The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I`m Jim Lehrer.

On the NewsHour tonight: the news of this Tuesday; then, excerpts from today`s Senate debate on setting a deadline for U.S. troops to leave Iraq; a look at new research on the use of stents for treating heart patients; a NewsHour report about a one-woman campaign to rescue victims of sexual violence and prostitution in India; and the storm over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, as seen by editorial page editors in Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, and Detroit.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: The U.S. Senate voted today to keep an Iraq pullout deadline in a war funding bill. The vote was 50-48. Senators backed a nonbinding goal of having combat troops leave within a year. The president had warned he`d veto any bill with a pullout deadline. Senate leaders summed things up before the vote.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader: Well, I would hope the Democrats would not deny the troops the money. That`s the risk they take by junking the bill up with restrictive language that we talked about and also by adding a significant amount of spending that is completely unrelated to getting funding for the troops.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader: The president doesn`t have to do anything. He is the president; we`re the Congress. I would hope that he would be willing to work with us in coming up with some language that both bodies could accept. At this stage, he has been very non-negotiable, so we`ll see what happens.

JIM LEHRER: A final vote on the Senate bill is expected later this week. It has to be reconciled with a House measure that sets a mandatory pullout deadline of September 2008. We`ll have more on this story right after the news summary.

As the Senate debated, new bombings in Iraq killed dozens of people today. To the north, at least 48 Iraqis died when two truck bombs went off at popular markets. More than 100 others were wounded.

To the west, in Ramadi, 10 more Iraqis were killed in a suicide car bombing. Also today, the U.S. military announced another U.S. Marine was killed last Saturday.

Tensions continued to mount today between Iran and Britain. The Iranians seized 15 British sailors and marines last week, including one woman. In London today, British Prime Minister Blair said he`ll exhaust every option, diplomatic and otherwise.

TONY BLAIR, Prime Minister of Britain: What we`re trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand that these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them. And I hope we manage to get them to realize they have to release them; if not, then this will move into a different phase.

JIM LEHRER: Blair did not say what that "different phase" might involve.

Also today, the U.S. Navy launched its largest maneuvers in the Persian Gulf since the invasion of Iraq four years ago. The exercises involved more than 100 warplanes from two aircraft carrier battle groups. A U.S. commander said the move was not a response to Iran`s seizure of the British sailors.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders will start meeting every two weeks. U.S. Secretary of State Rice confirmed that today during a trip to the region. She said Israeli Prime Minister Olmert will talk about day-to-day issues with Palestinian President Abbas. They`ll try to pave the way for a final peace settlement. The U.S. will try to set benchmarks for a cease- fire between the two sides.

White House officials announced today Press Secretary Tony Snow has cancer again. They said it`s spread to his liver and elsewhere. The diagnosis came after Snow had a small cancerous growth removed from his lower abdomen yesterday. He had colon cancer two years ago and had his entire colon removed.

President Bush spoke with Snow early today and then made a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: It`s a recurrence of a cancer that he thought that he`d successfully dealt with in the past. His attitude is one that he is not going to let this whip him. And he`s upbeat. My attitude is that we need to pray for him.

JIM LEHRER: An aide said Snow is consulting with his doctors on a new course of chemotherapy. It was unclear if or when he would return to his White House duties. Snow is 51 years old.

There were new warnings today that Attorney General Gonzales is in trouble. He`s come under mounting pressure over his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and his conflicting explanations.

Today, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, said the attorney general is "badly weakened." He said, "The explanation has been absolutely abysmal."

Last night, Gonzales said he was "really pained" by critics who say he`s lost his credibility. We`ll have more on this later in the program tonight.

An Australian held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, David Hicks, may be going home to serve his prison time. That word came from U.S. and Australian officials today. Hicks pleaded guilty late Monday at a U.S. military hearing. He admitted fighting alongside al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

The plea was a surprise, but the chief prosecutor, Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, said it was Hicks` decision.

COL. MORRIS DAVIS, U.S. Air Force: The judge went through in great detail, getting Mr. Hicks` consent, understanding and agreement. This was a voluntary decision. Any actions that happened earlier in the proceedings did not have an impact. So, unless he was lying to the judge, then I have no reason to believe that that was anything less than true.

JIM LEHRER: Hicks has been held for five years. His sentencing could come later this week. The tribunal was the first in a series of four top detainees at Guantanamo.

A federal judge in Washington ruled today former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld cannot be sued for torture. Nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan claimed they were beaten and burned, among other things. The judge called the allegations "horrifying," but he ruled government officials are immune from such lawsuits.

The FBI appealed to Congress today not to kill broad powers for hunting terror suspects. Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee national security letters are a vital tool. An internal review found those letters were used illegally to collect information. But Mueller said the problem is not the law; it`s the way the FBI used the law.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI Director: These deficiencies are being addressed, and I welcome the committee`s input and suggestions for additional improvements to our internal controls.

I do not believe, however, that the statute itself should be changed. The relevant standard established by the Patriot Act for the issuance of national security letters is unrelated to the problems identified by the inspector general.

JIM LEHRER: Mueller said he`s ordered a full audit of the problems. He`s also promised new compliance efforts. Still, the committee chairman, Democrat Patrick Leahy, said he has "very serious qualms."

In economic news, consumer confidence in March fell more than expected. The Conference Board, a business research group, blamed rising gasoline prices, falling home values, and the volatile stock market.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 71 points to close at 12,397. The Nasdaq fell 18 points to close at 2,437.

And that`s it for the news summary tonight. Now: the Iraq debate in the Senate; new word on stents; fighting for women and children in India; and how the Gonzales prosecutors flap looks from outside Washington.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: The Senate struggles with deadlines for leaving Iraq. NewsHour congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: Congressional debate in recent weeks over continuing funding of the Iraq war has made one point quite clear: The two parties differ sharply on whether a timetable for troop withdrawal should be tied to legislation paying for military operations.

Majority Democrats say it should. And in a deeply partisan debate last week, House Democrats successfully attached timetable language to their Iraq funding bill, prompting a veto threat from the White House.

And this week, Democrats in the Senate, holding only a slight majority, are trying to do the same.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader: The language in the bill is something that`s supported by the vast majority of the American people. It`s a very important piece of legislation. This is a civil war. It`s turned into an intractable civil war. The president must change course, and this legislation will allow him to do that.

KWAME HOLMAN: The $122 billion funding bill, most of which is dedicated to Iraq, would require a phased redeployment of U.S. troops within 120 days of enactment and set as an ultimate goal the withdrawal of all forces by March 31st of next year.

Republicans charged Democrats with setting a "date for defeat." Arizona`s John McCain says the U.S. currently is making significant progress in Iraq.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: There`s patrols in Sadr City. There are neighborhoods in Baghdad that are quiet. The sheiks in Anbar province are cooperating.

We are making progress, and we can succeed with this new strategy. To hamstring and to announce that we are leaving is one of the most shameful things I`ve ever seen.

KWAME HOLMAN: This afternoon, Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran led an effort to kill the timetable provisions in the Democrats` bill. His amendment would strike language that "would tie the hands of the commander- in-chief, thus undermining the position of American Armed Forces."

Republicans hoped to overcome the Democrats` slim two-vote majority to approve the amendment. Kansas` Sam Brownback said the timetable language must be withdrawn if the troop funding bill is ever to be approved.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), Kansas: I think it has to come out of the final bill for it to pass. The president will not sign this. It is a bad idea to put a time line in this. It`s a bad idea to do a time line in a war. It just gives your enemies a chance to say, "This is the time at which you`re defeated."

KWAME HOLMAN: With a very close vote expected on Cochran`s amendment, Vice President Cheney arrived at the Capitol to rally Republicans at their weekly luncheon. Heading into that meeting, Nebraska`s Chuck Hagel made it clear he would break with his party and vote to keep the withdrawal language in the bill.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), Nebraska: It is now time for the Congress to get involved and to set conditions and parameters as to our further involvement in Iraq. I think it`s wrong to escalate our military involvement in Iraq.

The Congress now must play a role. The American people expect us to. Constitutionally, we have a responsibility to do that. Now is the time to do that. This is the first bill, the supplemental, that gives us an opportunity to do that.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Democrats had their own dissenters to worry about. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas both have criticized the idea of making a timetable public.

And as Democrats surely expected, they would not be able to count on independent Joe Lieberman to help them defeat the amendment. He consistently has supported the Bush administration`s execution of the war.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), Connecticut: The administration is politically weak. The war is politically unpopular. It has never been easier to advocate a withdrawal. But I cannot support it, because I believe deeply that it would be wrong. Our cause in Iraq remains just and necessary.

KWAME HOLMAN: But number-two Democrat Dick Durbin said the amendment must be defeated, arguing that approving more war funding without conditions would be irresponsible in light of ongoing American sacrifices.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), Illinois: We have spent $500 billion of our treasure in Iraq that could have been spent in the United States for the betterment of our people in our country. We have given to the Iraqi people more than any other nation could ask for in the world.

We have stood behind them. We have deposed their dictator. We`ve given them free governance. We`ve given them a chance at a constitution and free elections. And now it`s time for us to make it clear to the Iraqis: It is their country. It is their war. It is their future.

KWAME HOLMAN: The vote was called just after 5:00 p.m.

SENATOR: The question is on the amendment of the senator from Mississippi.

SENATOR: Thank you. I ask for the yeas and nays, Mr. President.

KWAME HOLMAN: As the roll call unfolded, Vice President Cheney reportedly was nearby, in case he was needed for a tie-breaking vote. He would not have made a difference.

SENATOR: The amendment is not agreed to.

KWAME HOLMAN: The Cochran amendment failed 50-48, leaving in the bill the troop redeployment mandate and suggested withdrawal date.

The $122 billion funding measure still is subject to further amendment, and a final vote is expected within days. It still must be reconciled with the House version before going to the president, whose veto threat remains in effect.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Now, the growing debate over the use of stents. More than one million Americans a year get a stent -- or a tiny metal scaffold - - implanted in a clogged artery in a process known as angioplasty.

But a new study of more than 2,000 patients found that, in non- emergency situations, treatment with stents and drugs was no better than simply using medications alone to prevent heart attacks and death. The study has been stirring up much discussion at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans.

Dr. Steven Nissen is the outgoing president of that organization.

Dr. Bonnie Weiner is the president-elect of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

Did I say that right, Dr. Weiner, angiography?

DR. BONNIE WEINER, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions: Angiography.

JIM LEHRER: Angiography. Well, I was close. All right.

Dr. Nissen, starting with you, is the simple message of this study that there are too many stents being used?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN, American College of Cardiology: I wouldn`t characterize it that way. I think what we learned is some very important lessons about what to expect from stenting and what not to expect.

We know that stents do, in fact, help to relieve chest pain, but they really do not prolong life or reduce the risk of a heart attack in patients that are otherwise stable.

What was really surprising about the study is that both the medically treated patients -- those that got drugs and lifestyle counseling -- had a major reduction in the amount of chest pain they had. And that was almost the same between the group that got the stents and the group that got medicines alone.

This enables us to start with medicines and reserve stents for those people who need them the most.

JIM LEHRER: Dr. Weiner, do you see it the same way?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: I don`t, actually. These are very stable patients and really don`t represent the majority of patients we treat. And despite that, they clearly had a benefit, in terms of reduction in chest pain and quality of life.

And a third of the patients who actually were treated with medicines initially wound up having angioplasty or stents or bypass surgery over the course of the follow-up period.

JIM LEHRER: What about the connection, Dr. Weiner, between stents, medicine, whichever? Usually they`re both, right? It`s not either/or? Am I correct, first of all?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: That`s correct. Medicines really are the underpinning of everything we do, so that it`s definitely not a competition between medicines and angioplasty.

JIM LEHRER: All right. The use of stents and/or medicine, what is the connection, provable thus far, between preventing heart attacks and particularly those that cause death?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: Well, we`ve never said that angioplasty was designed to reduce death or reduce the incidence of heart attacks, in this particular group of patients, who are quite stable. So this really doesn`t come as a surprise to us.

JIM LEHRER: Now, Dr. Nissen, Dr. Weiner has used this term, "stable." Now, a stable patient -- define a stable patient. Who were these 2,000 people that were part of this study?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Yes, stable angina, stable chest pain, are people that have pretty predictable pain. It`s usually with exertion. The same amount of exertion will bring on the pain, you know, from day to day.

You have patients that say, when they walk up that ninth green of the golf course, they get a squeezing in the chest. If they stop and/or take a nitroglycerin pill underneath the tongue, it goes promptly away.

Unstable pain is pain occurring at rest, increasing in frequency or increasing in duration. And I agree with Dr. Weiner that those people, in fact, do need to have emergency procedures, usually a stent, because they have an impending heart attack.

And we know that, in fact, the sooner we get those procedures done, the better. Here we`re talking about people that have chronic, stable pain of a pattern that isn`t changing.

JIM LEHRER: And it`s not leading to a heart attack?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Well, it turns out, of course, that these people do sometimes have heart attacks. There`s an important understanding here that I perhaps think your viewers will be helped by.

The tightest narrowing in the artery may cause chest pain, but heart attacks are caused because there are many plaques elsewhere in the artery. And if one of those other plaques ruptures, a blood clot forms, shuts down blood flow, and causes a heart attack.

You don`t prevent that by putting a stent in the tightest area. In fact, only about one out of every seven heart attacks occurs at the site of a tight blockage in the coronary arteries.

JIM LEHRER: But, Dr. Weiner, you would agree, though, that in this unstable group, people who are apparently about to have a heart attack or on the verge of having one, doing an angioplasty procedure and putting a stent in is a logical and legitimate use, right, of a stent?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: Absolutely. And I certainly would not want patients to have the sense that they shouldn`t go to the hospital when they`re having this unstable pattern of pain or chest discomfort, because it is critical that we get to them as quickly as possible, in order to prevent them from having serious heart damage.

JIM LEHRER: And there`s nothing in this study that changes any of that, correct?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: That`s absolutely correct. And what I think is also important to note is that one of the things that angioplasty does do in these stable patients is it allows them to walk up to the ninth green without having to take a nitroglycerin.

JIM LEHRER: So it`s more about discomfort than it is about preventing a serious malady of some kind, is that correct to say?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: In these patients, that`s absolutely correct. It really is about reducing their symptoms and improving their quality of life.

JIM LEHRER: Do you agree, Dr. Nissen, it`s more about quality of life than it is about long-term health?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Well, I think that what we`re really talking about is, we all agree that the study shows no benefit on the rate of heart attack or the risk of death. And that`s obviously disappointing, because whenever you do a therapy, particularly one that`s relatively expensive, you`d like that to translate into a very important health outcome benefit.

What was also, I think, disappointing on the stent side of the study is that only a few percentage points more patients that got a stent were free of chest pain at the end of one, three, or five years, compared to those that got medicines alone.

For example, 66 percent of patients that got a stent had no more pain after one year, but 58 percent of those that got medicines alone had no pain after one year. So it`s only an 8 percentage point difference. And that`s a lot of procedures to do.

So that`s why I said at the outset, we ought to try medical therapy first. If it works and the pain goes away, everything is fine. Patients are not being put at risk of having a heart attack or dying by trying medicines first. And then, if they need a stent, you can always do a stent.

JIM LEHRER: Dr. Weiner, is there anything he just said that you disagree with?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: In principle, no, but I think it`s important to understand that these patients who are on five or more medicines, at fairly high doses for some of those medicines, and the realities are that many patients don`t tolerate those drugs at those doses over the long period of time.

Patients within a trial like this, because of the kind of attention they get as part of the trial, frequently do much better with compliance with medicines than they do when we`re treating them in our offices.

So many patients would prefer to have something that`s going to take care of their symptoms that, in fact, will do that effectively and reduce the amount of medications they`re taking, which was, in fact, shown in the course of this trial. And some patients, having undergone angioplasty, were taking less medicines.

JIM LEHRER: I see. OK, now, first to you, Dr. Nissen, and then back to Dr. Weiner, on a bottom-line question, is, what difference does it make? I mean, it`s a practical thing. If somebody decides to just do the medicine or take a stent, what difference does it make? What are the pros and cons?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Well, first of all, I think you got this right. It`s all about patient choice. What we now know after this study is that patients can make their own mind up. If they don`t want to have a procedure, they can give medicines a try. If they`re doing well on medicines and tolerating it and their pain goes away, then they haven`t had to undergo a procedure.

JIM LEHRER: But what`s the down side to the stent? Is there a risk factor? Is it a monetary problem? What is the risk?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Well, there are issues here. And recently some risks have emerged about late clotting events with stents. I know there`s been a lot of discussion about that.

You know, you never want to do a procedure in medicine to a patient. You know, no procedure should be done to somebody who doesn`t need it. And it is a costly procedure, and there are risks associated with it.

Now, fortunately, in the modern era, the risks of angioplasty are very small, but we certainly wouldn`t want to do unnecessary procedures.

So, from the point of view of the profession, we want to treat those patients that we can treat with medicines first. And if we can`t treat them with medicines, we can still do a stent and they can get the benefits.

But we should also realize that those benefits are quite modest. Only a few percentage points more patients are going to actually be free of pain with a stent than with medical therapy.

JIM LEHRER: Dr. Weiner, how would you balance these things out, in terms of the pros and the cons of using a stent versus not using a stent?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: Yes, again, I think the question is about patient choice, but clearly it`s a question of what the expectations are. An 80- year-old patient who may not have as much activity and choose to live a different lifestyle than a 40-year-old is likely to make a very different choice, in terms of medicines versus a procedure.

Everything we do in medicine is designed to treat symptoms, for the most part. There are some things that we do that are curative, but at least in heart disease virtually all of them are related to treating symptoms.

And it`s important that we keep that in mind and work with the patients to determine what`s the best decision for them.

JIM LEHRER: But you agree that any time there`s any kind of procedure -- and an angioplasty obviously is a procedure -- there is some risk involved, more so than there would be if you used only medicine, correct?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: Well, I think you need to understand that not all medicines are without risks, either...

JIM LEHRER: Sure, OK.

DR. BONNIE WEINER: ... that medicines are not totally benign. Patients have side effects to medicine. Some of the medicines we`re talking about, although important and critical to the care of our patients, cause liver disease. Some cause renal disease. So none of this is without risk. And I don`t think you can assume that medical therapy is without risk, as well.

JIM LEHRER: What about the cost differences?

DR. BONNIE WEINER: You know, these are not inexpensive medicines. I don`t think we know of all of the cost information related to this particular population of patients and what those benefits are, but neither are inexpensive.

JIM LEHRER: OK. But both of you are saying there`s a choice to be made and everybody should be very careful and make their own choice, is that right, Dr. Nissen?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Well, let me just say that it`s important to understand that both of these groups got medicines, and very aggressive medicines, so it`s not medicines versus surgery. It`s medicines for everybody and angioplasty in others.

I think there is perhaps one other point that needs to be made that`s very important, and that is that bypass surgery has been shown in certain individuals to reduce the risk of death.

And I think, as a result of this study, there`s going to be a lot more discussion that people with several blockages in the coronaries might be better off having a bypass rather than having two or three stents put in their coronaries.

JIM LEHRER: Now that`s a whole other subject, but thank you both very much.

DR. STEVEN NISSEN: Thank you.

JIM LEHRER: Thank you.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Still coming tonight: the views of editorial page editors on the U.S. attorneys dispute; and one woman`s mission to help victims of sexual violence.

Yesterday, the United Nations launched a campaign to fight human trafficking. Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television reports on efforts to stop forced prostitution in southern India. A version of this story aired on the PBS program "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly."

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She`s stands barely taller than these children, but to them Dr. Sunitha Krishnan is a towering figure, big sister, mother, and school principal rolled into one.

Their faces betray few outward signs of the trauma these children have endured. Every child at this boarding school Krishnan founded is a victim of rape or incest. All are HIV-positive as a result of their assaults.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN, Co-Founder, Prajwala: I don`t know what their future is. I know what their present would be. And it`s, for me, one day at a time right now. And my effort is to see that their smiles are restored every day and I can sustain their smiles.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But beneath her smile lies a deep anger that propels Krishnan, anger at what she sees as public indifference about sexual violence inflicted on children and young women, anger that took root when, as a teenaged social activist, she was gang-raped.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: I think the rape, per se, was not so much of an issue for me. I don`t know. For some reason, I was never traumatized by that, the fact that I was raped.

But what happened after that made me think the way my family treated me, the way the world treated me, the way people around me treated me. The sense that thousands and millions of children and young people are being sexually violated. And there`s this huge silence about it around me, angers me. This huge normalization of that angers me.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: About half these children came from the commercial sex districts. It`s only one part of an organization Krishnan started called Prajwala, which means eternal flame. It`s dedicated to removing, she says rescuing, women from prostitution, which she calls the most pervasive form of sexual violence.

It begins with helping their children so they don`t follow in their mother`s footsteps. In 1995, she started a school with five kids. Today, Prajwala runs 17 schools with 5,000 children across the city of Hyderabad.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: If this facility was not here today, perhaps most of the girl children would be inducted in prostitution.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Even at this stage?

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: I would say eight or nine. The older children that you saw on the other floor are children who would have been easily procured for prostitution and most of the boys, right from the age of six or seven, perhaps would be pimping for their mothers.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: She says about two million people are trafficked every year within India or from neighboring countries. Most are inducted into the sex trade in big cities and tourist areas.

Prajwala has developed a network of informants in the sex industry to help conduct brothel raids, captured here in the group`s own hidden camera footage. Most of the young women rescued are already veterans of the trade. Many are actually very reluctant to leave.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: There`s so much desensitization that has happened, so much normalization of exploitation that has happened, so much internalization of trauma that has happened. Most of the time, you know, they develop some very close attachments, and they will any day go back. Some of them would any day go back to their pimps or procurer than rather be with us.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Many do go back to the life they know, but Prajwala has managed to coax about 1,500 women out of prostitution. Peer counselors, like 20-year-old Malini, play a critical role.

MALINI, Peer Counselor (through translator): When we get the girls, they cry a lot. I ask why, and I tell them my own story, that this is what happened to me and I don`t want the same to happen to you.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Malini`s story is typical. There was abuse, poverty and despair in her home. A seemingly helpful adult friend offered her work in the big city. Instead, she was sold to a brothel.

The price the brothel paid for her then became the amount she`d have to earn to buy her freedom. The accounting was elastic and entirely dictated by pimps or madams, as she found out months into her servitude.

MALINI (through translator): One day they told me, "There`s a small balance, and when you pay it off you`ll be free to go." I asked how much. They said 200,000 rupees. I got frightened. I said, "Why 200,000? I`ve been here so many months, and you`ve earned so much money from me." They just beat me, so I ran away.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But running to the police in a city she didn`t know, she encountered only more violence.

MALINI (through translator): When we asked the police, "Why are you hitting us?" they said, "Because you do this immoral work." And I said, "Well, why are you catching us? You should go after our house madams, not us." But they just beat us some more.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Official corruption has decreased in recent years, and Prajwala`s rescue raids are now conducted with the police. At least part of this change is driven by the United States.

The U.S. Justice Department publishes an annual TIP, or Trafficking in Persons report. Countries that show no improvement in cracking down run the risk of some trade sanctions.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: At one level, it irritates me to no end that my country would require somebody else from outside to tell them that this is a problem. That`s not the right way to go about it.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: At the same time, she`s not shy in telling the U.S. and others what to do. Twenty-five percent of sex tourists in Asia are American, she says.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: So one needs to ask questions in America, also, about why American people want small children to have sex with and that, if they don`t get it in their own countries, they seek it out in countries like Sri Lanka and India and Philippines. You`re about imposing sanctions on India, but have you ever thought about imposing sanctions on your own country?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Krishnan says Washington has laws against sexual predators, even those who offend abroad, but doesn`t enforce them enough. In India, her advocacy has led to stronger laws to counter trafficking and protect victims.

For those who are rescued by Prajwala, the first stop is this transition shelter.

PRAJWALA WORKER (through translator): You`re not old yet, and at your age girls should remember a few important things: the way you dress, your behavior. How should that be? It should be acceptable to others. For example, the way you walk.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It will take months, with lectures and skits, to unlearn the behavior and demeanor they`ve acquired over the years.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: Hey girl, where are you going? Come here. How much do you want?

First, tell me why did all of this happen?

GIRL (through translator): If a girl`s good looking, people will make comments like that.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN (through translator): Do you think this happens to any woman?

GIRL (through translator): No. It`s because of the way we`re dressed. That`s why they`re saying that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Young women, like 19-year-old Abbas Bee, are trained in traditional life skills and quite untraditional occupational ones. The goal is to find good-paying jobs, jobs rarely held by women.

Prajwala employs many of the women in printing and metal workshops it has started, enterprises that help pay for its works, along with grants from UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, and others.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: We have trained young girls as welders, as carpenters, as printers, as bookbinders, as screen printers, as taxi drivers and auto drivers. We also train them as housekeepers to work in hotels and hospitals and things like that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Their earnings make women like Abbas more eligible as brides, even though she, like perhaps 25 percent of women here, is HIV-positive.

ABBAS BEE (through translator): I want to get married to a very kindhearted man, and definitely I want an HIV-positive man, because I don`t want to ruin somebody`s life. He should be caring. If he is sick, I will take care of him. If I`m sick, he`ll take care of me.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: If she does get married, her wedding, like many others, will happen at Prajwala.

DR. SUNITHA KRISHNAN: At any given point of time, there is somebody pregnant, somebody delivering or somebody -- something`s happening. So from birth to death, birth to death, we are the only linkage.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It`s a daunting parental responsibility for the 34-year-old Krishnan, but not the only hazard in a job that`s taking on a lucrative organized prostitution industry. At last count, she`s been beaten up 14 times since starting her organization.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, editorial page views on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Jeffrey Brown has our Media Unit look.

JEFFREY BROWN: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is defending himself against allegations that he misled Congress and the public about his involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

An internal Justice Department e-mail, released Friday night, shows he attended a meeting last November, 10 days before the firings. The e-mail seemed to contradict his earlier denial of involvement in the dismissals.

The attorney general was interviewed last night on NBC.

ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. Attorney General: What I meant was that I had not been involved, was not involved in the deliberations over whether or not United States attorneys should resign. I don`t recall being involved. Let me be more precise, because I now know that, with respect to this particular topic, people parse carefully the words that I use.

JEFFREY BROWN: In recent days, several influential Republican senators have questioned Gonzales` ability to continue in his post.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), Pennsylvania: If we find he has not been candid and truthful, that`s a very compelling reason for him not to stay on.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, Anchor, "This Week": Do you think he can still serve effectively as attorney general?

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), Nebraska: Well, I do not. And I think the president is going to have to make a tough choice here.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: He`s got support with me. I support the attorney general.

JEFFREY BROWN: The president has stood by his attorney general, a long-time confidante and friend. Mr. Bush has, in turn, blasted congressional Democrats for rejecting a proposal that key White House aides, Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers in particular, talk to members behind closed doors without a transcript and not under oath.

GEORGE W. BUSH: My concern is they would rather be involved with, you know, partisanship. Maybe this is an opportunity to score political points.

JEFFREY BROWN: Despite the president`s stance, the Judiciary Committees in both houses of Congress voted last week to authorize subpoenas to White House aides, though they have yet to be formerly issued.

And last night, the House followed an earlier Senate action and voted to strip the attorney general`s office of the power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.

Also yesterday, Monica Goodling, an aide to Mr. Gonzales, said she would invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify before Congress.

As for public opinion, a poll out today from USA Today and Gallup shows that, by more than 3 to 1, those surveyed said that Congress should investigate White House involvement in the firings. And 68 percent believe subpoenas should be issued for White House officials in order to compel testimony.

But while supportive of the inquiries overall, 59 percent of those polled said Democrats are investigating to gain political advantage, while just half that number believe they are motivated by real ethical concerns.

And for more public opinion on this, we turn to four editorial page editors: Robert Kittle of the San Diego Union Tribune; James Gibbons of the Houston Chronicle; Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and Nolan Finley of the Detroit News.

Well, Bob Kittle, starting with you, one of the prosecutors involved, Carol Lam, comes from your area. So did that make it a big story out there?

BOB KITTLE, San Diego Union-Tribune: Jeffrey, it`s been a very big story now for weeks in San Diego, because Carol Lam was very highly respected and, in nearly all cases, the law enforcement community felt that she was unjustly fired, fired for political reasons.

And some, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, have raised the possibility that she was fired because of her aggressive investigations of Republicans in Congress. So it`s been a very big story here.

JEFFREY BROWN: How about James Gibbons in Houston? You`re in a city where people know the Bush family. They know the attorney general well. How has it played out there?

JAMES GIBBONS, Houston Chronicle: Many Houstonians feel great kinship with the Bush family. And they`ve known the president and his parents for years. And they`re reluctant to condemn the administration outright.

However, the Houston Chronicle editorial last Friday pointed out that the attorney general, by the misrepresentations and contradictions, has badly served the president.

JEFFREY BROWN: Nolan Finley, you wrote an editorial that said, "The flap about the Bush administration`s firing of eight U.S. attorneys is overblown." So I guess you think there`s been too much coverage of this as a story?

NOLAN FINLEY, Detroit News: Well, when Lee Iacocca asked Henry Ford II why he was being fired as CEO of Ford Motor Company, and Ford said, "Because I just don`t like you," and that`s all that should have been said in this case.

These were at-will employees that could be fired without cause. And why on Earth Gonzales talked himself into such a mess, I still can`t figure out.

But, really, it hasn`t resonated in our market. I mean, we`ve got suburban housewives being chopped up by their husbands. It hasn`t knocked that off of page one. I think so far it`s been a curiosity here more than a real issue.

JEFFREY BROWN: And, Cynthia Tucker, a curiosity in Atlanta or a real issue?

CYNTHIA TUCKER, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: There is some interest in this story here, perhaps not as much as there was in the controversy over Walter Reed, but we`ve had a lot of letters from readers on both sides, although, unlike the Walter Reed controversy, this one seems to be breaking more along partisan lines.

Those who had been staunch supporters of President Bush see this as a tempest in a teapot. And many who have tended to lean toward Democrats see this as a real scandal involving very genuine ethical issues.

And that`s a point of view the Atlanta Journal-Constitution takes, by the way. We have called for the attorney general`s resignation.

JEFFREY BROWN: You`ve called for the resignation already?

CYNTHIA TUCKER: Yes, we have.

JEFFREY BROWN: Bob Kittle, you have written critically, I guess, about this. Tell us a little bit about -- well, you started to tell us about why, because of the local connection with the prosecutor. But I also noticed that you have not called for the resignation yet. Why not?

BOB KITTLE: Well, Jeffrey, we`re waiting for all of the facts to come in. I mean, editorial boards are often very quick to call for an official`s resignation.

We`ve been harshly critical of the attorney general. And we have basically concluded that, certainly, these prosecutors were fired for political reasons, not for performance reasons. But we`re still waiting for all of the facts before we make a judgment on whether the attorney general should leave.

The real question today, though, is not whether we think he should leave, but whether he can restore his own credibility. His credibility has been severely undermined. His integrity now is being questioned because of inconsistencies in what he has said.

So the real question about whether he should go or stay, I think, is whether he can restore his own credibility. And I think that`s going to be almost impossible for him to do.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, staying with you, though, what are you looking for? What is it that will convince you one way or the other on whether he can do that?

BOB KITTLE: Well, if we see convincingly -- and in testimony later in the week, we may see -- that the attorney general was directly involved in orchestrating the firings of some of these U.S. attorneys, in particular Carol Lam in San Diego, for either political reasons or because she was expanding her investigation of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, certainly then the firing is inexcusable.

And we have focused very much on Carol Lam, so we`re looking to see what all the facts show in that case.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, James Gibbons, you mentioned that you have already written an editorial raising some of the criticisms of Alberto Gonzales, but I think you, too, have not yet called for a resignation. What is it that you are waiting for? What do you want to see next?

JAMES GIBBONS: Perhaps I can just recall two experiences that shed some light on how Mr. Gonzales found himself in this position in the first place.

You know, what some people may not recall is that he served with great distinction on the Texas Supreme Court after being appointed by then- Governor Bush. And he famously castigated a fellow conservative justice, Priscilla Owen, for judicial activism in a case involving abortion and parental notification.

However, Mr. Gonzales has just spent much of his career working for the Bush family. And at a luncheon when he was White House counsel, he recalled how he`d grown up in the barrio and worked his way through Rice University and Harvard Law.

And he said this was -- you know, what a great country this is, that someone from his modest background can grow up to work for a famous family like the Bushes.

And I think he simply cannot delineate the broad public interest from, you know, his client`s interest. And that`s what has prevented him from serving effectively as an attorney general. If he can change, then all for the good.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Nolan Finley, are you suggesting that that`s precisely what he should be doing, in a sense, serving his client?

NOLAN FINLEY: Well, we don`t think that Gonzales should be dismissed or resign for firing these prosecutors. He certainly had a right to do so. If it turns out that he lied under oath before Congress, I mean, that`s a whole different ballgame.

I think the communication of the firings is more of an issue than the firings themselves. And I`m concerned that Congress is trying to establish a new standard for the dismissal of political appointees.

They can be fired for political reasons. They can be fired without cause. And that`s always been the case.

When Jimmy Carter came into Detroit and fired the U.S. attorney for poking into Coleman Young`s closets, there was no investigation, no one challenged the reasons. That`s a presidential power, presidential authority that Congress ought to be careful about messing with just because they`re dealing with an unpopular and weak president.

JEFFREY BROWN: Cynthia, do you want to jump in and respond to that one? I take you see it differently.

CYNTHIA TUCKER: I do see it differently. I mean, it is absolutely true that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. They are political appointees.

But it is also true that you can come awfully close to obstruction of justice if you fire a U.S. attorney because you believe he`s prosecuting somebody you don`t want prosecuted or he is refusing to prosecute someone you do want prosecuted.

The attorney general is the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the country. The Justice Department represents the law, the tradition of the law, applied fairly across the board, without regard to gender, without regard to race, and certainly without regard to political ideology.

And so, if these U.S. attorneys have been fired or at least some of them have been fired because they were investigating people the president didn`t want investigated, then that is a very serious matter indeed and, as I said, may border on obstruction of justice.

JEFFREY BROWN: Bob Kittle, let me broaden out just a little bit and see how the Washington political moment here looks to you, to you all. This case comes after the Scooter Libby trial. It comes after the Walter Reed stories. There`s the fight in Congress now over funding the war, all this after an election, of course, last year.

Generally speaking, how do things look to you now?

BOB KITTLE: Well, I think, just speaking for myself and not trying to speak for how people in San Diego would view it, I think, you know, in my view, there`s a lot of disillusionment with this administration, for all of the reasons that you cited, the war being the principal one.

The war is the reason that Congress changed hands. And the president`s handling of the war, I think, colors everything else.

But there`s a broader perception now, and this has happened with other administrations in the closing couple of years, that the American people are almost ready to move on. They`re ready to get rid of this administration and move on to the next one.

And there`s a lot of disillusionment with the seeming ineptitude of the Bush administration on a number of matters. And I think it`s going to be very difficult for the president to have a successful final two years in office because of that and because of the current scandal with the Justice Department.

JEFFREY BROWN: Nolan Finley, what do you think? Is there a chance over the next two years for the president to take some initiatives and do some things?

NOLAN FINLEY: I think it will be difficult. I think you`re seeing an administration that has not been able to find its feet, particularly in this last year, year-and-a-half.

Taken as a stand-alone issue, this wouldn`t resonate, I don`t think, with voters. But when you add it to all of the other missteps and miscommunications, it`s just a confirmation of why people are dissatisfied, why they don`t trust the president, and why they`re ready to move on.

JEFFREY BROWN: James Gibbons, what do you think? Is it just -- we`re talking about the president here -- but is it a focus on both parties at this point? Or is it really focused on the administration?

JAMES GIBBONS: Well, the administration has the greatest challenge, and I think it`s because of the continued involvement in the war.

The Houston Chronicle, although it has a centrist editorial policy and resides in a conservative town, reprinted an editorial that we had written before the invasion, listing all the reasons why it shouldn`t go ahead.

And one of those was, you know, would leave foreign policy in disarray and divert the nation`s resources to lesser objectives. Having done that, there`s no way out of it at this point for the president.

JEFFREY BROWN: Cynthia, Mr. Gibbons just mentioned the war again. Just as the last election just seems to be there all the time, the war, the war, the war. Is that still what`s floating behind all of these stories that come into the news?

CYNTHIA TUCKER: I think that the war is responsible for so many -- the disillusionment among so many Republicans and former Bush supporters. And that`s true here even in Georgia, which is a very red state.

The last poll that I saw showed that the president`s approval rating was less than 50 percent here. And that`s mostly because of the war. And because of that dissatisfaction or disillusionment, all of these other things just add a steady drumbeat that seems to indicate incompetence, or distortions, or inability to tell the truth.

That has just turned a lot of people off. So I think that there are a lot of people who were former Bush supporters who are now also ready for this presidency to end.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Cynthia Tucker, Bob Kittle, James Gibbons and Nolan Finley, thanks all very much.

JAMES GIBBONS: Thank you.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: And, again, the major developments of this day.

The Senate voted 50-48 to keep an Iraq pullout deadline in a war funding bill. It calls for combat troops to leave by April of 2008.

Bombings in Iraq killed more than 60 Iraqis and wounded more than 100.

An American soldier and a private contractor died in a rocket attack in Baghdad`s Green Zone.

And White House officials announced Press Secretary Tony Snow`s cancer has recurred. They said it spread to his liver.

Tonight`s edition of "Frontline World" is the final installment in the "News War" series. Its focus: global media, the role of Arab news outlets, and the dangers journalists face reporting their stories. Please check your local PBS listing for the time.

We`ll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I`m Jim Lehrer. Thank you, and good night.