diplomat which says that as bad as asaad is, the alternative to asaad is worse, i don't feel like you have to prepare to abandon your critical regional ally. i think you feel like u.s. and the west is gradually accommodating itself to your position rather than vice versa. as ray said, i think if they felt they could preserve their interests in syria they would have cut him loose a long time ago. but the fact that they haven't done that, despite all that's happened and the tremendous repetitional damage abroad, i think they feel that absent this horse, they could lose all of their interests in syria. >> on that note, i want to thank you all for this very excellent set of presentations. please join me in thanking our panel. [ applause ] >> so we're going to take a break and we'll be back here at 3:00 p.m. thank you. >> now, from the conference, white house deputy national security advisor tony blinken who revealed in a november, 2013 meeting, the president and then iraqi prime minister discussed isis. but the iraqi leader would not act. >> so let me welcome you again for our fourth sess

over a 36 hour period, the asaad regime drops 210 bombs. on to aleppo, and the areas around it, it is the same number of bombs that the u.s. drops in a month. so that gives you a sense of how the asaad regime has used the time of the u.s. focus and the media focus to actually attack what is really the symbolic part of the revolution. >> what are the alternatives if the current strategy isn't working? that's the $60,000 question. officials that i have talked to, said there is none. basically the u.s. has boxed itself in. the c.i.a., which has been funding these rebels and training them, they are maxed out, they don't have the authority, or the authorization from the white house to increase their training. because the quited was to go to an overt program. that would fund and train these rebels and then fly them back. the problem is that program is at least eight months away from actually graduating the first fighter. and so what these rebel groups with these modern opposition groups point out, is hook, we are being overrun by the syrian gover

back in syria, he stays focused on fighting asaad.e west when not in the bad e battlefield. these men live strangely normal lives&do everything together. this dutchman says from day one, he's been treated like a brother. >> i'm living better than i was living in new york. >> they play soccer together. and are prepared to die together. >> this is a world where war is ordinary and isis offers an attractive cause. in a world where some are united against common enemies. the united states of america. >> joining us now live from london, what are western officials doing to deal with the threat of foreign officials returning home? >> pretty much anything they can think of, richard. as you know, when you fly from here in london, the region where you are, for example, there are always security officials at the airport trying to vet people. the extraordinary thing about the video in my report there, filmed, by the way, by an impressive independent journalist is the insiekt it gives into the thinking of young islamists despite saying that's not

has been focused on little towns the asaad regime has been pummeling the allies. the al quaida group has been pummeling those same people, and the u.s. allies say they are losing. on three fronts. isil against the government and against al quaida links group. they say they need a lot more training and that training isn't going to start for at least six months. >> nor more from nick's full report on america tonight, be sure to tune in tonight, 9:00 o'clock eastern, right here on al jazeera america. meanwhile, back in washington, congress has several important bills to take care of in this lame duck session and some of them could yield huge battles. the controversial keystone excel pipeline the late addition to this pipeline, when can we expect votes in the house, and do we know what the outcome may be? well, michael the process starts in the house today, expect a vote tomorrow. and it will be easy passage, in the republican led house that's despite some push back from house democrats that say this is happening too quickly, there's no companies for amendments. but t

iraqis, these islamic state units were not fighting the moderate opposition, they were fighting the asaad regime. as part of the strategy, they plan to train and equip a rebel force, they are hoping it would serve as a counter weight, and a negotiation with the government, be uh the opposition wants this strategy to change. it wants better to topple. >> working on the handover of five hostages being held by the rebels. army general is among those being held. it was brokered by cuba and norway, peace talks between farc rebels and the government were suspended after the abduction on sunday. around 200 students are at the international airport, protesting against the government lack of action in finding four teacher whose went missing in september. the whole country is bracing for rallies expected to get underway shortly. the resort city was the scene of a large demonstration on wednesday, chanting we want them back alive, hundreds of people demanding that the government do more to find the four missing students. >> let's get the latest from reynold whose is live for us. have there be an cla

options where it not only wants to defeel isil, that will result in the removal of power bashir al asaadtoday the group released what it says is a 17 minute speech, he lashes out at president obama's plan to send more soldiers to iraq, as the first time he has been heard from since records he was wounded in an air strike on saturday. it is not clear when the speech was taped. >> . >> nick chef ron has that story. >> down a bumpy road, just a few feet from the border we set out for the source of income. our guide, a 22-year-old female smuggler, her tours her marks for oil. in a discreet hotel room, we see how isil recruits. our recruiter is a 27-year-old i.t. expert, keyboard and mouse, to post a facebook and twitter. >> over cups of tea. >> we learn how isil is organizationed, our expert as syrian once employed as an isil sales man. >> isil took over factories. they needed civilians that weren't connected to them, i helped sell the products. >> three people show how the management organization, and wealth are all depend on foot soldiers whose main motivation was income they work for a se

to defeat isil but also engineer a political solution that would remove syrian president bashar al asaadrom power, all while arming and trains the so called moderate opposition. something the pentagon admits will take almost a year. >> reporting from washington, now, secretary hagel and general dempsey said defeating isil will require a lot of patience, as well as a lot of fund. the white house has asked for $5.6 billions for the cam main, 5 billion of that would go to the pentagon to pay for combat operations. meanwhile, isil has been raising huge amounts of cash to pay for it's campaigns in iraq and syria. >> down a bumpy road, just a few feet from the syrian border we set out in source of isil's source of income. our guide, a 22-year-old female smuggler, her tools, jerry cans earmarks for oil. in a discreet hotel room, we see how uh isil recruits. our recruitser a 27-year-old syrian i.t. expert, his tools, keyboard and mouse. supposed to facebook and twitter. >> on the river in ill stainable, over cups of tea. we learn how isil is organized, our experts a syrian once employed as a isi

to keep overthrowing arab governments and killing anyone who gets in the way to do what they did to asaadnd helped do to momar. everything goes to hell in a hand bas ket and then we do more dirty work pushing us onto the next country, all the time ridding the hatred of the world. they have a friegt any knowledge frightening influence of the people. i opposed the iraq war from when i first began hearing whispers of it after 9/11. now we're hearing how successful a war would be with syria. what makes you or me think that any of these armchair officers would ever be part of the ark which you fighting. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. >> tonight on "all in." breaking news from the "new york times" the president will go big on immigration. up to 5 million imgrants would with saved from deportation. republicans are promising an explosion on the hill. >> the president has been told over and over and over again and we're telling him again today, don't do this. >> plus, new details on the cascade of mistakes made by the secret service

are we working to transition asaad out, or not? >> we believe, the president said repeatedly. i'm not sure of the exact words you're referring to, but i've heard him say repeatedly. >> it's fairly simple. he said no. >> assad lost his legitimacy. there is no way going forward that syria can -- in power. >> the president was incorrect when asked if he was actively discussing ways to remove assad as part of a political transition. and his answer was no. >> the president has been focused and consistent on the effort to support the moderate opposition, to build it up as a counterforce, to change the dynamic so we can get to a political transition that winds up removing assad. >> you quite often referred about moral obligations and standing of the united states of america. do you believe it's moral for us to train syrians to go in to syria, in this case saudi arabia, go into syria and fight when we're not attacking bashar al asaad? is that moral? >> senator, we've been working now for more than three years. >> again, answer the question. it's too bad you can't answer straightforwar

are we working to transition asaad out, or not? >> we believe, the president said repeatedly. i'm not sure of the exact words you're referring to, but i've heard him say repeatedly. >> it's fairly simple. he said no. >> assad lost his legitimacy. there is no way going forward that syria can -- in power. >> the president was incorrect when asked if he was actively discussing ways to remove assad as part of a political transition. and his answer was no. >> the president has been focused and consistent on the effort to support the moderate opposition, to build it up as a counterforce, to change the dynamic so we can get to a political transition that winds up removing assad. >> you quite often referred about moral obligations and standing of the united states of america. do you believe it's moral for us to train syrians to go in to syria, in this case saudi arabia, go into syria and fight when we're not attacking bashar al asaad? is that moral? >> senator, we've been working now for more than three years. >> again, answer the question. it's too bad you can't answer straightforwar