The Week’s Best Longreads for August 31, 2013
The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week. By David Sessions.
12 Minutes of Freedom in 460 Days of Captivity
Amanda Linhout, The New York Times Magazine
Her kidnapping in Somalia marked the moment when one life ended and another began.
Paul Solataroff with Ron Borges, Rolling Stone
Aaron Hernandez might have been one of the NFL’s all-time greats, but he could never escape drugs, guns and a life of violence.
Evgenia Pismennaya and Irina Reznick, Bloomberg
After 14 years as president and premier, Vladimir Putin ended his 30-year marriage in June and his judo mentor died this month. He is again lonely, and too scared of what will happen to himself and the country to relax his grip on power.
The NYPD Division of Un-American Activities
Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, New York
After 9/11, the NYPD Intelligence Division underwent a dramatic overhaul, bringing in CIA-trained operators to create a “demographics” department that acted like the CIA—and went further than even the FBI could stomach. But has it actually stopped any terror plots?Bill de Who?
David Freedlander, Newsweek
After a sudden, meteoric rise in the polls, Bill de Blasio is on the brink of becoming New York's next mayor. Despite a history of savvy political tactics, he's been painted as a progressive purist. What does he really believe?
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