increase in foreign fighters, increase of people want to turn syria into islamic state that assembly president assad leaving will not be the stopping of bloodshed but a new chapter in syria s civil war that is continuing. jon, back to you. jon: what a mess. leland vittert live from the middle east bureau. thank you. we ll talk to a middle east expert about the scud missiles firing on the rebel forces in syria. why now and what does it mean for the tide of this civil war. jenna: a big topic inside this country is the fiscal cliff. we re minutes away from john boehner and his weekly press conference. the house speaker is expected to address the latest on negotiations in reaching any sort of a dealer who. we re less than three weeks to the january 1st deadline aft great deal of work needs to be done so the legislation can work through all the procedures in congress. mike emanuel is familiar with all that and joins us from capitol hill. any progress today? reporter: jenna we ll be waitin