Camp Nama Camp Nama was a military base in Baghdad , Iraq , originally built by the government of Saddam Hussein , from which its name derives , and now used by Iraqi military forces . Purportedly , the original Iraqi name has been repurposed by U . S . personnel involved with the facility as a backronym standing for " Nasty Ass Military Area " . History . After the 2003 U . S . invasion of Iraq , the camp was taken over by elite American Special Operations forces . The main purpose of the camp was to interrogate prisoners for information about Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al - Zarqawi . The " New York Times " reported on 19 March 2006 , the three - year anniversary of the U . S . invasion , that the elite unit , known as Task Force 6 - 26 , used the facility to interrogate prisoners both before and after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal . Some of the interrogation took place in " The Black Room , " which used to be a torture chamber when Saddam ' s government ran the facility . The camp was the target of repeated warnings and investigations from U . S . officials since August 2003 . There were placards around the camp that read " No Blood No Foul , " a reference to the notion , described by a Pentagon official , that " If you don ' t make them bleed , they can ' t prosecute for it . " Allegations of abuse were first reported in the mainstream U . S . media in 2005 . After the more extensive New York Times report in 2006 , which was " based on documents and interviews with more than a dozen people , " the independent organization Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting detainee abuse in Iraq . The report confirmed the charges about Camp Nama uncovered by the New York Times , noting that " from 2003 to the present , numerous U . S . personnel and Iraqi detainees have reported serious mistreatment of detainees by the special task force , including beatings , exposure to extreme cold , threats of death , humiliation , and various forms of heavy interrogation . Many of these allegations have been contained in documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups pursuant to Freedom of Information Act litigation . " The report included an extensive interview with one Sergeant , using the pseudonym " Jeff Perry " , who worked as an interrogator with the task force running the detention center . Sergeant " Perry " indicated that written authorizations were required for most abusive techniques , indicating that the use of these tactics was approved up the chain of command : There was an authorization template on a computer , a sheet that you would print out , or actually just type it in . And it was a checklist . And it was all already typed out for you , environmental controls , hot and cold , you know , strobe lights , music , so forth . Working dogs , which , when I was there , wasn ’ t being used . But you would just check what you want to use off , and if you planned on using a harsh interrogation you ’ d just get it signed off . I never saw a sheet that wasn ’ t signed . It would be signed off by the commander , whoever that was , whether it was O3 [ captain ] or O6 [ colonel ] , whoever was in charge at the time . . . . When the O6 was there , yeah , he would sign off on that . . . . He would sign off on that every time it was done . Some interrogators would go and use these techniques without typing up one of those things just because it was a hassle , or he didn ’ t want to do it and knew it was going to be approved anyway , and you ’ re not gonna get in that much trouble if you get caught doing one of these things without a signature . Techniques involving outright assault — hitting , slapping , and beating — were apparently not on the list , but were regularly used at Nama , indicating that the harsh methods that were approved often degenerated into even harsher treatment in practice . HRW ' s senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism commented , " These accounts rebut U . S . government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional – on the contrary , it was condoned and commonly used . " Investigation and inter - agency conflict . The reports of abuses inside Camp Nama were said to have outraged even seasoned CIA , FBI and DIA investigators accustomed to dealing with non - cooperative and hostile detainees , and to have provoked a culture clash between agencies and groups involved with the facility . By early 2004 , one of Defense Secretary Donald H . Rumsfeld ' s top aides , Under - Secretary for Defense Intelligence Stephen A . Cambone , ordered a subordinate , DIA head Vice Adm . Lowell E . Jacoby to " get to the bottom " of any misconduct . By June 25 , 2004 , Admiral Jacoby wrote a two - page memo to Cambone , in which he described a series of complaints , including a May 2004 incident in which a DIA interrogator said he witnessed task force soldiers punch a detainee hard enough to require medical help . The DIA officer took photos of the injuries , but a supervisor confiscated them , the memo said . The memo provoked an angry reaction from Mr . Cambone . " Get to the bottom of this immediately . This is not acceptable , " Mr . Cambone said in a handwritten note on June 26 , 2004 , to his top deputy , Lt . Gen . William G . Boykin . " In particular , I want to know if this is part of a pattern of behavior by TF 6 - 26 . " According to the NYT article , General Boykin had earlier said ( on March 17 ) through a spokesman that he told Mr . Cambone he had found no pattern of misconduct with the task force . The article does not provide further detail on Boykin ' s response to the investigation after Cambone ' s and Jacoby ' s intervention in June , 2004 . Transfer to LSA Anaconda . According to the NYT article , in the summer of 2004 , the Nasty Ass Military Area closed and the unit moved to " a new headquarters in Balad , 45 miles north of Baghdad . " This would probably refer to Balad AB , also known as Logistics Support Area Anaconda and later as Joint Base Balad . Since the transfer the unit ' s operations are said to have been shrouded in even tighter secrecy . According to Thomas E . Ricks of the Washington Post , a new " detainee center " has indeed been established at Camp Balad , under the auspices of a new unit , Joint Special Operations Task Force 8 ; entry is not permitted to normal Army Rangers personnel . Prisoner abuse . British soldiers testified that : Special areas . The Black Room . Detainees at the camp that were considered " high - value " were interrogated in " The Black Room , " a dark mostly bare room with large metal hooks hanging from the ceiling . The guards often used loud rock ' n ' roll or rap music to torment prisoners during interrogations . Motel 6 and Hotel California . The article by Schmitt and Marshall mentions other whimsically named sections of Camp Nama , including Motel 6 , " a group of crudely built plywood shacks that reeked of urine and excrement " , where " conditions were cramped , forcing many prisoners to squat or crouch " , and a block of 6 - by - 8 cubicles known as Hotel California .