Steele served as commandant of Camp Cropper from October 2005 to the end of October 2006, when he transferred to Camp Victory and served as a senior patrol officer with 89th Military Police Brigade. Camp Cropper is known to have held former Baath Party members, Al-Qaeda operatives, and members of the Iraqi insurgency. On April 26, 2007 it was announced that Steele had been held in military detention since March, and that he had been charged with aiding the enemy and other violations of military law. After that he was held in pretrial confinement in Kuwait. Testimony at his Article 32 hearing indicated that the charge of aiding the enemy was based on the allegation that Steele had allowed three juvenile detainees to use his cellphone to call their parents in violation of the prison's requirement that all prisoner phone calls be monitored. (Steele had been previously reprimanded by Brigadier General Kevin McBride, commander of the 43rd MP Brigade, for "intimidating tower guards with a service pistol." He was later awarded the Bronze Star Medal by General McBride at the end of his tour of duty.)