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Permissions in 1.2.1 are there to set on a topic level, who can approve articles, who can submit articles and who can view articles.
Setting permissions on a per-article level is something I am against in general due to performance concerns - and also because I personally don't see why one should set permissions on articles.
If you want a more granular permission model, you could take a look at
AMS where you can have "Audiences" and set permissions on that level, too.
AMS will be out in a public release by the end of November, but is available to you immediately, if you donate $10 or more to the project.
