech

companies or could any company get involved? >> that's the right question there because we're used to the notion of sort of your pedals and things like that, tech companies coming up on kick starter. it is not just that, it could fund restaurants in places that could not have them, an auto repair shop a flower shop, literally any business you want to get off the ground, you could literally sell shares to people for very small amounts of money. the potential across the business community of literally a seam stress throwing an ipo out on the internet and getting funded, it could be a game changer in american capital. >> it also seems like a huge potential for fraud. if anybody can invest, how can the government protect all those investors? >> that's exactly right. that's why it's taken the sec so long to move on it. the president has signed this

bill into law in 2012 and it's taken that long for the securities and exchange commission to figure out how to handle this. they're going to limit the amount of investment to a certain small percentage roughly 5% of what somebody makes a year so you aren't putting your entire paycheck towards something and getting swindled out of a huge amount of earnings. the final rules aren't going to be established until january 2016, the results, the new way people can invest beginning next year and that could see a whole change in the landscape of how we create businesses here in america. >> sure could, good to see you jake, have a good evening, thank you. now where classes will resume to thousands of students in east st. louis. the school district has announced that it has reached a four year contract with the teachers union.

changes how long it takes for teachers to maintain full pay. the last british inmate held at quoamen quoam qayoum quowmen. >> i realized the news hasn't registered. i said look shakir i need you to listen. only then he asked me are you being serious right now? i said yes. he had this huge smile and

finally could see there was a light at the end of the tunnel. >> in the next hour i'll here from his attorney. there are still 112 detainees still at guantanamo bay. >> randall, thank you. coming up next my conversation with master crime writer patricia cornwell. >> here's my dirty little secret. i used to travel alone, i used to sit in restaurants with my notebook and i used to eavesdrop on everybody.

al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. >> in our arts segment tonight, patricia cornwell, the author of

almost 30 new york times best sellers. her latest novel is called depraved latter, her 20th book involving fictional medical examiner kay scarpetta. >> i feel all of us are rather absorbed and obsessed by technology and the good and the bad that it can do. we live in a culture of surveillance and spying, where scarpetta is at the crime scene, she gets an alert tone on her smartphone, she clicks on what's from her niece as of something bad happening, a secret video of her niece when she was at the fbi academy, 18, 20 years old. you go, she's never seen this before, we don't think lucy ever knew about this. who is sending her this and why?

let the games begin, what you have to ask the reader, is the dead body on the floor something connected on this and just landed on the phone, you can guess there probably is. >> is true crime stranger than fiction? >> yes, true crime is stranger than fiction. true crime is worse than fiction. i've seen things in the real world i'm not going to tell you about because they're too awful. you don't want to laugh they're so absurd, you know like somebody who leaves obar drunk and they're hit by a car at 3:00 in the morning and their body is at the morgue the neck morning, and the state trooper that finds a fortune cookie that says, you will soon have an experience that will change the course of your life. they had an encounter but not one that they wanted. this is an absurd moment. if i put this in a book people

won't believe it. i've seen all kinds of weird stuff go on. >> this book reads and it flows so well and i wondered as i read it how you write dialogue and where does that come from. how does it come so naturally to you? >> that's such a great question, i'm not sure anyone has asked me that. here is my dirty little secret. i used to travel alone and sit in restaurants with a notebook and i would eavesdrop on everybody, not that i carried about their stories but their dialogue. they don't talk in complete sentences, they talk in non sequiturs. hemingway's dialogue sounds like people talk. and you have to listen. it is not about constructing sentences, it's about recreating what people do and then it's believable if you do it. >> it's also the detail, the minute detail, it's clear you know the subject you're talking about. how deep do you go? >> i go as deep as i need to go.

and as long as it's an okay thing, i don't go around killing people to see what that's like, at least i wouldn't admit to it. i try drill down, dig in those boots so to speak, i'm the hunter gatherer, i want to bring in my booty from what i've gathered that day. i want you to have the experience and if you can't do that, i can't give it to you. >> is that a conscious effort to say this is in our world today and it's modern? >> well, it is a conscious effort but it's also that i live in the same world that everybody else does and so does scarpetta, she would know about the chris kyle case, i had recommended his booker before the movie came out and i was extremely upset about his homicide because these things just shouldn't happen. so i tend to pull them in. i try to have a fabric that reflects the world around us.

>> what are your goals in the next ten years when it comes to writing? >> my goal is the last book i write is scarpetta is going to work a crime scene on the moon. i just don't want to go there. there is the possibility down the road because -- i'm not really joking, if you did put astronauts back on the moon and anybody died up there somebody's going to have to go get them and that would be our girl scarpetta. >> the interesting thing talking to you is you are clearly so passionate about this character. you live through her yes? >> i ina way, i created a friend. i was a lonely little girl, i made up imaginary friends and i've done it again and she sends me on mission although i don't ride a bike anymore. >> it's so great to see you come by. >> it's great osee you. thank you. >> that's our broadcast. thank you for watching. i'm john siegenthaler, i'll see you on monday night.

have a great night. the news continues next with randall pinkston.

>> boots on the ground. the president does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy. >> the white house announcing a limited number of special forces will go into juniors to fight i.s.i.l. -- to syria to fight i.s.i.l. >> searing words. >> the chilling words of dead children dying on the ea aegean