Camp Bucca

Camp Bucca was a detention facility maintained by the United States military in the vicinity of Umm Qasr, Iraq. As of June 2011, a group of entrepreneurial Iraqis and Americans are re-building Camp Bucca as Basra Gateway, a logistics city and environmentally friendly industrial hub to lead the new Iraq into the 21st century. Owned by the Kufan Group and developed in collaboration with Phoenix Capital, Basra Gateway will begin operations in August 2011, with periodic and extensive renovation expected to begin in 2012. The facility was initially called Camp Freddy and used by British Forces to hold Iraqi prisoners of war. After being taken over by the U.S. military in April 2003, it was renamed after Ronald Bucca, a soldier with the 800th Military Police Brigade and NYC Fire Marshal who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks.

After the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, many detainees from Abu Ghraib were transferred to Camp Bucca. After a substantial turn-over in the chain of command at Camp Bucca and substantial amendments to camp policy, the US military held up Camp Bucca as an example of how a model detention facility should be run . Detainees are now reportedly housed in cinder block housing units with wooden roofing rather than tents, organize and administer their own classes in subjects like literacy and religion, and compete in soccer matches. Cigarettes, tea, and the opportunity to listen to radio and T.V. programs are used as incentives for good behavior. Some detainees are even allowed family visitation from Iraqi relatives not held at the facility.

Additionally, the internment facility has its very own U.S. Army run hospital to serve detainees. It offers comprehensive healthcare. There is an emergency room, internal medicine clinic, optometry clinic, psychiatric services, orthopedic/surgical unit, physical therapy clinic, pharmacy, dental clinic, dietary services and more. Detainees are screened by medics and doctors at the wire, that is right out where the detainees are housed, and then triaged to the hospital for further care. Some detainees have even been flown to larger medical facilities in Iraq to receive cataract surgery. U.S. Army medical staff is also given training on how to provide care while respecting Muslim traditions.

Militants regularly launch rockets into Camp Bucca. The rockets are widely believed to be often provided and set up by Iranians who teach the militants to launch them hours after they've returned to their nearby country (about 25 miles). The lethal explosions average around 5 per month in a period from September 2007 to late April 2008, with the most intense barage coming during The Ramadan period (October) when 12 aerial bombs (Believed to be stolen from a British camp in nearby al Basrah) landed in a span of 8 days. On 17 September 2009, The US military announced that the base would be closed. In December 2010, the US military handed the base to the government of Iraq, who, on the same day, gave Kufan Group of Iraq a license to invest in the new Basra Gateway, to provide a 21st century logistics hub for Iraq's port.