One chapter of the Center’s 2002 report Making a Killing: The Business of War was devoted to Arcadi Gaydamak, whom we described as “one of the most extraordinary operators in world business.” In 1993 and 1994 he and his French business partner, Pierre Falcone, arranged for $633 million in arms to be shipped from Russia and other Eastern European countries to the government of Angola, then engaged in a civil war. The United Nations had imposed an arms embargo on Angola, and France maintained that Falcone’s company did not have government authorization for the sales.

A major libertarian political activist has sent thousands of letters to liberal funders threatening to expose them in their local communities, Ben Smith of The Politico reported Wednesday. The letters warn, "Should any of these organizations be found to be engaged in illegal or questionable activity, it is our intent to publicize your involvement with those activities." What is not mentioned is that the originators of the letter, Howard Rich and his tax-exempt political group Americans for Limited Government, don't actually release the names of their own donors and have a history of questionable activities.

On the night of September 10, low-flying planes blanketed parts of Nassau County, New York, in a fine mist of Scourge, a mosquito-killing pesticide containing the pyrethroid resmethrin. It was the first time in a decade that concerns over West Nile virus prompted the county to conduct aerial spraying. The problem, though, as any good horror movie fan will tell you, is that the treatment may present more problems than the virus itself.