Cropper

First, I don't post here often, and I'm sorry to those who check it often. I don't get over to the internet cafe often enough. I'm stationed on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Camp Cropper on the Victory Base Complex. We house four to five thousand detainees in the Theater Detainment Facility (TIF), the rest are way down south at Bucca (20,000+). I work in the magcell reviewing case files of detainees to see if we have enough evidence to prosecute them, keep them as a security detainee, or, if we don't have sufficient evidence I process an expedited release. I'm on the night shift which is great because I'm awake the same time my family is awake. The FOB is pretty small and the TIF takes up most of it. At the most it is one click by one click. If it's bigger than that it's not by much. The best part about this FOB is we have hardened billets, meaning dorms instead of tents or trailers. Not only are they safer but they're much more comfortable.
Like I said, we review the case files of all the detainees that are picked up in Iraq. We review them to see if there is enough evidence to try them at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI). If there is not, then we decide if there is a "reasonable belief" that the detainee was involved in insurgent or terrorist activities. If there is, we send them to the Combined Retention Review Board (CRRB) who decides whether or not to keep the detainee as a Security Detainee. If there is not a reasonable belief that the person is a threat to the stability of Iraq because of insurgent activity, we recommend an expedited release of that person. We review all of the evidence on the individual and prepare a memo with a summary of the person's activities. How we write those summaries has the potential to put a person away for a long time. We have to make the memos look good because they get reviewed by people with a much, much higher pay grade than myself.

We get a good flavor of what is going on in the counter-insurgency. We see the detainees arrive, and we see them leave. We see why they were picked up, what they were accused of, what intel they give, etc. What is amazing is how good of a job the forward operators do at being a hybrid soldier/investigator/cop. A lot of the guys who are picked up are just plain evil, but a lot are only opportunists who needed money. The average guy in the TIF can't read and is unemployed, but I have little sympathy for anyone firing rockets at a US base or planting
IEDs.

I get time to workout after work in the mornings. I don't run outside because there is no real good place to run. The roads are not paved and they are full of pits, and holes, and rocks, and nubs, and whatever else you need to sprain your ankle with. There are also no roads without tons of traffic on them.

We don't get hit here like they do on Camp Victory. That is very nice. Things are always quiet on Cropper -- knock on wood.