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Colorado Town Would Welcome Gitmo Inmates
Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'
By Jason Farago
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Posted Jun 4, 09 7:36 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant, the Unabomber, and 9/11's "20th hijacker." "People here don't care about it," the editor of the town's local newspaper told the Los Angeles Times.
Two decades ago Florence's 3,600 citizens were desperate for jobs, so the city bought a parcel of land on the outskirts of town and handed it to the government to build a prison on. The 490-bed supermax is full to capacity and would need to be expanded to take in Gitmo's worst, but locals are more than happy for Obama to ship prisoners their way. "You hear a siren around here and you think 'accident' before you think 'prisoner,'" said one resident.