Word: middlemen
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TIME traced one secret multimillion-dollar sale of osmium 187, a by-product of nuclear reactors that is not weapons related but is an extremely expensive metal with applications in nuclear-energy production. The middlemen in the deal included a former party official and a member of the KGB, who acquired the element worth $40,000 a gram from the factory and sold it to a Swedish company for $70,000 -- though it is not clear whether the profits went into private pockets or the depleted coffers...
...buyers take the most profitable -- and dangerous -- route of traveling directly to the mining cities to find a contact and cut a deal without middlemen. After weeks of travel, we knew how risky that could be, but we had also discovered that the KGB was running most of the clandestine trade to generate hard currency to help support the secret-police agency. "The KGB has no real mission anymore. Its budget has been slashed, and Yeltsin has signaled a purge is on the way," explained a Western intelligence source. "But conservatives in the defense establishment believe...
...easy animal to kill. Many cats in the Ranthambhore park have died from poison that villagers sprinkled on animals that the tigers had killed and temporarily left on the ground. Other cats have fallen victim to the hunters of the Mogiya tribes, who pack high- powered rifles and shotguns. Middlemen pay them $100 to $300 per animal (a huge amount in an area where an average wage...
...weak." In Malanje government employees steal and sell medical supplies intended for the hospital. Bandits have been making off with an estimated third of the U.N.'s food aid as soon as it hits the ports. There is profiteering in the refugee camps by local chiefs appointed as middlemen in the food-distribution chain. "Given the hardships of everyday life here, they don't see anything wrong with what they are doing," says a relief official...
...post-channel world, the traditional broadcast networks (and cable networks too) could, if they're not careful, start to look like superfluous middlemen. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox might want to indicate combination of functions simply turn into producer distributors with a familiar brand name. (Partly in anticipation of that day, the networks are fighting to be freed from government regulations that have prevented them from owning more than a small portion of the programs they air. They won a victory last week when the Federal Communications Commission significantly relaxed those restrictions.) Predicts W. Russell Neuman, author of The Future...