Salt Pit

Coordinates: 34°34′36.48″N 69°17′25.80″E / 34.5768000°N 69.2905000°E / 34.5768000; 69.2905000 The Salt Pit is the codename of an isolated clandestine CIA black site prison and interrogation center in Afghanistan. Another codename of the same site is Cobalt. It is located north of Kabul and was the location of a brick factory prior to the Afghanistan War. The CIA adapted it for extrajudicial detention.

In the winter of 2005, the "Salt Pit" became known to the general public because of two incidents. In 2011 the Miami Herald indicated that the Salt Pit and the dark prison were the same location.

Description

Although the initial plan called for the Afghan government to operate the site, it actually was overseen by the CIA from the start. The CIA authorized more than $200,000 for the construction of the prison in June 2002; the site became operational with the incarceration of Ridha al-Najjar in September 2002, although the first formal guidelines for interrogation and confinement at the site were signed by Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet only in late January, 2003. Ultimately the prison housed, at one point or another, nearly half of the 119 detainees identified by the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture.