we have fox team coverage. benjamin hall in vienna tells us what was accomplished today. we begin with correspondent kevin corke at the white house and what many see as a significant mission creep in the middle east. good evening, kevin. >> good evening to you, despite dismissing suggestions that this is in fact a classic case of mission creep. white house officials suggest tonight that this evolving strategy in syria is simply a reflection of conditions on the ground. for the white house this latest shift in syria strategy has been months in the making beginning with a meeting between the president and pentagon officials in july. the newest plan authorizes that up to 50 special ops forces be sent to northern syria creates a joint special operations task force with the iraqi government in baghdad. the plan also calls for the deployment of a-10 and f-15 aircraft in turkey, and for additional anti-isis assistance for coalition partners in jordan and lebanon. the white house says special operators will be on the ground to advise and assist. but could face combat situations. while the white house says the deployment is not much more than an enhancement in its current strategy, critics question the characterization. noting that the president himself has said repeatedly that he would not go down this road. >> my answer is simple -- i will not put american boots on the ground in syria. i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> today administration officials said the situation is different than it was in 2013. but the mission is not. >> would you acknowledge or reject the notion that this is mission creep by any definition? and if you reject it, how do you explain that to the american people? >> kevin, the mission hasn't changed. >> mission creep occurs when the mission changes. when the mission expands. when the mission becomes something that it wasn't at the outis the. there's no change to the strategy. >> but on capitol hill, leaders from both parties strongly disagree. republican congressman mack thornberry of texas saying quote i do not see a strategy for success. rather it seems the administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the president runs out the clock. >> senator tim cain, democrat from virginia says it's time for congress to do its most solemn job, to debate and declare war. >> many experts remain skeptical. >> i'm disgusted, no i'm not angry, i'm disgusted. they may be really bad options, but if they're the only ones you've got left, they're the ones you used because you passed up everything else. we've passed up a lot of stuff. >> brett, the white house continues to make the argument, the fact that this is not a large-scale indefinite combat operation. that any parallels between what's going on now and what happened under the bush administration in iraq and afghanistan simply sin valid. but by any definition, american forces will face combat circumstances both on the ground and in the skies above. brett? >> kevin corke live on the north lawn. foreign ministers from iran and russia joined secretary of state john kerry and his counterfarther frcounte counterpart from saudi arabia in talks aimed at making progress in syria's brutal and marathon civil war. correspondent benjamin hall has more from austria. >> today's talks in austria marked another u-turn in foreign policy. two years ago u.s. diplomats refused to attend a conference if the iranians were present but today they sat side by side with the russians. international opinion on the talks is split, with some saying that any dialogue must be a positive thing. but others have showed revulsion. saming the two invited, iran is tacit with assad's crimes. displacement of 11 million. secretary kerry addressed the differences. >> the united states' position regarding syria i emphasize, has not changed. sergei lavrov, foreign minister zarif and others and i agree to disagree. the united states' position is there is no way that president assad can unite and govern syria. >> nevertheless, they came together. 19 foreign ministers from around the world. sharing one main hurdle. assad, does he stay or does he go? saudi arabia, turkey and qatar who support the opposition insist assad leave before any change can come about. or at least the timeline is discussed for his departure. the russians and iranians refuse to budge. and they continue to support the fight for his cause. so the conflict continues. with little sign of improvement. today another 40 people died and 100 were wounded whet a rocket landed in a busy market. and adding insult to injury, iranian security forces today arrested another iranian american businessman who was working to improve ties between the two countries. russia's behavior was also brought into focus today. as general phillip breedlove, supreme allied commander of nato, questioned their suitability as a partner. >> so right now i do not see them as a partner. i would ask you to grade their paper across the last 18 months. but let's get this on the table, too. >> so today here in vienna, a day that secretary kerry had called a milestone in the syria talks, we're again reminded of the strange bedfellows that he has chosen and how little russia and iran have changed their tune. back to you, brett. >> benjamin hall live in vienna. more fallout tonight from this week's republican presidential debate. the rnc is mad at nbc and the candidates are mad at the rnc. correspondent doug mcelway sorts it out for us. >> the soft-spoken chairman of the republican national committee summed up cnbc's debate with some very choice words last night. >> i just can't tell you how pissed off i am in what was delivered was just nothing but a crap sandwich. >> priebus followed up with an unprecedented move. suspending nbc's co-partnership of the upcoming gop debate in february while retaining debate co-party, "national review." in a letter to nbc news chairman andrew lack, priebus accused the network of quote gotcha questions, petty and mean-spirited in tone and designed to embarrass our candidates. but left some wiggle room. quote i'll be working with the candidates to discuss how to move forward and will be in touch. in a pointed response, nbc reminded rnc of its coveted demographic and saying along with our debate broadcast partner telemundo we'll work it in good faith to resolve this matter. fox news has learned that representatives of several gop candidates will meet sunday to find ways to alter future debate formats, including insisting on an opening statement at minimum. >> then give everybody two or three or four minutes to answer a question and have some rebuttals and some clarifying questions. and you could get that done in a two-hour period. >> an apparent slight, no one from the rnc is invited. >> i like reince priebus, he's a nice man, trying to build a strong republican party. here's my advice -- allow all of us to have a say. break the field in two groups. with less people on the stage. having more quality time to express who we are and why we want to be president. >> one long-time analyst suggests the rnc bears little blame for the cnbc debacle. >> you can complain about a lot of things, but complaining about what the rnc did do set up these debates. they're not responsible for what happened. >> the sunday meeting may simply be the candidates' jockeying for better position that took a turn yesterday when the bush campaign released opposition research on marco rubio. it accused 2012 gop nominee mitt romney of rejecting rubio as a running mate because of past sketchy financial dealings. senator rubio's legislative record and high personal character would have been a great asset to governor romney. jeb bush is struggling to keep a happy face on a faltering campaign. >> are you having any fun? >> yeah, you saw did, lots of fun. >> the chief operating officer is not having any fun, she announced her resignation, saying i've got no comment, i've just got to go. up next, hillary clinton heads to dixie. here's what some of our fox affiliates around the country are covering, in new york, where one person was killed when a building collapsed in midtown. the structure was being demolish dodd make room for a 27-story hotel. fox 2 in detroit, with amazing video of a woman resisting arrest during a traffic stop. she gets back in the car, goes into reverse and hits the officer with her door before driving off. the officer was hurt, but returned to work. the woman is now facing felony charges. and this is a live look at austin, texas from our facility fox 7, the big story there tonight, severe weather in the area, watches, warnings in effect. some areas near san antonio yhae receivered 11 inches of rain. trying to confirm possible tornadoes in wilson, medinah and qu guadalupe counties. d in america. i hope you like it spicy! get complete protection with the purple pill. the new leader in frequent heartburn. that's nexium level protection. ♪ it's the final countdown! ♪ ♪ the final countdown! if you're the band europe, you love a final countdown. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. hillary clinton's campaign is heading south. the democratic front-runner was in georgia earlier today. and is about to give a speech in charleston, south carolina. up north, more of her emails are coming out in yet another friday night document dump. chief white house correspondent ed henry is here with details. >> another 268 emails on hillary clinton's server have been deemed classified. state department maintaining they were not marked classified in real-time. but this brings the total to nearly 700 emails with classified information despite the initial denials from clinton who also had a little trouble today. with black lives matter protesters. >> campaigning for african-american voters in georgia, hillary clinton appeared with the reverend jesse jackson. >> my friend and sister. >> on a day she unveiled a criminal justice reform ban that includes banning racial profiling and eliminating sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine. after months of splitting with president obama, she declared the commander-in-chief does not get enough credit on the economy. she tried to effect a distinctively southern accent. >> maybe you can't run for president on a love and kindness platform. but i am going to try. >> georgia is one of the 11 mostly southern states where voters go to the polls for super tuesday on march 1st. so building african-american support is an insurance policy for clinton. in case she loses an early state like new hampshire. democratic socialist senator bernie sanders, who has struggled to gain african-american support and today in the granite state lashed out against voter suppression in alabama. >> just convince leincidentally in the black neighborhoods, the department of motor vehicles offices were shut down. >> black lives matter protesters repeatedly tried to disrupt an african-americans for clinton rally late anywhere the day. while her supporters shouted let her talk. >> the feelings that come forward -- >> and while clinton has insisted only the press cares about situation, she was confronted on that thursday by a vote anywhere new hampshire. >> you said earlier that you wanted to end corruption. but how can you do that, after the whitewater scandals, benghazi and the deleted emails. >> i advise you go back and read my 11 hours of testimony. i hope you enjoy it. >> that fires up clinton backers in a democratic primary battle. though it may be different in a general election. when asked earlier this month in an "associated press"/jfk poll if clinton is honest, 33% said somewhat. >> a senior official confirms the white house has decided they will not release any emails between the president and secretary clinton until after she leaves office, citing past precedent. i'm told there's a small number of emails between the two leaders, mostly nonsubstantive. this shows the president knew she was using private email. the onus is on the secretary to plea serve those records. >> so we're still going through them. it's interesting exchange every time you get one of these. >> no doubt. huma abedin giving information from the egyptian foreign minister and clinton says why are you emailing me and if she realizes we shouldn't be putting this on email and a whole bunch is redacted. a couple emails giving hillary clinton updates about a facility in chile. u.s. facility hit by earthquake. another facility in kurdistan. a security problem. why is that interesting? those made it to her desk, email. at the benghazi hearing hillary clinton says i usually didn't get those kinds of updates about u.s. compounds, i didn't know about the 600 requests for security at benghazi. when you put it together, interesting differences. there is one fewer prisoner at guantanamo bay tonight. it is the latest effort in president obama's ongoing struggle to shut down terrorist prisons. national security correspondent jennifer griffin tells us how that's going from the pentagon. >> he's the 15th gitmo detainee released by the pentagon this year. and the last british prisoner held at guantanamo bay. a private plane carrying shacker amir landed in london. a saudi who married a british woman was captured in 2002 in afghanistan, where he claimed he ran a girls school. u.s. government said he was was an associate of osama bin laden. his release is part of the obama administration's race to shut the controversial military prison. where 112 prisoners captured after 9/11 remain. the president said it was one reason he vetoed the defense authorization act last week. >> guantanamo is one of the premiere mechanisms for jihadist to recruit. it's time for us to close it. >> amir led the prisoners in hunger strikes. the united states never charged him with a crime. but he was accused of sharing an apartment with zacharias moussaoui. and senator john mccain chastised the defense second during an armed services committee hearing this week. >> i've always favored closing guantanamo for a whole variety of reasons, yet we still haven't got a plan from you. >> in order to close gitmo, as you know, we would need to find a location in the united states or locations, in which they could continue to be detained. >> as of july 15th, 653 gitmo prisoners had been released and transferred to other countries. more than 17% are confirmed to have returned to the fight. 12% more are suspected. defense teams have been visiting potential prisons in the u.s. to house the gitmo detainees who the government feels are too dangerous to release. they have visited fort leavenworth, charleston and most recently, colorado. >> thank you. still ahead, san francisco's last gun store is about to close. we'll tell you why. first is the tax man snooping on you? why the irs is using cell phone surveillance technology on taxpayers. good. very good. you see something moving off the shelves and your first thought is to investigate the company. you are type e*. yes, investment opportunities can be anywhere... or not. but you know the difference. e*trade's bar code scanner. shorten the distance between intuition and action. e*trade opportunity is everywhere. still not sure whether to stay or go on that business trip? ♪ should i stay or should i go well this fall stay with choice hotels two times and earn a free night. when it comes to business, you always have a choice. book now at the new choicehotels.com who can name the third president? and the largest planet? someone we haven't heard from. anyone else? when comcast offered low-cost high-speed internet to low-income families, more than two million hands went up. and pretty soon, so did everyone's in the classroom. ok, veronica. amphibian excellent! internet essentials from comcast. helping to bridge the digital divide. the irs could be tracking you through your cell phone and you might not know. a couple of powerful senators on both sides of the aisle want answers, chief congressional correspondent has more. >> the irs is concerned irs secret cell phone tracking systems. irs commissioner was asked about it at a senate finance committee hearing this week. >> i would stress it follows the justice department rules, it requires a court order and it requires probable cause with regard to criminal investigations. it is not used in civil matters at all. it's not used by other employees of the irs. >> how frequently are irs criminal investigators obtaining location data about the people they investigate? >> i'll have to get you that information. >> the "guardian" reported that the irs had spent $71,000 to upgrade the technology known as cell site simulators. part of the money was designed for the tax collection agency to receive training from the company that manufactures the equipment. it raises the attention of republican chairman chuck grassley and patrick leahy. they fired off a letter to treasury secretary jack lew late yesterday writing while the devices can be useful tools for identifying a suspect cell phone, we have previously expressed concerns about the privacy implications of these devices. grassley and leahy added quote the devices indiscriminately gather information about the cell phones of innocent people who are simply in the vicinity of the device. those senators have plenty of questions for koskinen and the irs. brett? >> mike thank you. the budget deal that many republicans say is a bad deal is now a done deal. president obama is expected to sign the agreement as soon as it reaches his desk. the senate gave its approval overnight after passage by the house. the measure effectively averts a government shutdown over the budget or debt ceiling through the next year's election. stocks were down today. but closed out their best month in four years. for the day, the dow lost 92, the s&p 500 fell 10, the nasdaq gave back 21. for the week the dow gained about .1%. the s&p 500 was up fifth and the nasdaq finned up about a half a point. the dow surged about 8.5 percentage points. the nasdaq finished ahead almost 9.5 for the month. consumer spending and income growth were lower in september than in the past several months. let's get more on this and what's happening with the economy. fox business network's trish ragen is with us from new york. >> yeah, you know you pointed to the consumer spending number. and wages really not going anywhere. and what it tells you, brett, is once again it reinforces this very weak economic situation we're in. now one of the reasons we saw consumer prices decline was actually because gas prices have been going down. rather consumer spending decl e declined, was because gas prices have been going down. people aren't paying as much at the pump and not spending as much. good news. you know because of course we all like lower prices at the pump. it should at some point should be translating into some kind of economic growth. when you look at wages, this is very troubling. wages going nowhere. you got to start wondering at some point do we need to worry about deflation? and deflation, brett, is very, very hard to fight so that's the concern. >> but trish, why the disconnect then between the markets and the real economy? >> well it's a very good question. we have got a market that just been on fire. it's in part tied to very accommodative as they say federal reserve. the federal reserve has been keeping interest rates low at zero. for over six years. you've got very accommodative environment in the way of lots of money printing. multiple rounds of money printing. all of this leads to enthusiasm when it comes to these valuations on the stock market. people are clamoring to buy all these stocks, companies are clamoring to buy each other. you start to see a little bit of that irrational exuberance that we've seen before