In the Garden of Armageddon
By Kurt Pitzer
When the mastermind of Saddam’s nuclear program tried to turn himself in to U.S. troops, they a) flew him out of the country and debriefed him, b) put him in prison, or c) told him to go away.

A Guilty Man
By Vince Beiser
The father of lethal injection would like to atone

The Ricochet
By Greg Sargent
Twelve years after a madman gunned down their law office colleagues, these prominent attorneys have joined with the mayor of New York to confront the gun trade.
American firepower by the numbers

Accounting Coup
By Julia Whitty
For 118 years, the U.S. government has been ripping off Indians whose private lands it holds in trust. Now Eloise Cobell wants the money back.

Scorched Earth 
Photographs by Olivier Jobard/Sipa
Text by Monika Bauerlein
In Darfur, the survivors of genocide at the hands of the janjaweed militias are coralled in desperate refugee camps — which is just how the Sudanese government likes it.

The Fall of a True Believer 
By Barry Yeoman
Jack Abramoff started off as a crusader cloaked in idealism. How did he become a symbol of greed and corruption?

Editor’s Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk

OUTFRONT
Dragon Tales; Mother Jones’ annual campus activism roundup; D.C.’s dream believers; the censorship of Wilbert Rideau; token funds for subway terror; Capitol Hill insider trading; dining with dictators; and don’t sweat the Supreme Court (really!).
Also: Why did the U.S. airlift 363 tons of cash to Iraq?

The Diddly Awards

Courting Failure

EXHIBIT
Sink or Swim
How can seniors have their golden years when no green’s been set aside? The disappearing benefits game.

SIGNS ALONG THE ROAD
Memory’s Revenge
By Joann Wypijewski
The Pentagon’s army of recruiters is facing an unexpected enemy — veterans telling kids “don’t go.”

MEDIA JONES
How the white middle class came to be white and middle class; Ehrenreich goes undercover to get a job; how we all came to be damned; losing weight on Mickey D’s; plus more book and music reviews

RE:ACTION
Resources for getting involved

P.S.
Cartoon by Barry Blitt