Gitmo prisoners to Bragg?

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- It was President Obama's first executive order: shutting down the prison camp for suspected terrorists at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The President wants the detention center closed within a year. Now the search is on to find new places to hold detainees while they await trial.

One of the places under consideration is Fort Bragg. It's not hard to image the base being considered a possibly site to relocate Gitmo detainees. In the past, Bragg has sent PAO teams and military police units to the detention center in Cuba.

But bringing detainees here is another story.

North Carolina congressman David Price says the center should have been shut down long ago.

"it's just unacceptable to have that facility remaining open with people detained indefinitely with no resolution of their cases, no rights at all to even know what they're accused of," he offered.

But Price isn't sure that Bragg should be a serious consideration.

"It will have to be a very high security facility and my understanding of Fort Bragg is there is nothing like the kind of facility that would be required, but I don't know. I'm not going to presume what facilities will be chosen," he said.

Price is right. Right now, soldiers awaiting trial at Fort Bragg on a variety of charges are held in the Cumberland County detention center. Folks who live in Fayetteville have mixed views about bringing suspected terrorists to the community.

"That can be kind of scary actually... having that type of element here in our homeland and where we live," Offered resident Marco Clark.

"Well, we've got to put them some place and in that case Fort Bragg wouldn't be a bad idea," said David McCune.

Military leaders have a year to figure out where they're going to put the detainees. Sources say Camp Pendleton, Charleston Naval Base, and Fort Leavenworth might be better choices than Fort Bragg. Leavenworth may be the number one choice because it's the military's only maximum security prison.

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