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.

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FEATURES

A Guilty Man

The father of lethal injection would like to atone

The Ricochet

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

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 

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 
Jack Abramoff started off as a crusader cloaked in idealism. How did he become a symbol of greed and corruption?

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DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk


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


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

The Pentagon’s army of recruiters is facing an unexpected enemy — veterans telling kids “don’t go.”


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


Resources for getting involved


Cover illustration by Tomer Hanuka