additional funding for frontline's expanded broadcast season is provided by the bill and melinda gates foundation. >> smith: for six months, frontline has been investigating the secret war that made headlines with the killing of bin laden. in december last year, i traveled across afghanistan and up to the border of pakistan, together with frontline correspondent stephen grey. beyond this checkpoint, the campaign against the taliban and al qaeda is led by us intelligence. here, the cia is funding, arming and running secret afghan militia who guard the border, gather intelligence and launch kill raids against the militants. >> they're called "counter- terrorism pursuit teams," and they are groups of afghans very well paid, apparently pretty well trained, with guns, and they operate at the direction of the cia. these are direct-action, you know, go-to-the-ball kind of groups. they're not standing around and guarding checkpoints and, you know, street corners. they're going after people. >> smith: here, in the province of khost, the cia unit is known as the khost protection force, or kpf. they are bas

for this program and for frontline's expanded broadcast season is provided by the bill and melinda gates foundation. >> thompson: i'm heading to amarillo, texas, to investigate a case that began 11 years ago. it was a saturday morning, and a mechanic named ernie lopez was babysitting the children of a local doctor at his home. the youngest was six-month-old isis vas. >> i fed the kids breakfast. i had them on the kitchen table, and i had isis in her swing. she had her bottle but she wasn't eating it. so i got her out of the swing, and i went to go put her in the crib. and i went to the kitchen. i left her in the crib, and when i went back in there, i noticed that isis-- she was limp. she was just there, and her lips were blue. >> is she breathing right now? >> okay, i need you to keep doing cpr. >> thompson: ernie lopez' mother, rosa lopez, lived across the street. >> we started hearing sirens. that sticks in my mind, you know, that that was the beginning of the nightmare-- the sirens, the fire trucks, and then later on, the ambulance. ( sirens wailing ) >> i hit her on her thigh, on her leg, tryin

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it's been nearly ten years since u.s. forces went into afghanistan, after 9/11. tonight, the president announced his plan for winding down the u.s. role. he spoke in a nationally televised address, from the east room of the white house. here is some of what he said. >> by the time i took office, the war in afghanistan had entered its seventh year. but al-qaeda's leaders had escaped into pakistan and were plotting new attacks. while the taliban had regrouped and gone on the offensive. without a new strategy and decisive action, our military commands warned that we could face a resurge in al-qaeda and the taliban taking over large parts of afghanistan. for this r

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the long-running effort to stabilize afghanistan may be doing more harm than good. that was the warning heard in washington today as a deadline loomed for u.s. forces to start leaving. the future of afghanistan after the future of afghanistan after u.s. troops withdraw was very much in question today before the senate foreign relations committee. the immediate subject was the nomination of ryan crocker to serve as u.s. ambassador to afghanistan. he drew on his previous posting as ambassador to iraq. >> we're not out to clearly create a shining city on a hill. that's not going to happen. but there needs to be progress. we went through the same thing in iraq. we

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. tha you. >> ifill: the future of yemen was clouded with questions today. it remained uncertain whether the country's president had gone for good after 33 years and whether the shooting would stop. gun fire echoed today even as street celebration continued in the wake of president saleh's abrupt departure. saleh was injured friday in a rocket attack on his compound. he traveled to saudi arabia for medical treatment the following day. immediately creating a power vacuum in the arab world's poorest nation. yemen's vice president, who is serving as acting president for now, said saleh plans to return within days. it was unclear if the saudis would allow that, but even if they do an oppos

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: a late-spring heat wave burned its way into the record books in the eastern u.s. today, causing at least seven deaths. and in the west, an inferno of a different kind-- an out-of- control wildfire-- raged on. ray suarez has the story. >> suarez: again and again today, tanker planes swooped over the mountains of eastern arizona, dropping clouds of reddish-orange retardant, and hoping to tamp down the so- called "wallow" fire. the massive blaze has burned an area comparable in size to phoenix and threatens several small towns in its path. fire information officer jim whittington. >> we're a long ways from talking about containment. we're just trying to check the spr

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the supreme court ended its term today with a pair of major decisions that turned on the constitutional right to free speech. by 7-2, they agreed to throw out a california statute that banned the sale and rental of violent video games to minors. supporters of the law argued that the games allow children to simulate grotesque acts of violence. but the video game industry said the games should be treated like any other form of entertainment. the court also struck down a provision of arizona's campaign finance system that provides extra money to publicly funded candidates when they face well- funded rivals. joining us now to discuss the court's final rulings of the

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all peopleeserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: anxiety over the greek debt crisis spooked markets in europe and asia again today as investors worried about spreading fallout. meanwhile, the embattled greek prime minister, george papandreou, held a seven-hour emergency meeting of his socialist party. but he delayed a cabinet reshuffle until tomorrow. we begin with daisy mcandrew of "independent television news," reporting from london's financial center, known as "the city." >> reporter: another day of protests and political chaos in athens has pushed the markets back to the brink of panic as they watched the greek prime minister prime minister fail to control either his people or parliament. with a 96 million

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. >> brown: president obama challenged republicans today to compromise on taxes or risk letting the country default on its debt. he rejected criticism of his leadership on the issue, and instead, took his critics to task, in blunt terms. the president used his first white house news conference in three months to insist that congressional leaders put everything on the table-- spending, benefits programs like medicare, and tax increases for the wealthy in a bid to cut the national debt. >> call me naive, but my expectation is that leaders are going to lead. the republicans say they want to reduce the deficit. every single observer who's not an elected official, who's not a politician says we can't reduce our deficit in the scale and scope that we need to without having a balanced approach that looks at everything. democrats have to accept some painful spending cuts that hurt some of our constituenc

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: there was more top- level talk today about raising the nation's borrowing limit, the so-called debt ceiling. this time, the setting was the white house, with president obama playing host to some of his toughest critics. >> reporter: on a sweltering washington morning, house republicans mustered at the executive mansion for the high- stakes talks on the debt limit. >> i think it was an opportunity for, clearly, our members to communicate directly with the president about our ideas about how to get the economy going again, how to create jobs, and our ideas about how we solve the debt problem that's facing our country. >> lehrer: the meeting followed last night's la

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation.icated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: reactions poured in today to president obama's announcement that american forces will begin pulling out of afghanistan. they spanned the spectrum of opinions-- foreign and domestic, from kabul to congress-- after last night's presidential address. >> reporter: from american living rooms to the streets of kandahar to u.s. personnel in the field. the president's speech was followed by millions. the effects will be felt widely as well, with 10,000 americans slated to leave afghanistan by year's end and 23,000 more by the end of 2012. but the president's plan takes out more troops sooner than military advisers had recommended. the chairman of the joint chiefs admiral m

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the supreme court today sided with wal-mart to stop the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in history. more than one and a half million current and former employees accused the chain of paying women less than men, and promoting them less frequently. in a separate decision-- and a defeat for environmentalists-- the court ruled unanimously that the environmental protection agency should regulate greenhouse gas emissions. here, as always, to walk us through how the justices ruled and why is marcia coyle of the "national law journal." let's start with that wal-mart case, big case. >> yes. >> it fell apart on what grounds? >> well, first of all this case was not ab

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. tha you. >> brown: white house officials today defended the president's authority to pursue military action in libya. they said the u.s. is not engaged in sustained fighting and has no troops on the ground, so there's no need for congressional approval. the white house response came today under pressure from congress to clarify the legal grounds for the u.s. military involvement in libya. speaking at midday, presidential press secretary jay carney said the 30-page document was designed to address lawmakers' concerns. >> we believe that the report we will be sending up to congress later today answers a lot of the questions that members have, continues a process of consultation that ha

. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> warner: once again today, debt-laden governments in europe grappled with massive public anger over austerity measures they'd imposed. in greece, the government won a bitter struggle today to rein in debt for bailout help. and in britain, civil servants took the streets. a tense calm returned to athens, greece today, but shards of glass lay strewn on the sidewalks and charred debris was stacked in the streets. they were the remnants of riots that raged into the night as protesters set fires and battled police, who fought back with clouds of tear gas. even so, the greek parliament voted today to implement the austerity measures it had endorsed yesterday. the international