A legal architect of Guantanamo questions Trump's El Salvador plan
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is true in 2025, after the Trump administration deported at least 261 foreign nationals to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
And it was also true two decades ago, following the attacks of Sept. 11, after the U.S. government began to house captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the military prison at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
During the George W. Bush administration, John Yoo wrote the legal justification for the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, now widely referred to as "the torture memos."
Yoo argues that there are key legal differences between what the Bush administration did – and what the Trump administration is attempting in El Salvador.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Elsa Chang. Before we get to the show, there's an anniversary on Saturday that we wanted to shout out. |
| 0:05.6 | 54 years ago, on May 3rd, 1971, a brand new outlet called National Public Radio went on the air with the very first episode of all things considered. |
| 0:17.5 | Listeners heard from a barber talking business in Iowa, poet Alan Ginsberg, and Vietnam War protesters in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:25.7 | More than a half century later, we're still considering all the things. |
| 0:30.6 | And your support makes it all possible. |
| 0:32.9 | It's the last day of public media giving days. |
| 0:35.5 | When you donate, you ensure that we can keep reporting the facts and bringing you stories that inform and inspire. |
| 0:42.9 | So visit donate.mpr.org to give. And thank you so much. Now to the show. |
| 0:57.0 | The U.S. has sent people it has detained. People, it says, are terrorists to a prison overseas. |
| 1:01.1 | And there is no end date. |
| 1:03.3 | The men are effectively detained indefinitely. |
| 1:06.9 | This is true in 2025. |
| 1:09.7 | And it was also true two decades ago. |
| 1:12.6 | I would characterize Montanamo Bay, Cuba, as the least worst place we could have selected. |
| 1:20.1 | Its disadvantages, however, seem to be modest relative to the alternatives. |
| 1:25.0 | That is former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, just three months after the 9-11 attacks, |
| 1:30.2 | announcing the plan to house captured Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a military prison at the |
| 1:36.0 | U.S. naval base in Guantanamo. |
| 1:38.5 | Ultimately, the U.S. would bring hundreds of people from many countries to Guantanamo. |
| 1:46.3 | 15 remain at the prison today, |
| 1:53.7 | six of whom have never been charged with a crime. When the prison opened, Rumsfeld made a new legal argument for this indefinite foreign detention. It would be handled not as prisoners of wars |
| 1:59.1 | because they're not, but as unlawful combatants. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.