Camp Cropper

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Camp Cropper is a high-value detention site (HVD) near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, operated by the United States Army. In contrast to the Abu Ghraib prison, this facility holds comparatively fewer inmates who are considered high-value by the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was held there at one time.

Camp Cropper was established by the Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) 115th Military Police Battalion in April 2003. Almost immediately after being established, it was designated as the site for the Corps Holding Area (CHA). Initially, the facility was meant to serve as "central booking" for the US forces operating in Baghdad and central Iraq, though detainees from northern Iraq were brought there as well. The original concept called for a small temporary camp that could hold up to 300 detainees for no more than 72 hours. After being processed at Camp Cropper detainees were supposed to be shipped to other detention faciities in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. However, in practice, this proved unworkable since most other prisons in Baghdad were badly damaged by looting after the fall of the Baath regime. This resulted in overcrowding and at one point shortly after the end of the war, Camp Cropper held over 1500 detainees.

In June 2004, The Pentagon confirmed a report in the New York Times that CIA chief George Tenet —who stepped down from the post in July 2004— was allowed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to have an Iraqi prisoner secretly detained at Camp Cropper since November, preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring his treatment, in violation of the Geneva Convention. 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 facility was scheduled to be shut down after the June 2004 handover date of Iraqi sovereignty, but as of May 2005 the Camp is still being used.