The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for March 17, 2012

The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the Web this week.

The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) James Bamford, WiredIn a story that should strike fear in the hearts of all privacy-seeking Americans, James Bamford examines an expansive new facility the National Security Agency is building in Bluffdale, Utah. Its purpose: to collect a ginormous amount of data and crack the ultimate encryption.

Foxwoods Is Fighting for Its Life Michael Sokolove, The New York Times MagazineThe 6.7 million–square–foot Foxwoods Casino is in big trouble. Its owners, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, mismanaged the giant casino’s expansion, and it now sits $2.3 billion in debt. A new CEO—Foxwoods’s seventh since 2007—hopes to guide the unsteady ship into calmer waters.

Where’s _why?Annie Lowrey, SlateWhere in the world did a mysterious and beloved computer programmer go? A writer—in her journey to learn to code—explores the disappearance of _why.

‘We Have No Choice’: One Woman’s Ordeal with Texas’ New Sonogram Law Carolyn Jones, Texas ObserverThe brutal realities of Texas’s new sonogram law torment a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Good Riddance to Al-Shabab Laura Heaton, NewsweekCitizens of Somalia’s Baidoa are so ecstatic the radical Islamist group Al-Shabab has fled, they don’t even mind being occupied by the Ethiopians—yet.

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Brian Ries

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