The president s u. N. Ambassador gives up on her hopes to be next secretary of state. And bullets fly as the camera rolls. Video captures the moment shots ring out aboard a train. Good morning. Welcome to early start this friday morning. Im Christine Romans. Im john berman. It is 5 00 a. M. In the east. We have breaking news this morning. Its a Big Development in the fight against syria and a new level of u. S. Involvement. We just learned within the past few hours the defense secretary leon panetta signed an order sending two Patriot Missile batteries to turkey. Thats to assist that nation in defending against any pollible military action by syria. This move was expected as the civil war in syria destabilizes the assad regime with each passing day. In addition to this, 400 u. S. Troops are going to turkey. They will be deployed to operate the missile batteries. Cnns Nick Payton Walsh has the development. Reporter good morning. 400 personnel will be accompanying the batteries. Let me give you history. Over the past two months, we saw sporadic exchanges of fire across the border. Syrian military firing into turkey causing often destruction and death. Turkey often responding. That brought about this request to nato for Patriot Missile batteries. Theyre supposed to be there. This particular type better at taking out missiles in the sky rather than taking down aircraft. But this move part of a nato response. Also supplied by germany and holland Whose Parliament last week approved their contributions. The u. S. , though, of course, putting a number of people on the ground. Many observers saying that now nato has physical troops and presence in the area that it risks somehow being dragged into this particular conflict. Everybody is stressing these are purely there to defend turkey, a staunch nato member. John . They still come as the u. S. Offered diplomatic recognition to the rebels in syria and with 400 u. S. Troops there, it does give the u. S. Some skin in this game. Reporter absolutely. I dont think the troops will be involved. Skin in the game, certainly. The Obama Administration though many say caught between two different sides here. At the same time, the day before they gave some kind of lower level diplomatic recognition to the syrian government. The day before that they were a terror group, one of the more hard line parts of the rebel front responsible for many victories, considered islamic hardliners. To many degrees theyre heroes because theyve been taking out so many regime outposts. The u. S. Response in the past, 48 hours. Significantly more complicated. And now as you say, skin in the game. Nick peyton walsh, watching all the developments going on. Thank you. And now the fiscal cliff. There is little progress and a whole lot of frank. Heres what we mean. In 18 days we go over the edge triggering tax hikes and sweeping cuts. Last night president obama called john boehner and asked him to meet again at the white house. They spent a little less than an hour ago. Was it a good talk . Was it a productive talk . Afterward, both side said they called their discussion frank and said the lines of communication remain open. That to be frank doesnt seem to get us anywhere closer to a deal though. Dana bash joins us from washington. Speaker boehner plans to go home to ohio today. Reporter thats right. He is on his way if not there already. And, you know, you talked about the word frank that was used by both parties, by the white house and by the speakers office. Just like they did over the weekend they put out identical statements, really one sentence statements. Diplomatic terms, frank means not so good. And thats the same word that the speaker used a couple days ago to describe their meeting on sunday which we understand from sources was pretty tense. Just the fact that they only met for 50 minutes is indicative of the fact that the meeting didnt produce very much. Now i understand from democratic sources earlier in the day yesterday that they were going to try to invite the speaker over to the white house to get things moving before he went home to ohio to perhaps put a few of the spending cuts that the speaker has been demanding on the table to try to, you know, cut a break this deadlock. Doesnt seem like they got very far. Weve had dead locks before in washington and theyve, you know, with much pain been resolved. You talked to two former Senate Majority leaders from opposite sides of the aisle on how to make a deal. What did they say . Talk. I mean its as simple as that. Just keep talking. Youre right, these were two people who were on opposite sides of the aisle leading the senate for six years together. Trent lott the republican, tom daschle the democrat. Heres what they said about the art of doing something really really tough. There will come a moment when the speaker is going to have to, you know, make a decision on that and the president is going to have to make a decision on what hes going to do in return on spendingment but th. But they need to do it in concert. You have to have the winds and the brass come together. Hold hands and jump off the cliff together . Yeah. It will be more fun on the way down. At least you have company. And i have to tell you, just in the halls of Congress Talking to lawmakers all day long every day, there is really a lot of angst and not a lot of optimism that theyre really going to get this deal done. And that really is a big, big difference between what i covered those two men in the last decade and whats going on now. Used to be you used to stand in the hallways and wait to see when the deal would get done and what would it look like . And now its will the deal get done . And it really is a different kind of atmosphere. Reminds me kind of the Government Shutdown in 96. Will it happen . It will never happen and then it happened and then got resolved. Dana bash, thank you. To be frank, not very good news. The other mammoth news, of course, in washington, the stunner from ambassador susan rice. Shell meet today with the president after taking herself out of the running to be the next secretary of state n a letter to the president , rice said, the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly to you and our most pressing national and interNational Priorities. That tradeoff is simply not worth it to our country. President obama talked about her decision last night. I hadnt made a decision about who would be my next secretary of state. Theres no doubt that susan was qualified. There are other people who are qualified as well. Her interest is in serving me but most importantly in serving the country. And shes done an outstanding job. She will continue to be one of the top members of my National Security team. Rice drew heavy criticism from republicans over her statements after the attack on the u. S. Mission in benghazi in libya when she said the violence started over anger about an antimuslim film. The attack now known to be terror, killed u. S. Ambassador to libya Chris Stevens and three other americans. In five minutes were going to talk about now who is in the running to be the next secretary of state. I think the short list is down to essentially one. There will be a Funeral Service in st. Louis today for Dallas CowboysFootball Player jerry brown. He died in a suspected drunk driving accident on saturday. His teammate and friend josh brent was behind the wheel. Police releasing this new video of the wreck as well as 911 calls they received in the moments after it happened. I dont know. I just drove past it. Its like it just happened. The car was up side down and there was smoke everywhere. Josh brent is free on 500,000 bail. Hes facing intoxication manslaughter charges. Philadelphia police are searching for two young men involved in a shooting aboard an elevated train. This incident caught on tape. Video captured a confrontation between a few young men who were arguing over a baseball game. Thats when one of the suspects as he was leaving turned and fired a gun, a handgun into the train. Wow. Look at that. Two people were wounded in this attack. Celebrations on the streets of pyongyang, North Koreans clinking beer mugs and dancing on sidewalks following the countrys First Successful launch into space. Even the Supreme Leader got into the act. The north korean government releasing this photo of the launch as leaders in washington, tokyo and seoul all call for punishment insisting that successful deployment moves North Koreans one step closer to being able to launch Nuclear Weapons across the pacific. So the basketball game between bloomington south and arlington high would be a disservice to blowouts. The two girls took the field and when it was over, bloomington high came out on top 107 to 2. Must have been something wrong with that scoreboard. Thats a difference of 105 points. Aim assured here. The arlington girls could only manage two free throws the entire contest. Now as you can imagine, the bloomington coach, the coach that scored 107 is taking a lot of heat online for piling on. Some people calling for him to be fired. Youre the sports guy. If youre winning and team is good, do you keep scoring the points . Im a dad, if my kids were ever on the side, it would break my heart. Thats all i can say. I guess i just took sides. In the 8 00 a. M. Of starting point, sowere goingo talk to the arlington team. Shes going to talk about what its like to lose a game by 105 points. A text message angers some people. Its an interesting story and its coming up. 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She explained in a letter to president obama saying the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly to you and our most pressing national and interNational Priorities. That tradeoff is simply not worth it to our country. Those words from susan rice. Foreign Affairs Reporter is in washington with the latest. Susan rice meeting with the president today. Thats right, john. Theyll be meeting with the president and her president obama said and her aides tell me that ambassador rice will stay at the u. N. And that shell continue to be a very close adviser to the president and the president s cabinet. You know, some of the aides said she was up for the fight with the senate. She was up for defending her possible candidacy but they did the math, john. They saw that these attacks had stopped benghazi, they morphed into other areas. They felt it detracted from the more successful work she did have at the u. N. Such as getting really tough sanctions on iran and really fighting for action in libya, u. S. Military action to get rid of muammar qaddafi. Lets take a listen to what ambassador rice said yesterday about why she resigned. I withdrew my name because i think its the right thing for the country. I think its the right thing for the president. And putting those things together, that makes it the right thing for me and my family. So shell stay on the team, john, and some people say that she could have a future role in the administration, a different role later on. Theyve been fairly explicit she could end up as National Security adviser one day and then perhaps this fouryear term get another shot at being secretary of state. As for who will be the next secretary of state, the short list seems to be essentially down to one person. Thats right. One person who the senate has said would be easily confirmed. Its their colleague senator john kerry. The chairman of the Senate Foreign relations committee. Senator kerry is seen as someone whos really has a lot of stature in the world. Hes been doing Foreign Policy for many decades. If you remember, he was one of president obamas kind of mentors during the debate process, prepping him for debates. And hes seen as someone who has relationships, john, around the whole world with World Leaders, someone that really could be very effective in u. S. Diplomacy. He made it clear he wanted this job for a long, long time. No secret. You know, massachusetts, thats where senator john kerry serves. He would have to give up his seat there. There is a lot of talk about who would succeed him. What would happen up there . That is one of the considerations in whether they would tap senator kerry for the post. The frontrunner for that seat is scott brown. Hes a former senator from massachusetts who just won his reelection. So i think that the administration was loathe to give up the senate seat. But they did pick up a couple seats for the past election. So if they do pick senator kerry, they feel they can live without it. He made no secret he wants the job. And practically the entire senate said hed be easily confirmed and an excellent choice. Certainly president obama would love to get that behind him. Thats right. There would be a special election in massachusetts, 145 days after kerry gives up his seat and scott brown easily the frontrunner in that race. Thank you very much. It is 17 minutes after the hour this friday morning. Lets get you up to date with the mornings top stories. President obama, House Speaker john boehner going facetoface behind closed doors of the white house again. With 18 days remaining before america goes over the fiscal cliff, there is still no sign of a deal. Both sides calling yesterdays talks frank and insisting the lines of communication remain open. A man fatally shot himself inside a Clerks Office at the federal courthouse in birmingham, alabama. The u. S. Marshal service says he worked in the building and slipped a gun past security because he used an employee entrance, not a public one. Visitors have to pass through metal detectors. Police say no one in the courthouse was threatened. So the university of miami has apologized for a text mess an gaffe sent over to Emergency Notification network. It warned of a black man on campus and what he was wearing. That text raised eyebrows as there are many black men on campus. The complete text should have said that was the description of a man wanted for stealing a students laptop. It was a game of hot potato thursday night. The eagles had a punt blocked by their own teammate. They lost at home to the bengals. They drop to 410. Cincinnati keeps playoff hopes alive by improving to 86. That was awful. Look out for the bengals. They can play some football. All right. It is 18 minutes after the hour now. Time for early read. Were revealing the story in the Chicago Sun Times where one lawmaker is proposing fines as high ased 1 e 1,000 and six monn jail for pigeon feeders. He said hes tired of seeing parts of town being seen from a movie from the birds. He said bird droppings a quarter inch thick in some spots. There are cull pretties that feed the birds three or four pounds of bread four times a day. One of these feeders is known as the pigeon lady. All right. Get back here with my driveway. Police arrested a man accused of stealing someones driveway. Brick by brick. The neighbor called deputies reporting two people with truck removing the bricks. About 300 square feet of them are gone and a few days later they came back for more. Police found 40 to 50 bricks in the bed of the guys truck. I once did a story abouthe landscaping that kept disappearing from peoples houses. They would put brand new landscaping in, like a 200 tree and the next day it is gone. That is fairly aggressive though, stealing someones driveway. For a look at all of our top stories, head to our blog. You can also follow us on twitter. You should follow us on twitter and facebook. Just search for early start cnn. One more way dont tell me any more ways. There are a lot of ways the fiscal cliff is going to cost you. What happens to your paycheck if theres no deal in washington . Youre not going to like it. [ female announcer ] what if the next big thing, isnt a thing at all . Its lots of things. All waking up. Connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. Its going to be amazing. And exciting. And maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. Were going to wake the world up. And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Cisco. Progressive direct and othe