From Gitmo to Florence

Other than their Muslim names, what do the following men have in common?

• Abdul Hakim Murad, of al-Qaeda’s Operation Bojinka
• Ahmed Ajaj, of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
• Ahmed Ressam, of the 2000 millennium attack plots
• El Sayyid Nosair, of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, participant in the 1998 United States embassy bombings
• Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad, would-be financier of al-Qaeda and Hamas, serving 75 years
• Omar Abdel-Rahman, of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
• Omar Mohammed Rezaq, airliner hijacker
• Zacarias Moussaoui, of the September 11, 2001 attacks
• Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacker

Obviously a bad bunch of dudes. Every bit as bad as those terrorist suspects being held at Guantánamo right now, it seems to me. There are, however, several important differences to be noted.

First, all these men have been tried and convicted. They aren’t being detained indefinitely, without trial (or even charges), at Gitmo.

And the point I really wanted to make: All these men are in prison right here in the United States. In fact, they all are or have been in the same prison — ADX Florence, the federal supermax prison right here in Colorado.

It’s ludicrous, then, for Washington politicians to stand around saying they won’t allow those horrible Gitmo detainees into the U.S., and certainly not into their states. Look at who is already in prison in the U.S. Who in Gitmo is any worse than the men above?

But the Gitmo terrorists (assuming all the “enemy combatants” are proven to be terrorists) want to kill Americans! Right. Didn’t every murderer in prison in the U.S. kill one or more Americans? Hell, Jeffrey Dahmer even ate some of them!

I’m going to go way out on a limb here and say there is no logical reason to keep those Gitmo detainees out of the U.S. And in the absence of such a reason, there is no need to keep Gitmo open.