Jamal Nasser (c. 1985 – March 16, 2003) was an Afghan soldier who died on March 16, 2003 in United States' custody at a Gardez Fire Base, an American outpost in Afghanistan. In 2004, eighteen months after his death, when Nasser's death in custody was brought to the attention of American headquarters, his death was attributed to a kidney infection. Later, an investigation determined that the account of death by natural causes was a fiction, the result of collusion among the GIs in the Special Forces unit who had custody of Nasser when he died. After a two-year investigation, no one was held responsible for his death. Reprimands were filed in the dossiers of several GIs for the failure to report his death.

Senator Patrick Leahy's account

According to Senator Patrick Leahy: "'We're trying to figure out who was running the base. We don't know what unit was there. There are no records. The reporting system is broke [sic] across the board. Units are transferred in and out. There are no SOPs [standard operating procedures] … and each unit acts differently.'"

Neimann Foundation for Journalism account

Craig Pyes, one of the two LA Times reporters who broke the story, described the process of researching the story for the Neiman Report, the publication of the Neiman Foundation for Journalism. Pyes wrote that he and his colleague, Kevin Sack, decided to conduct a parallel investigation to the Army's official investigation. He wrote they interviewed more than 1,000 individuals.