A two-part series on America’s role in the Syrian civil war.

Inside America’s resurgent paramilitary movement.

“Private prisons are shrouded in secrecy. I took a job as a guard to get inside—then things got crazy.”

Three Americans are held hostage in Iran for two years, much of it spent in solitary confinement.

“For hours, days, I fixated on the patch of sunlight cast against my wall through those barred and grated windows. When, after five weeks, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground utterly broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that brought me back.”