good evening, i'm antonio mora, this is al jazeera america. keeping a promise. the pentagon follows through on a commitment to fight i.s.i.l. many in congress are not sold on a plan out of a job. the mayor of chicago fires a police chief after a year after a murder charge against an officer on the road again. congress approves a long-term deal for roads and

infrastructure fixes, but critics say it falls shorts of what is needed for the 21st century we begin with a planned increase in the u.s. military's rens in iraq and syria. defense secretary ash carter says more special operations forces will join the battle against i.s.i.l. the expedition force will take on a series of missions including freeing hostages. as jamie mcintyre reports from the pentagon. they attempt to capture i.s.i.l. leaders. >> the u.s. has more than 2500 troops, including commandos that carried out raids in iraq and syria. back in october. after the u.s. forces assisted

kurdish troops, it was promised there would be more raids. >> we are at war. >> in more than three hours of testimony before the house armed services committee. the defense secretary and his top military advisor placed scent call questions >> you indicated that it's war. are we winning, mr secretary? >> we will win. >> are we winning now? >> we are going to win. >> have we currently contained i.s.i.l. >> we have not detained i.s.i.l. >> they seem dissatisfied with talking points, but the anti-i.s.i.l. message is making congress. >> i'm trying to climb everest. i would like to look in the sigh saying i'm making progress. >> carter unveiled a specialized

expeditionary force. a standing force of commandos to be based in erbil and iraq, conducting raids, both with iraqi forces and unilaterally, with a mission to free hostages, gather intelligence. >> we are good at intelligence, mobility and surprise. we had the long reach no one else has. it puts everyone on notice, you don't know who will be coming. >> carter argued ground games in iraq and syria could create a snowball effect to convince local forces such as the syrian rebel alliance to join the fight. they exist. but we are trying to make a snowball. >> he pointed to strikes that destroyed more than 400 fuel trucks as evidence the air campaign was picking up.

arizona's martha mccally, a squadron commander was incredulous that they weren't among the targets hilt. >> you mention the snowball effect. it's been going in their direction. >> the deployment of special operations troops to syria announced, new troops will not get there soon. pentagon sources say no deployment orders have been issued, nor have units been identified to go jamie mcintyre reporting from the pentagon. the iraqi army has surrounded the i.s.i.l. held city of ramadi, in a full-on assault that could begin at any time. the lines 70 miles west of baghdad in anbar province, it's been in i.s.i.l. hands since may. troops teamed up with militias for an offensive at retaking the city. the iraqi military dropped leaflets, warning syrians to

leave. fighter are preventing them from doing so as he want to use them as human shields. >> the fight was a key topic of discussion as president obama met with recep tayyip erdogan in paris. they discussed the situation in syria, and president obama arrived turkey to do more to secure the borders. they talked about turkey's downing of a russian fighter jet. >> the united states supports turkey's right to defend itself, its air space and the territory, we are committed to its security and sovereignty, we have a common enemy, that is i.s.i.l., i want to make sure we focus on that threat. and i want to make sure we are focussed on the need to bring about a political resolution in syria. >> turkey says it has no plans to apologise to russia over the downed plane that prompted

sanctions from moscow. >> a pipe bomb explosion near a metro station in istanbul injured five. it went off near the evening hour. turkey has been on a high alert since two suicide attacks in october killed more than 100 people. no one claimed responsibility. >> in syria, the government and rebel fighters agreed to a ceasefire near homs. doctors without borders's a hospital and support has been targeted by government forces using barrel bombs. a total of four on saturday were conducted. after an initial blast, three more followed, and it seemed to target first responders. doctors without borders called it calculated direction chicago mayor ron emanuel fired the embattled police superintendent, formally asking gary mccarthy for his resignation, and hours later

arrived the justice department to launch an investigation into the police department's practices. as diane eastabrook reports, it follows a week of protests brought on by the release of the mcdonald shooting video. >> chicago mayor ron emanuel told a packed conference he gyred jerry mccarthy because he was a distraction. >> i have a loyalty to him. but more to the city of chicago. >> reporter: hours earlier, mccarthy said he had no plans to leave his job. >> i'll not give up on the chicago police or community. >> reporter: his ouster follows a week of protests. following shooting of a man. a 17-year-old black teen running down the street.

shot by officer van dyk. al jazeera is freezing the video. van tyke turned himself in the day of the video's release and is charged with first degree murder. protesters have taken to the streets, outraged at how long it took to release the video and charge van dyk. even with the backlash, enanual's office issued statements of support. >> the police superintendent is not the only one that needs to be held accountable. >> with the administration, not the police administration. what did they know. >> mayor emanuel said the task force he appointed would review policies. he deflected questions about stepping down as well. >> i do my job, every day

that was not good enough for protesters outside the mayor's office, demanding accountability and wanted an auditor to oversee a police department. what is missing is he is not accountable to anyone. there would be someone with the power outside of the mayor's office to look at policing. >> late this afternoon. the attorney-general asked the justice department to negotiate the chicago police department. this is also in addition to another investigation that d.o.j. is doing into the way the department handled the shooting the cleveland police officer who killed 12-year-old tamir rice has given his version of the shooting to prosecutors. timothy loehmann described the incident in a written statement saying:

the officer's family say it's impossible because she shot the boy 2 seconds after arriving on the screen. it will be decided whether he and a training officer with him should face charges. president obama is back at the white house after attending the u.n. climate change conference in paris. >> as mike viqueira reports from washington. any deal could face opposition at home. >> after two days in paris. president obama came it a sweeping conclusion of climate change. >> i think we'll solve this. >> the reason for the opt miss: recommendations to reduce output. while they agree with scientific

consensus, it falls short. the president things there's reason for hope. >> we will have established a global consensus of how we are going to approach it. we can successfully turn up the dials as new sources of energy become available. >> portions of an agreement should be legally binding. at the same time he insists what emerges from paris will not be in the form of a treaty, which will require ratification by republicans in congress. that is a none start rer. speaker of the house frames it as a choice between estricting emissions and distrobs. -- jobs. >> they don't add up. it's clear. people want jobs. >> new york times c.b.s. poll suggests that the public backs the poll. two-thirds of americans support joining a binding agreement to curb growth.

conservatives are adamantly opposed. >> this is an example of a president who is not only out of touch, out of control. he's lost his vision of what made america great. and what would keep america strong as the future goes on. >> this week the house of representatives is expected to vote to reject e.p.a. restrictions on cole fire power plants. in paris, president obama met with leaders of island countries, whose leaders faced inundation. the time for the politics of denial is over. >> that's more a matter of games washington plays. that's why i think people should be confident. >> the commitments from the u.s. and other nations represented in paris will be known next week. the when the summit is scheduled to end congress hammered out a $300 billion transportation bill meant to shore up the ageing

infrastructure. lawmakers say the 5-year plan will address congested roads by boosting spending by 15%, and transit system spending by 18%. >> critics say it falls short of the $400 billion that the secretary of transportation says is needed to keep the roads and bridges in good conditions. the house and senate are expected to hold a final vote on the measure by friday. >> stopping a potential threat. u.s. authorities arrested dozens of people on charges of trying to join i.s.i.l. there are concerns about the strategy the fbi uses to prevent them going to the battlefield.

a new study is shedding light on who i.s.i.l. is recruiting in the united states. 71 people arrested on charges related to the group since march of 2014 were looked at. some numbers stood out. the vast majority of recruits.

86% are men. 80% u.s. citizens. three-quarter under the age of 30, 40% are converts to islam. the fbi used sting operations to locating potential i.s.i.l. recruits. some say the strategy amounts to entrapment. we look at the controversy surrounding the strategy. >> you are going yourself a favour. >> the arrest of this 19-year-old at o'hare airport in october 2014 rattled the community. he was planning to fly from schick to istanbul after providing airline tickets for himself and siblings. before leaving he wrote a 3-page letter to his parents saying he could no longer morally justify living in the u.s.:

his attorney yip specialises in cases like this, and says law enforcement attempts to predict murkiness is in that territory. >> one predisposed commits the crime. that is very, very difficult when you talk about young kids. that is part of the problem much it's part of the reason there's a perception that the kids are entrapped. >> kahn pleaded guilty to providing support to a foreign terrorist organization, and faces 15 years in prison. >> with the rise of i.s.i.l. in the middle east. there has been an effort to counter threats on u.s. soil. >> the people exist in every state. i have home grown violent extremist investigations in every state. >> there has been an increase in i.s.i.l.-related arrests. >> one of them was 20-year-old

john booker junior. charged with attempting to carry out a suicide bombing. he had been on the fbi's radar. despite his history of mental illness, eight months later an fbi informant told booker he had a cousin who could get people overseas and asked what he wanted to do. the informant told booker if he said he was ready to fight. he'd have to prove it. >> booker responded i'll kill any non-believer. follow any place. he was provided with what he thought was an explosive van. the bomb was a fake. booker arrested. >> fbi agents and joint terrorism task force officers in minnesota and california arrested six men. >> the investigation was part of a pattern. >> social media is pulling in young people. >> paraded by authorities

relying on sting operations. >> violent jihad, and he constituted a threat to those of us in the united states mike spent 16 years with the fbi, specialising with undercover work and is critical of the tactics. >> half the violent crime is unsolved, including a third of murders. for the government to spend the resources necessary for an undercover sting operation, distracts from the real cases. we see too many terrorists slipping through the cracks. >> the fbi did not grand al jazeera's request for an interview with fbi director james comey. in response with criticisms last year he wrote: if you find someone on the path to radicalization, what do you

do? you encourage them to commit a crime and catch them? why don't you have a programme of rehabilitation for them. >> pum them back -- pull them back in the absence of those measures, there's concerns in the american muslim community that those vulnerable may choose the wrong path. earlier tonight i spoke with a security expert specialising in extremism and political violence in north american. he said many recruits are kee bored warriors. >> what is the common trade is all the individuals are active online. that's the vast majority of them. and they try to develop a link to i.s.i.s. so that's where most of the investigative actions do take place for law enforcement monitoring that space.

>> while many young people join i.s.i.l. for religious reasons or revulsion at the bashar al-assad regime. some are looking for adventure pleaeding for aid. puerto rico's governor asks congress to help as the island is closer to defaulting on tens of billions in debt meteorologist kevin corriveau joins us with the latest from a storm from chicago to new england.

puerto rico made a last-minute 355 million payment to avoid defaulting on its debt. the island owes more than $70 billion. a billion due in a month. as vicente reynes reports, puerto rico's governor issued a distress call saying the island is out of cash. >> there's no more chances, no more trips. >> a day of uncertainty for puerto rico's leader. he told the senate judiciary committee hearing in washington that the cost of congressional inaction would be catastrophic for the u.s. territory. >> this is a stress call from a sheep, 3.5 million american citizens is that have been lost

at sea since 1996. it's your choice whether to answer or to disregard. this call from the people of puerto rico. >> back in puerto rico. the beach is packed. tourists roam san juan, and government officials try to explain how bad the situation is. >> you authorized the transfer of money today, so the island did not go into default. how much and to whom. >> around $354 million transferred to the trustee. melba is the president of the puerto rico's governor development bank. she's been a key player with creditors, bond holders and investors, but congress must clear a path for restructuring for chapter nine restructuring. >> realistically is anyone

listening to anything you guys have to say, do they even care? >> you would be surprised. we are helpful. we can't say definitely it will happen. there are chances for it to happen. >> many streets in the city are looking run down, as businesses close and people are living in poverty. thousands are leaving the island for the u.s. mainland every month, looking for better opportunities, while basic necessities like electricity and water are at risk. we caught up with victor, the island's secretary of state. how concerned are you guys now? it seems like you are playing russian roulette? >> very concerned. >> what do you do if congress doesn't act. >> we have a plan to clean up the debt. we will continue the negotiations with creditors. we need the legal framework to do it. >> back in washington they ended

the day with a plea? >> this is a distress call. we are running out of cash. >> reporter: puerto rico owes 1 billion under u.s.a. a daunting amount looking for help from debtors and congress the federal serves adopted new rules meant to prevent the government from bailing out certain companies deemed too big to fail. the move is seen as a response to the 2008 financial crisis. when the fed went hundreds of billions to prop up financial firms. proponents of baleates say the loans kept the recession from becoming a full-blown depression. critics say it encourages risk taking because large corporations believe they can counselled on a government bailout. >> a storm system that has been dumping snow is beginning to

move out of the region. the storm is moving to the east, where it has pelted new england with freezing rain. flooding has been reported. kevin corriveau joins us now with a look. it's a weird and big storm. >> it's a big storm. half the united states affected by some part of it now. let's talk about what is happening with the snow part of it. we have been talking about this for the last couple of days. the amount of snow coming out of the system has come down. we are talking 1-4 inches potentially. up towards parts of minnesota, to wisconsin. we are getting mixed rain and snow. for chicago, you'll see mixed rain and snow as well. temperatures down there. miles per hour with 29 degrees. the temperatures staying low. later in the week they'll go back up. let's talk about the rain. we have seen a lot of blooding to the south-east.

the big problem is in alabama. we have flash flood warnings in effect in north-east of alabama. we are looking at many areas from tennessee, georgia to virgin report, where the flood warnings we are talking about, flood watches are in effect there. quickly to the north-east, it is the very wintry travel of freezing rain, and that will go towards tomorrow. dangerous driving conditions. >> south sudan and alabama. all right. >> thanks. >> non-profits have billed today as giving tuesday a charitable follow up to black friday and cyber monday. looks like mark zuckerberg and his wife are taking the spirit of giving to heart. they announced they'd donate 99% of chairs to charity, they are worth $45 billion, making the

pledge in the form of an open letter to their daughter, saying it will happen over the course of their life times. >> for the latest news, go to aljazeera.com. ray suarez is up next with "inside story". have a good night. >> delegations from governments and organizations across the world are in paris to hash out an agreement that deals with global climate change. from the giant economies to the big of the emitters down to the smallest who face the effects of a warping planet, there's a growing consensus of two different things. if the world can postpone action, they will have to do hard and expensive things to fix the problem.