black site

[ blak sahyt ]

noun

1. a location that is never publicly acknowledged as existing, where secret military and defense operations, including the detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists, are conducted out of reach of the law and normal systems of oversight:

   Thailand was likely the first country to host a CIA black site, where suspected 9/11 terrorists were detained.

black site

noun

1. a secret facility used by a country's military as a prison and interrogation centre, whose existence is denied by the government

Word History and Origins

Origin of black site¹

First recorded in 2005–10

Example Sentences

The public on Monday got its first view of a C.I.A. “black site,” including a windowless, closet-size cell where a former Qaeda commander was held during what he described as the most humiliating experience of his time in U.S. custody.

From New York Times

Mr. Hadi, 63, was one of the last prisoners to be held in the overseas black site network where the George W. Bush administration held and interrogated about 100 terrorism suspects after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

From New York Times

When he spoke of his time in C.I.A. custody, Mr. Hadi was describing the months after his capture in Turkey in late 2006, when he disappeared into the last remnants of the black site program, in Afghanistan, until April 2007.

From New York Times

Prosecutors gave defense lawyers the material but did not disclose the location of the last known intact prison of the black site program.

From New York Times

In a first, a military judge at Guantánamo Bay on Friday crossed into the security zone containing the wartime prison and inspected a former C.I.A. “black site” facility at the center of a dispute over the taint of torture in the Sept. 11, 2001, case.

From New York Times