Camp Cropper - Criticism

Criticism

On 2004-06-16, The Pentagon confirmed a report in the New York Times that former CIA chief George Tenet had been allowed by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to have an Iraqi prisoner secretly detained at Camp Cropper since November, but denied they were trying to hide the prisoner from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Rumsfeld later told reporters that the prisoner was treated humanely. In 2004, the Red Cross was given regular and open access to the facility and the detainees, the Red Cross documented severe living conditions, harsh treatment by guards, and poor medical care.

In October 2006, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported the wounding of one American soldier to date by detainees. The attack was reported to have been under suspicious circumstances.

Since the closure of Abu Ghraib and the subsequent relocation to Camp Cropper, the now-larger prison has seen criticism for abuses of detainees and a hotbed of insurgent recruitment. Between October and December 2006, the MNF-I reported the deaths of three detainees at Camp Cropper. One from injuries inflicted by other detainees on October 29, two on November 30 and December 2 from natural causes. Other detainees died on 2007-04-04, 2007-05-26 and 2007-07-07.

In late April 2007, the former commander of Camp Cropper, Lieutenant Colonel William H. Steele was reported to be held in a military prison in Kuwait to await an Article 32 hearing. He was charged with various breaches of military law, including supplying an unmonitored cellphone to a detainee and inappropriate relationship with a detainee's daughter. On October 19, 2007, a military judge found Steele not guilty on the charge of aiding the enemy, but guilty of "unauthorized possession of classified documents, behavior unbecoming an officer for an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter and failing to obey an order". Steele faced a possible maximum 6 year sentence for the charges he previously plead guilty to, as well as an additional 10 years for the charges for which he was convicted. Instead, he was sentenced to 2 years confinement, minus time already served, loss of his military retirement, forfeiture of pay and allowances and a dismissal from the military.