the corporation for public broadcasting. the national endowment for the arts. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontline is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. additional funding for this program is provided by the pulitzer center and the fledgling fund. >> narrator: this is pakistan. we traveled here to meet a young woman who had a story to tell. >> narrator: after her escape, kainat says she told her family about what had happened during those three days. >> narrator: the first time we met kainat, we found her family surrounding her, defying local traditions. (horns honking) >> narrator: from the start, there was another side to the story. >> narrator: this is his nephew. he owns this shop. kainat says she was raped here by him

corporate funding for "washington week" is by boeing. additional funding is provided annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by to your pbss station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. it appears the government is net over private communications in the name of national security. president's response today was basically, move along, nothing to see here. you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy, inconvenience. we're going to have to make some society.s a gwen: senior members of congress, it appears, knew about as previously secret program did the executive and the judicial branches of government we,we sure didn't, did pete? >> no, we certainly didn't and even some members of congress on this said they didn't know details either so we're talking about two programs, one which the government gets virtually all the records, the phone inialed by every the u.s. enormousmped into an database maintained by the national security agency. the government says they don't anything with it until they have a specific number or pattern of calls associ

corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by boeing. additional funding by the annenberg foundation. the corporation for public broadcasting. and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

. >>> and the corporation for public broadcasting. >>> welcome i'm bob abernethy, it's good to have you with us. there was a renewed international push this week for an end to the civil war in syria. at this week's g-8 meeting in northern ireland, participating countries called for peace talks to be held as soon as possible, but did not demand that president bashar al assad step down. they pledged $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid. religious groups were mainly supportive of the effort saying a cease-fire should be the top priority. some, however, cautioned against president obama's recent decision to arm the syrian rebels. two prominent u.s. catholic bishops warned that would only increase the violence and suffering. evangelist franklin graham voiced similar concerns, adding the opposition is no better than the assad regime. according to the united nations, 93,000 people have died in the two-year conflict. the number of syrians fleeing the violence has surpassed 1.6 million. >>> in other news, as part of the new gun safety measures from the white house, vice president biden this week iss

corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by prudential. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting andy contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. even if we were given to hype around this table, this week would defy any temptation to overstate. so we've assembled the smartest folks we could think of to break it all down for you. the legal reasoning, the political consequences, and the policy effect of all the big cases decided by the supreme court this week and this term. edith windsor, the plaintiff in the case that overturned the federal defense of marriage act put her victory this week. >> for more than four decades, love and joy, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. when thea died in 2009 from a heart condition, two years after we were finally married, i was heartbroken. on a deeply personal level, i felt anguish that in the eyes of my government the woman i had loved and cared for and shared my life with was not my legal spouse but was considered to be a stranger. gw

and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. this week of capitol hill testimony and widespread debate over the government's massive surveillance of phone calls and internet activity. one key question -- how to find the right balance between protecting citizens' privacy and assuring national security. we want to talk about that with michael kessler, an ethicist, a legal scholar and associate director of the berkley center for religion, peace and world affairs at georgetown university. professor kessler, welcome. >> so how do we get the right balance between privacy on the one hand and security on the other? >> well the first thing to keep in mind is that these policy debates are really moral debates. it's about how to secure the well-being of the body, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience. the religious traditions have an immense amount of resources to help us think about where to draw this line. first and foremost in the just war tradition is the idea of proportion

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontline is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, with grants from jon and jo ann hagler on behalf of the jon l. hagler foundation. and scott nathan and laura debonis. >> lowell bergman: there are over a half-million women working in the fields of america. most are undocumented immigrants. this is a story about the price many women pay to keep those jobs, and to keep food on our tables. >> bergman: they have lived in the shadows, unheard and unseen. until now. >> bergman: for the past year, we've been investigating the sexual abuse of female farm workers. it's a story that has gone virtually unreported, in part because women simply feared to speak out. maricruz ladino was among the

corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by boeing. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. it appears the senate may have finally come up with a deal on immigration that spends a lot more money on border security and provides a path to eventual citizenship for people living in the country illegally. great news, right? but don't take your eye off the house. which stopped a huge agriculture bill, the kind of legislation that used to be a slam dunk in its tracks. that's where the immigration bill could be headed as well. >> i don't see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn't have a majority support of republicans. gwen: but john boehner couldn't get majority support on the farm bill, either. so much hanging in the balance. ed? >> it really is. and 800-page, $20 billion immigration measure became a 1,100-page 11 n -- immigration bill, that will medical tarize the u.s.-mexico border. you will double the si

. >> 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: revelations that the government is checking up on phone calls, web traffic and credit card sales prompted the president to speak out today. he said intelligence officials are trying to keep the country safe from terrorism and they're doing it under close supervision. it's now known the national security agency is running three highly classified surveillance programs. the first to be publicized collects phone call data from millions of verizon, a.t.&t. and sprint customers. last night, director of national intelligence james clapper also confirmed the existence of prism, targeting the internet. it taps into the central servers of nine major u.s. companies, including google, apple, yahoo, and facebook, to access e-mails and other files. today, the "wall street journal" reported the n.s.a. also catalogues credit card transactions. hours later, president obama defended the n.s.a.'s activities, at a stop i

. >> 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 summer showdown now looms in washington over filling key federal judgeships. the president set things in motion today with his nominees to take seats on one key appeals court. >> what i am doing today my job. i need the senate to do its job. >> brown: president obama lashed out at senate republicans today for playing politics in delaying votes on past judicial nominations. he did so at a white house rose garden event announcing three nominees to fill vacancies on the 11-member u.s. court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit. it's often referred to as the nation's second highest court ruling on high profile cases of national significance. >> time and again congressional republicans cynically used senate rules and procedures to delay and even block qualified nominees from coming to a full vote. as a result, my judicial nominees have waited three times longer the to receive confirmation vote

. >> 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: a new national security advisor is taking her place at the white house, after four years at the united nations. word of the realignment came today from the president. >> i am extraordinarily proud to announce my new national security advisor, our outstanding ambassador to the united nations susan rice. >> woodruff: the afternoon announcement in the white house rose garden confirmed a long anticipated shift. rice replaces tom donilon, who's stepping down after more than two and a half years as national security advisor. >> susan is the consummate public servant, a patriot who puts her country first. she is fearless, she is tough. >> woodruff: that was as close as the president came to mentioning the fierce republican criticism aimed at rice after the attack on a u.s. diplomatic post in benghazi, libya. she initially relied on the administration's official version of events, depicting it as an act of

and the corporation for public broadcasting. >> major funding for this program is provided by...ure encapsulations -- committed to manufacturing a complete line of science-based, hypoallergenic nutritional supplements available through health professionals... factors group... liposcience... and by metagenics -- helping healthcare providers improve patient health for over 30 years, with medical foods, nutraceuticals, and lifestyle medicine programs... with additional funding by damon giglio, the sandra and stephen muss foundation, and immuno laboratories. >> this biologic software, which was lifesaving 10,000 years ago, is now the cause of the single biggest killer in the 21st century. you're not doomed. you can and must take action. what you put at the end of your fork is more powerful than what you will ever find at the bottom of a pill bottle. [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. imagine reversing diabetes in just one week. my friends, that's possible today, and we've done it hundreds of times at the ultrawellness center. i'm gonna teach you all how to do th

. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: it's highly secret and far-reaching, and it's been going on for years. it is an enormous database of calls amassed by the national security agency and made public today. the revelation came first in the "guardian" newspaper in london. it reported the "foreign intelligence surveillance court has authorized the n.s.a. to monitor millions of domestic and international calls by verizon customers." in washington, attorney general eric holder declined to go into detail, at a senate hearing. >> without saying anything specific, i will say this, with regard to members of congress have been fully briefed as these issues, matters have been underway. >> brown: later, a white house spokesman defended the program. and, he said the government is not allowed to listen in on the phone calls. instead, under the court order, the n.s.a. logs what's known as "metadata"-- call location, duration, and numbers dialed-- but not t

. >> 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 found police can collect d.n.a. from people they arrest, equating the procedure to standard practices such as fingerprinting. the ruling was 5-4, but not your usual 5-4. joining us to explain the reasoning behind and the impact of the decision is marcia coyle of the "national law journal." as always, she was in the courtroom today. so start by describing to me the circumstances of the arrest of one alands owe king. >> mr. king was arrested in 2009 on assault charges. while he was being booked, police took a d.n.a. swab of his cheek and sent that out for analysis. that's allowed under maryland law which says if you are arrested but not yet convicted of a serious crime, you can take the d.n.a. sample. several months later, there was a match between his d.n.a. and evidence in an unsolved, 2003 pe. he was charged with the rape, convicted, sentenced to life, maryland's highest court

. >> 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: for the first time, the man running the national security agency spoke publicly today about extensive surveillance of phone calls and online communications. he defended the efforts and said, "we're trying to protect americans." ray suarez begins our coverage. >> reporter: army general keith alexander came to a senate hearing to discuss cyber- security in general. but the questions quickly turned to surveillance. vermont democrat patrick leahy pressed him to tell what the n.s.a. has to show for its efforts. >> has the intelligence community kept track of how many times phone records obtained through section 215 of the patriot act were critical to the discovery and disruption of terrorist threats? >> i gave an approximate number to them in a classified. >> so what's the number of them... >> but it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. >> reporter: others, including oregon democr

. >> 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: just 24 hours ago, there was talk of new prospects for finding peace in afghanistan. today, president hamid karzai angrily changed course, leaving the initiative in doubt and u.s. officials doing damage control. the reversal by president karzai came a day after he announced his government would open negotiations with the taliban, in qatar. >> we don't have any immediate preconditions for talks between the afghan peace council and the taliban, but we have principles laid down. >> brown: today though, karzai nixed those plans, and lodged several complaints. chief among them was the taliban's use of its formal name "the islamic emirate of afghanistan" at its new office in qatar. a member of karzai's afghan peace council said the name suggests it's an embassy, representing an actual government. >> ( translated ): the senior american officials have assured us in a written letter in the past that the legal s

. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suarez: the prospects for passage of immigration reform, by a big margin, appeared to brighten considerably today. supporters talked hopefully that they'd met demands for greatly expanded policing of the border with mexico. >> madame speaker, i rise to speak. >> suarez: two republicans went to the senate floor this afternoon to announce a potentially critical compromise on a key sticking point for many in the g.o.p. >> americans want immigration reform, of that there is no doubt. they want us to get it right and that means first and foremost securing the border. >> some people have described this as a border surge, and the fact is that we are investing resources in securing our border that have never been invested before. >> suarez: senators john hoeven of north dakota and bob corker of tennessee worked out the beefed-up security provisions. their language would nearly double the number of border patrol agents to

corporate for "washington week" is provided by prudential. is providedunding by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. live from, washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. from all sides, allies and critics alike, the white house has announced it will intervene in the bleed syrian civil war. how far is the obama administration willing to go? >> people have to understand that this is a very fluid and dynamic situation and the situation on the ground will its own twists and turns. of own policy has been one incrementally increased support for the opposition, efforts to pressure the assad regime but this is not something that will a resolved with the turn of switch. gwen: whatever the administration is willing to do, too little, too late? many think it is. the last couple of weeks have seen the rebel positions collapsing, government troops moving on a number of key positions and it really looked rebellion was beginning to fall apart and that precipitated this flurry of meetings in washington to decide do about possibly supporting the rebel

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support ffrontline is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, supporting investigative reporting and enterprise journalism. >> increasingly, americans in money trouble in this bad economy are borrowing from their 401(k)s... >> the number of workers borrowing from their accounts has reached a ten-year high... >> a record number of workers now raiding their 401(k)s... >> martin smith: let's begin with one simple fact: america is facing a retirement crisis, and the statistics are grim. half of all americans say they can't afford to save for retirement. one third have next to no retirement savings at all. >> i just don't know if i'll be able to save that much. god willing, social security will still

. >> 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: defenders of expansive surveillance by the government stepped up demands today to go after an intelligence contractor who exposed the secret programs. the target of their ire remained out of sight, as investigations of the leak gained momentum. >> he's a traitor. >> house speaker john boehner's strong words this morning were targeted at elusive former cea employee edward snowden. >> the disclosure of this information puts americans at risk. it shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. and it is a giant violation of the law. >> ifill: bainer's senate counterpart minority leader mitch mcconnell went even further. >> what's difficult to understand is the motivation of someone without would intentionally seek to warn our nation's enemies of the lawful programs created to protect the american people. and i hope that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. >> ifill: snowden briefly worked as

. >> 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: president obama landed in johannesburg, south africa this evening, his second stop on a week-long tour of the continent. the president's long-planned visit, with his family, comes at a delicate moment. as south africa's 94-year-old former president, nelson mandela is clinging to life in a pretoria heart clinic. >> warner: it's unclear if the two men will meet. white house officials said that decision rests with the mandela family. aboard air force 1 enroute to johannesburg, president obama said he was not seeking a photo op, adding: mandela remains in critical condition, but his ex-wife winnie said today there were positive signs. >> i'm not here to answer medical questions. i'm not a doctor but i can from what he was a few days ago there was great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell. >> warner: many gathered outside the hospital are preparing for the inevitable passing of their icon. >> o

. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: a bipartisan senate majority today passed historic legislation reforming the nation's immigration system. the measure offers the hope of citizenship to 11 million immigrants now in the united states illegally. but the bill faces an uncertain future in the house of representatives. ray suarez has our report. >> mr. baucus, aye. >> reporter: senators sat in their seats for the final vote on the immigration bill, reflecting the historic nature of the occasion. >> on this vote, the yeas are 68, the nays are 32. the bill as amended is passed. >> reporter: and with that, the senate approved a sweeping overhaul of the country's immigration system for the first time in almost 30 years. supporters of the legislation praised the result, but acknowledged the fight was far from over. new jersey democrat robert menendez: >> this is an opportunity to do exactly what we did, affect the lives of millions, reduce the debt

. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting.y contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: it's considered one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation ever passed. but by 5-4, the u.s. supreme court today took the teeth out of a law enacted nearly 50 years ago. newshour correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. chief justice john roberts writing for the five-member majority said the law between states that have used barriers to minority voting and had low voter turnout and those that had not. but he wrote "today the nation is no longer divided along those lines yet the voting right acts continues to treat it as if it were." edward blum, speaking for officials in shelby county, alabama, welcomed the outcome. >> this decision restores an important constitutional order to our system of government and that requires that all 50 states and every jurisdiction have the laws applied equally to them. >> reporter: the decision leaves the heart of the law-- section 5-- on the books. it

. >> 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: supporters of same-sex marriage claimed a twin win today, coming on the final day of the u.s. supreme court's term. both of the closely-watched cases were decided, five-to- four. ray suarez begins our coverage. >> reporter: outside the court building, supporters of gay marriage erupted at the first decision. >> doma's down, doma's unconstitutional! >> reporter: the justices had struck down a key section of the "defense of marriage act" or doma. that section of the 1996 law, signed by president clinton, defines marriage as "one man and one woman", and it bars same-sex couples from collecting federal marriage-related benefits. but the majority, led by justice anthony kennedy, found those provisions are unconstitutional. kennedy wrote: the court left intact a separate provision that lets a state refuse to recognize a same-sex union from another state. still, for gay rights supporters, the overall decisio

. >> 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: it could be a breakthrough moment in the sit down with the militants who've been battling american troops since 2001. after 12 years of war, senior u.s. officials now say direct talks with the taliban are scheduled to begin within the next few days. the news came as president obama wound up a meeting with french with the at the g8 summit in northern ireland. the president said that the taliban must come prepared to make concessions. >> including the taliban is going to need to accept an afghan constitution that pronounces against violence is committed to protection of women and minorities. >> the taliban gave no indication whether it would accept those terms when the meetings begin in doha, qatar. instead the militants laid out separate goals in a news drones carried on al jazeera. >> which include end of occupation of afghanistan and establishment of system with security with the most. >> u.s. offici

. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> bradley: it wasn't an outright endorsement of affirmative action nor an outright rejection. instead, the u.s. supreme court threaded its way between those positions today. newshour correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. reporter: the upshot is the court said the university of texas may continue to use race as a factor in selecting some of its students... for now. the justices did say a lower federal court used the wrong standard to dismiss a challenge to the texas system of affirmative action admissions. writing for the majority justice anthony kennedy said the use of race should be used only if no alternatives would produce the benefits of diversity. the texas university fill most of their slot by guaranteeing admission to the top 10% of every state high school class. that later was lowered to 8%. race then is used as a consideration in admitting the rest o of thent body. under that system abigail