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A secure, closed door area in the White House.Reuters
A door to the Office of Senate Security
A door to the Office of Senate SecurityGetty Images
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Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to the media after more than two dozen Republican lawmakers barged into the room used by the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to the media after more than two dozen Republican lawmakers barged into the room used by the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.EPA
More than two dozen Republican lawmakers speak to the media before gathering outside the room used by the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.
More than two dozen Republican lawmakers speak to the media before gathering outside the room used by the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.EPA
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When US government or military officials need real privacy — like during the closed-door hearings for the impeachment inquiry against President Trump — they head to a highly secure room known as a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility,” or SCIF.

A SCIF “guards against electronic surveillance and suppresses data leakage of sensitive security and military information,” according to SCIF Global Technologies of Jacksonville, Florida, which bills itself as “one of the few small businesses” that can build one to order.

The best-known SCIF is the White House “Situation Room,” where then-President Barack Obama and top officials watched live video of the US Navy raid that killed terrorist fiend Osama bin Laden in 2011.

A 2013 report by Time magazine cited various specifications mandated by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, including “non-opening windows,” the ability “to retain sound within the perimeter” and “five minutes of forced-entry protection.”

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