⛓️America's Most Dangerous Prisoner

Inside one of Guantánamo Bay's darkest secrets.

October 14, 2024

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Hi 👋 

We’re back again with another reading list of some of the best longform journalism across the internet ✨

Just came off of an extremely hectic week, made worse by this crazy stiff neck (yes, until now) and the absolutely atrocious, truly depressing news cycle.

I’m incredibly thankful to my 2010 self for not only discovering and embracing the longform genre, but also for leaving me with a massive list of articles to read and websites to visit if I ever needed to find more stories. It’s a mess, sure—scattered bookmarks, unlabeled folders, post-it notes that I’ve stashed away in different notebooks—but it well and truly kept me sane this past week.

All of that to say: I hope you like old stories, because that’s most of what you’re getting this week!

Some choice picks:

Also: I’ve hit a wall in trying to grow the newsletter, and I need your help. Aside from TLR, where else do you get your longform recommendations? And what social media platforms do you frequent?

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As with last week, please let me know what you think of the list this week by voting in the poll below.

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

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Story in Spotlight

Guantánamo’s Darkest Secret

The U.S. military prison’s leadership considered Mohamedou Salahi to be its highest-value detainee. But his guard suspected otherwise.

The U.S.’s War on Terror is one of the (if not the) messiest military operations in history.

So many blunders, so many civilian deaths, and, as it would turn out, for very little payoff. America got its revenge, sure. And it eventually ended in the death of Osama Bin Laden. But the costs were much too steep. So much blood was spilled, and the operation threw the entire Arab world into even more grave disarray, plunging the region into chaos.

All the while, officials in charge were telling us lies. Sugarcoating (for lack of a stronger word) the entire situation to make it seem like all was well. Like we were the good guys and that we were winning. And, most egregiously of all, that we were doing it all for the good of the world. For human rights. That we had been steadfastly following the rules of war and that we were honorable warriors.

All of it, we now know, was false.

This story is a perfect example of peeling back just a bit of the government’s mistruths, and the horror and shock of finding out what was really going on.

Much of the focus of this story is centered on Guantánamo Bay, which is apt, because it’s a major epicenter of the U.S. government’s most horrific human rights violations that have largely been kept out of the public consciousness.

In this case, the story follows a Gitmo prisoner who is allegedly one of the most dangerous men on the planet—a high-ranking official of Al Qaeda with intimate knowledge of the group’s most ghastly crimes and tight connections with its leadership. Except that, as we find out, he’s not. He’s none of those.

He was just a normal, upwardly mobile person in Mauritania. And it just so happened that, as with any society, communities are complex. People know people, and people would rather host other people, rebels or otherwise, to keep the harmony, rather than take a hardline stance against any particular group. Plus, as in any type of conflict, alliances are complicated. No matter how myopically America wants to view it.

The result is that the U.S. imprisoned and tortured an essentially innocent man. For those who are more motivated by economics, this also means that taxpayers absorbed millions in costs to keep the man imprisoned. In return, the military received mostly coerced false intel. That can’t be a fair trade, right?

I don’t want to drone on for too long here, but I just want to point out that the writer of this masterpiece is Ben Taub. He has one of the most spectacular portfolios in the industry (and he’s only a few years older than I am, so there goes my self-esteem.) You definitely need to read this.

Very, very long. But also an incredible read and a very important story. I’d set aside 1 hour and 30 minutes for this.

The Longform List

This is an absolutely beautiful story. And I know I come off as a curmudgeon (the trademark-pending TLR Infuriating Story of the Week doesn’t help) but I actually have the softest of spots for feel-good stories. No easier way to make me cry than by showing me someone who triumphs after a series of difficult challenges.

And this one hit that spot for me. Unfortunately, I was outdoors when I read this, so I was robbed of a nice cry session, but that doesn’t take away from just how nice and heartwarming this story is, with just the perfect amount of a painful pinch. The only thing that stopped me from making this our feature story this week is that it’s relatively short.

Not long at all. And a really good reading experience. Heavily recommend to carve out 20 or so minutes this week to read this.  

I am ashamed to admit that even after many, many years of longform reading, I found myself unfamiliar with the force of nature that is William Langewiesche.

By all indications, this story shouldn’t be up my alley at all. Sure, it’s essentially about a massive but mostly unheard-of aviation tragedy (which itself sounds like a compelling premise), but I find aviation in general to be… bland. Or at the very least, inaccessible for me. All the airplane jargon and technical details just shut my brain off instantly.

But William is a masterful writer. His prose is so unique but still very easy to ride with. His sentences are short and punchy, full of really interesting verbs that make even the heaviest nouns move. He builds tension so effectively and he structures his sections in a way that makes the story more intriguing. His tone isn’t too formal as to be stiff, but also no too informal to sound unpolished. Absolutely impressive work here.

Very, very long. But as I said, the writing is top-notch and made what is supposed to be a bland topic seem fun for me. I took 1 hour to read through this.

For the True Crime junkies out there, this one will make for an incredible addition to your reading list.

The actual crime itself is nothing short of sensational—heinous and, crucially, sloppy. That makes the ensuing police investigation and judicial proceedings even much of a mess. And extra frustrating.

And if you’ve been having some misgivings about True Crime as a genre—particularly with how it commodifies suffering and warps it into entertainment—then this might have a pleasant surprise for you. Partway through, the story shifts its focus to the victim’s brother, who continues to seek justice. And I know that sounds cliché, but trust me: in this story, it’s not.

Long, but not difficult to read. I’d give it 40 minutes ish.

As someone who lives in what historian Daniel Immerwahr accurately calls the hidden empire of the U.S., this story resonated really, really powerfully with me.

I’m lucky, though, because the recent exploits of the empire haven’t been focused on the country where I am. So while I watch the news unfold with unbridled horror, I at least can keep a safe distance. Meanwhile, those at the center of it all—Palestine, Lebanon—are experiencing this discouse play out in the deadliest of ways.

And I have a bone to pick with the Media. As the writer argues here, we play such a massive role in determining how the world reacts to the violence of Israel and Russia and other ascendant empires. I think how we’re acting now (okay, not all of us but mostly those at the top, those most visible) does a dangerous disservice to our role in democracy, and really only serves to undermine everyone’s trust in us.

Directly from the piece:

Many writers and news organizations of the same mainstream media class which have treated migrants like an invasive species are openly mulling pagers-as-bombs, questioning people for why they are still using pagers, or even praising the technological innovation of the terror campaign.

Not too long. But honestly, it was a heavy read for me. I took 45 minutes.

Lowkey, Afar magazine has some very impressive longform travel journalism. And unlike 90% of the genre, Afar’s stories go much deeper. This one is a perfect example.

Far from being a tourist attraction, Antarctica in the popular mind is more of an icy wasteland, relegated only to the realm of scientific research or wealthy daredevils with too much money and time on their hands. But this story twists that and positions Antarctica as a frontier in this new political movement for liberty—the establishment of micronations, or tiny parcels of land that have their own claim of sovereignty.

Of course, this is as logistically fraught as it sounds. And those who are its proponents still tend to be rich and bored. But, as the story argues, the movement seems to have found some concrete political puropse, with the main character leveraging his new country to forward conservation in Antarctica.

Pretty long, and can honestly feel dragging in some spots, but still a very compelling story about a fringe movement that could potentially gather some steam. Maybe allot 45 minutes at least?

For people in the U.S., I imagine this would be a pretty infuriating read.

After all, your government uses your tax dollars to fund a private, exclusive social network that engages mostly in demolition jobs against environmental activists. That can’t be a prudent use of money, right?

And it’s not like the USDA denies it, too. The investigation showed that many of its personnel, including some senior officials, were part of this pesticide industry forum. There has to be some conflicts of interest there. And it raises so many questions about just how close the DA—and the government more broadly—is to the industry, and whose interests it actually serves.

Not too long, especially if you’re a Rage Reader. I finished this in 30 minutes, distractions included. 

This is another True Crime story that isn’t so egregiously predatory when it comes to victims’ suffering.

Instead, it makes a spectacle out of the legal proceedings—and the sometimes crazy lengths that people will go to just to tip the scales of justice in their favor. This is a pretty compelling crime story that also gives us a glimpse into how the wealthy people of New York react to a murder in their circle. That is, they hunker down, choose the path of secrecy, and do everything to protect themselves.

Not too long. Maybe 30 minutes if you can stay focused?

Speaking of crime and the wealthy, this one provides a more direct look at the interplay of the two. And what better arena to examine the power of money than taxation?

In this story, ProPublica looked into one of the mechanisms of the IRS to chase after taxes that wealthy people owe the government, most of which they try to avoid by offloading to overseas firms—among other complicated corporate maneuvering. The government is ultimately powerless against these people, who have all the money in the world to hire the best, most aggressive, and best-connected lawyers to thwart all of the IRS’s efforts.

In one particularly frustrating case, which this story focuses on, this lawyering shrunk one person’s taxes and penalties from a formidable $1 billion to paltry thousands.

I guess that also qualifies this for another Infuriating Story of the Week.

Long, but not excessively so. Again, for Rage Readers like me, this will go by very quickly. I think I finished this in 15 or so minutes, give or take.

🎣 Gone Phishing | Rest of World, Free

Much of this story takes place in Nigeria, by which I mean to say that this is some impressive work from the reporter. Infamously, countries in the Global South aren’t necessarily the easiest places to carry out good journalism in, mostly because of restrictive policies and an overall antagonistic attitude against the press.

Add to that the major wrinkle of writing a negative story about someone who is well-known and, I can only imagine, well-respected and with a huge following. I’m pretty sure the writer also had to deal with pushback from the media itself, especially since many legacy pubs had previously featured the scammer as a person of note. Really good work here.

(Aside: I still can’t get over the irony of Rest of World’s name. Always a tiny minus for its stories for me).

Not too long. Good story, though, and the overall reading experience was smooth. Probably 20 to 25 minutes if you can stick with it.

I have to admit: I was a bit underwhelmed by this one. But mostly because I expected an exposé, expected that MasterClass was running a glossy scam with a Hollywood-hued sheen.

So I guess part of that is on me. And clearly, I still felt that this story was good enough to put on this week’s list.

That’s because it still provides a really compelling view of one of the most notable e-Learning tech projects of our time. As the story so aptly points out, there was a stretch of time back there that we were all inundated with MasterClass ads. And the marketing push was impressive: Having A-listers and other massive personalities vouch for your platform is bound to reel in many users.

But as it turns out, the classes tend to fall short of expectations. In many cases, lessons are little more than motivational speeches. And while that in itself has some value, too, it definitely doesn’t fulfill the promise of the platform.

So it might not have been the explosive exposé that I was hoping for, but it still pulled apart some of the layers of branding around MasterClass, and got us closer to the platform’s truth.

Long, but not unwieldy. And being familiar with the references—the celebrities and the overall cultural zeitgeist at the time—makes for a fun and easy reading experience. Maybe give it 30 minutes?

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