Thread by @latifnasser

Ooof. I’ve been waiting to acknowledge something out loud for 3+ years. And today’s the day I finally can. It’s a story I’ve been working on called #TheOtherLatif. The story starts with a tweet and ends with a tweet. A thread.

3 years ago, I was here on Twitter procrastinating and saw a tweet about me from a non-profit law firm that I didn’t even remember following. Turns out, it wasn’t about me. It was about another guy who has my name. A guy who happens to be … Detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay! (gulp)

I found some leaked govt docs about him via @nytimes, which paint a pretty nefarious picture of him as Al Qaeda’s “top explosives expert” & one of bin Laden’s “most impt military advisors,” pre and post 9/11. It also calls him a “HIGH risk” to the US and its allies. (double gulp)

@nytimes Then I tracked down his lawyer, @dontspyonmeNYPD, who told me that whole doc is basically fiction. That he was never even in Al Qaeda, that he was prob sold for a bounty. He has been locked up 17+ years. No charges. No trial. Tortured. But she told me something even crazier.

@nytimes @dontspyonmeNYPD In July 2016, this guy - the other Latif - had a parole-type hearing with reps from 6 top US govt agencies: State, Defence, Homeland Security, Justice, Joint Chiefs, & Director of Natl Intelligence. They unanimously decided to clear him to go back to his home in Morocco (!!)

@nytimes @dontspyonmeNYPD BUT there was some kind of bureaucratic delay, and by the time the paperwork got finalized, the Obama people were on their way out and the Trump people were on their way in. Trump tweeted that “There should be no further releases from Gitmo” and so he never got transferred.

@nytimes @dontspyonmeNYPD So this guy with my name is cleared on paper but still at Gitmo, just sitting there. I’ve spent the last three years reporting about him full-time. Not allowed to intvw him, but have traveled and done 60+ intvws w others incl his family, interrogators, even other ex-Gitmo guys.

@nytimes @dontspyonmeNYPD The podcast series that came out of this is #TheOtherLatif. Easily the most personal and difficult story I’ve ever reported. Ep 1 of 6 up now in the @Radiolab feed … smarturl.it/radiolab?IQid=…

@nytimes @dontspyonmeNYPD @Radiolab Couldn't have gotten this far wo help of so many people, incl and esp @radiosuzie, @sarqari, @bethel_habte, @JadAbumrad, @SorenWheeler, @McEwenAnnie, @MargotWilliams, @DianeAKelly, @alexoverington, @Si_Adler, and more ... and oh yeah, podcast art by Will Paybarah.