Ban Dung, Udon Thani Province, Thailand

🇹🇭 Ban Dung is a town (Thesaban Mueang) in north-eastern Thailand and the local government seat of Ban Dung district (Amphoe) in the province of Udon Thani in the Isan region.

Transport The town is adjacent to the intersection of Highway 2022 and Highway 2096. Local town transport is provided by Isan tuk-tuk style Samlor motor tricycle taxis. Regional and long distance bus services operate from the bus terminal.

The nearest railway stations are in Nong Khai (83 km) and Udon Thani (81 km) and the nearest full-service airport is Udon Thani International Airport at 88 km.

Geography Neighbouring districts are (from the south clockwise) Thung Fon, Phibun Rak, Phen, and Sang Khom of Udon Thani province, Phon Phisai and Fao Rai of Nong Khai province, and Ban Muang, Charoen Sin, and Sawang Daen Din of Sakon Nakhon province.

Nong Pla Tao North of Ban Dung are marshlands and open water called Nong Pla Tao. The major river is the Songkhram, which marks the boundary of the district to the east.

History The minor district (king amphoe) Ban Dung was established on 16 May 1959, when three sub-districts were split off from Nong Han district. It was upgraded to a full district on 16 July 1963.

Economy The district is the site of a Voice of America (VOA) relay station, built in 1994. The Voice of America will give the station to Thailand, but will be allowed to operate it under a 25-year renewable lease expiring in 2019. Each of the station's seven shortwave transmitters is capable of broadcasting 500 kilowatts of power, covering 40 percent of the earth's surface. One of the transmitters will be dedicated for use by Radio Thailand. It will have sufficient power to reach the Middle East and the West Coast of the United States, both areas with large expatriate Thai communities.

The VOA installation has been suspected of being a CIA black site used to interrogate alleged terrorists. That suspicion has been supplanted by a BBC report that the Udon Royal Air Force Base was the home of a CIA black site, known to insiders as "Cat's Eye", but better known as "Detention Site Green", used to interrogate Abu Zubaydah, a 31-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, believed to be one of Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenants. In December 2014 the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) published an executive summary of a secret 6,000-page report on CIA techniques. The report alleges that at least eight Thai senior officials knew of the secret site. The site was closed in December 2002. Thailand has denied the existence of the site while the US government has neither confirmed or denied its existence.