Reports that Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency may have inadvertently exposed a CIA black site in northern Virginia with its recent decision to close buildings around the U.S. were met with a healthy dose of skepticism from experts Thursday.
Bloomberg reported earlier this week on Trump's "for sale" list, noting that about 100 properties on the list had since disappeared.
Wired reported Wednesday that a "sensitive complex housing a CIA facility" was on the list, but didn't call it a black site. Instead, the report labeled it "the area's worst-kept secret."
Still, the report, shared on social media, sent MAGA reeling, demanding to know why a "black site," otherwise known as a clandestine detention center like Guantánamo Bay, was conducting espionage operations inside the United States.
According to experts, however, the news is being blown out of proportion.
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Counterintelligence expert John Schindler fact-checked the claim, saying, "There are no CIA 'black sites' in the US. That's a clickbait term, not reality. Some IC agencies have facilities in the US which don't have the agency name or logo advertised. That's basic cover, perfectly normal and legal."
Commentator Bill Kristol implied that the DOGE team exposing a CIA office seemed like something Russia would do.
"They’re not ACTUALLY working for Putin, right?" he asked.
So-called "Angry Staffer," who purports to be a national security expert, and served as an online whistleblower during the first Trump administration, explained: "1. This wasn’t a 'black site' - it was at one point a training facility that may or may not have been tied to CIA. 2. The agency does not operate black sites on US soil, though there are several unmarked / unlisted properties for a variety of reasons. 3. DOGE is a clusterf---."
Michael Shurkin, a director of global programs at 14N, disputed the idea that a so-called "black site" in the U.S. was illegal.
"I presume they are referring to things like office buildings that CIA doesn't want people to know are CIA. Generally full of people doing office work. They exist. Let's not get excited," he posted on X.
"Why doesn't CIA want everyone to know that every CIA building is CIA? Precisely because people's imaginations run wild. Or sit outside and photograph people going in and out. And sometimes commit terrorist attacks," he wrote, referencing the 1993 shooting outside the CIA headquarters at Langley.
Wired cited a 2011 nonfiction book that referenced the "secret facility in Springfield, Virginia" where "CIA trains technical officers to bug offices, break into houses, and penetrate computer systems."
The building was also reported on by the Washington Business Journal in 2012.
"Obviously someone did no research about the long and well-documented history of this property," Jeff McKay, chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and a longtime advocate of redeveloping the complex, told Wired. "Normally a site like this would be outed, so to speak, but everyone knows it's here except, apparently, the people who put this list together."
It sits next to another building used as the headquarters of TSA, Google Maps shows.
The GSA DOGE list has since been deleted, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Last month, the White House exposed undercover officers' names in an email.
