AP: Ritter Not Opposed to Guantanamo Terror Detainees at Supermax in Florence

The Associated Press is reporting that Gov. Bill Ritter has indicated he would be supportive of Obama administration efforts to move detainees from the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Colorado's Supermax federal prison.

President Obama issued an executive order Wednesday that will require the military detention complex in the Caribbean to close within one year.

The AP report quotes Evan Dreyer, Ritter's chief spokesperson, as saying

"If Supermax is chosen, there's no reason to take a 'not in my backyard' approach."

The report also quotes Dreyer as saying that Ritter has not discussed relocation of prisoners from the Cuba facility to Supermax.

The federal Supermax prison, which holds a maximum of 490 prisoners, was constructed near Florence in 1995.

Among its inmates are Zacarias Moussaoui, a participant in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC; Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of crimes arising from the 1993 World Trade Center attack; and Richard Reid, who tried to blow up an airplane crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a shoe bomb.