A Gitmo in Florence? No sweat, residents say

[kentuck]

http://www.gazette.com/articles/terrorists-55753-adding-florence.html

<snip>
It's one of the hottest debates in Washington - where to put hard-core terrorists once President Barack Obama shutters Guantanamo. The Senate last week overwhelmingly rejected providing funds to close the U.S. military prison in Cuba, saying that no community in America would want such hardened criminals.

Maybe they haven't been to Florence. Starved for jobs 17 years ago, the town of 3,600 residents bought a chunk of land outside its borders and gave it to the federal government to build a maximum-security prison to house the worst of the worst.

Most locals don't blink at the idea of taking Guantanamo detainees - and even the ones who object acknowledge the subject has yet to replace cows, horses and the high school football team as a leading topic of conversation.

"People here don't care about it," said Bob Wood, editor and publisher of the community newspaper, the Florence Citizen. "We pretty much feel that if they ship them here, these guys (the federal prison guards) will take care of them."

........more

[Bill McBlueState]

1. "hard-core terrorists"

Are there any reliable estimates as to how many Guantanamo inmates may actually be hard-core terrorists?

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Isn't there another one in Hardin, Montana that's empty right now??

From what I've heard, they're more than willing to house the detainees until their trials.

[NV Whino]

3. I know I'm naive, but I thought the objective in closing Guantanimo

was to actually do something with the prisoners other than lock them up in yet another prison. You know, things like give them a trial to prove their innocence or guilt and then incarcerate in a prison or let them go.

Plopping them in another prison in another location without due process is not a solution.

[magellan]

5. I bet you believe in that Constitution thing too.

:sarcasm:

I really thought that as a Constitutional law professor, Obama wouldn't drift on matters like this. But it's becoming ever more clear to me that the Rule of Law is now completely subordinate to political convenience.

[NV Whino]

7. Yeah, I sorta, kinda used to.

[bluestateguy]

4. I think that is where most of them will end up

And if it means the prison will have to hire some more guards then I'm sure the town will be happy for the jobs.

[backscatter712]

6. I'm a Coloradoan. We can take 'em in Florence!

It's the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Noone has ever escaped from ADX Florence. Not once.