United States v. Zubaydah
5-4
Prologue Projects
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following the 9/11 attacks, both liberal and conservative justices contributed to the rise of some authoritarian powers that the Trump administration is now wielding today.
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5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto. Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our researcher is Jonathan DeBruin, and our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We will hear argument in case 2827, United States versus Zubedew. |
| 0:10.0 | Hey, everyone. This is Leon from Prologue Projects. |
| 0:14.0 | On this episode of 5 to 4, Peter, Riannon, and Michael are talking about United States v. Zubeda, |
| 0:23.6 | a case from 2022 that centers around what the government considers state secrets. If everyone knows about a secret, then it's not a |
| 0:29.0 | secret, right? I'm not according to the Department of Justice, arguing to the Supreme Court that |
| 0:33.3 | some of the details around the treatment of a suspected al-Qaeda operative should stay classified. |
| 0:38.1 | That's even though details of that detainees interrogation and torture at the CIA's so-called black sites have already been revealed. |
| 0:44.7 | After the September 11th attacks, the CIA captured Abu Zabeda, a suspected al-Qaeda leader, and took him to a black site in Poland. |
| 0:53.4 | Zubeda was interrogated and tortured for years |
| 0:56.2 | before being moved to Guantanamo Bay. While building a case to seek justice for his treatment, |
| 1:01.9 | Zubeda's lawyers requested testimony from the CIA contractors who tortured him, but the U.S. |
| 1:06.9 | government blocked it, invoking state secret privileges on the basis that they could not |
| 1:11.7 | confirm or deny the existence of a black site in Poland, even though everyone already knew there was |
| 1:17.8 | one. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled against Zubeda, arguing that sharing any more |
| 1:24.1 | information would constitute a national security threat. |
| 1:32.0 | This is 5 to 4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. |
| 1:40.8 | Welcome to 5 to 4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that are bankrupting our civil rights like the words, please and thank you, are bankrupting |
| 1:44.7 | open AI. |
| 1:45.8 | I'm Peter. |
| 1:46.9 | I'm here with Michael. |
| 1:48.0 | Hey, everybody. |
| 1:49.0 | And Riannon. |
... |
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