In the Garden of Armageddon
Dr. Mahdi Obeidi and Kurt Pitzer offer a glimpse
into Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program in The
Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam’s Nuclear
Mastermind (John Wiley & Sons, 2004).
For an insider account written by an Iraqi scientist
now accused of hyping the wmd threat, see Khidhir
Hamza’s Saddam’s Bombmaker:
The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear
and Biological Weapons Agenda (Scribner,
2000). Don’t let its name scare you off: The
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists provides
accessible information on the state of the world’s
nukes. You can help Baghdad University’s
science programs get back on their feet by donating
desperately needed equipment and publications;
their wish list is on the website of the British
newspaper the Guardian.

The Ricochet
The Million Mom March is opposing proposed
federal legislation that would protect the gun
industry from liability suits; add your name to
its petition at millionmommarch.org.
The Legal Community Against Violence provides
free legal advice to advocates and community leaders
looking for ways to curb gun crime. The Brady
Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which is assisting
the New York City lawsuit, collects information
about past and current cases against the industry.
Find links to groups fighting gun violence in your
area at the Boston University School of Public
Health’s jointogether.org.
Carol X. Vinzant’s Lawyers, Guns and Money:
One Man’s Battle With the Gun Industry
(Palgrave Macmillon, 2005) follows an attorney
who survived the 1993 Long Island Railroad shooting
and is now waging his own legal crusade against
gun makers.

Accounting Coup
Stay up to date on the latest twists and turns
in Cobell v. Norton at Elouise Cobell’s
offcial website, indiantrust.com.
SmartMoney.com‘s special report “Fraud
in New Mexico” exposes how energy companies
paid suspiciously low rents for Navajo lands. Stuart
Banner explores Indians’ transformation from landowners
to occupants in How the Indians Lost Their
Land(Harvard University Press, 2005).
The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern
Plains(University of Oklahoma Press, 1983)
remains one of the best sources on Blackfeet history
and culture short of visiting the rez.

Scorched Earth
In Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide
(Cornell University Press, 2005), French journalist
Gérard Prunier looks at the crisis’ origins and
why so little has been done to stop it. The International
Crisis Group provides current information on
the situation. You can donate to relief efforts
through the Save Darfur Coalition. A campaign
to get institutional investors to pull out of Sudan
is picking up steam; there’s more info at DivestSudan.org.
Learn more about activist Nate Wright’s
campaign to pressure the United States to help
end the killing at standarfur.org.

The Fall of a True Believer
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
traces the connections between disgraced lobbyist
Jack Abramoff and Capitol Hill’s elite at jackinthe
house.org. For more of Mother Jones’
recent coverage of Abramoff’s fellow Republican
revolutionaries, see Peter Stone’s “Ralph Reed’s
Other Cheek” (November/December 2004) and Michael
Scherer’s proile of Grover Norquist, “The Soul
of the New Machine” (January/February 2004).

On a Dream and a Prayer
The Cause outlines its plans for pro-life
prayer “sieges” and its dreams about the “burning
bush from Texas” rolling back abortion rights at
thecauseusa.com. On the other end of the
political spectrum, pro-choice activists can make
common cause through the multi-faith Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

Freedom = Silence
The Farm (A&E Entertainment), an
Oscar-nominated documentary about Angola prison
coproduced by Wilbert Rideau, is available on video.
Subscribe to The Angolite, the critically
acclaimed inmate magazine formerly edited by Rideau,
by mailing $20 to The Angolite, c/o Cashier’s Office,
Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, LA 70712.

Signs Along the Road
Would-be warriors can find eye-opening fact sheets
about the reality of being all you can be at the
American Friends Service Committee’s website,
afsc.org. David Zeiger’s documentary on
the Vietnam-era GI rebellion, Sir! No Sir!
(Displaced Films), is scheduled for release
later this year. David Goodman looked at new federal
rules making it easier for recruiters to target
high school students in his article “No Child
Unrecruited” in the November/December 2002
issue of Mother Jones; read about the newest
generation of antiwar activists in uniform in his
story “Breaking Ranks” in the November/December
2004 issue.

A Guilty Man
The Death Penalty Information Center’s Execution
Database keeps track of the former residents of
America’s death rows at deathpenaltyinfo.org.
The Innocence Project and the Center
for Wrongful Convictions have successfully
saved more than 100 innocent people from execution.