Well, it was secret.
Not to worry.
The source is some guy at the local VFW who may or may not be a vet, but they did buy him a few rounds.
Hard to keep anything this big a secret. Found this easily on Google. The reporter is just doing what journalists do....trying to sound more knowledgable and special than he really is. The airbase isn't a secret - the Task Force 145 HQ on the base isn't a secret......its what goes on in the CJSOTF building thats secret!!
As of Febuary 2006, Balad AB was home to about 25,000 U.S. troops.
The base is so large it has its own 'neighborhoods'. These include: 'KBR-land' (a Halliburton subsidiary company); 'CJSOTF' which is home to a special operations unit,' the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force and is surrounded by especially high walls that is, according to The Washington Post, so secretive that even the base Army public affairs chief has never been inside. There is a Subway sandwich shop, a Pizza Hut, a Popeye's, a 24-hour Burger King, two post exchanges which sell an impressive array of goods, four mess halls, a minature golf course and a hospital. The base has a strictly enforced on-base speed limit of 10 MPH.