Republicans say Colorado shouldn't be dumping ground for Gitmo's terrorists

Furious at news that Gov. Bill Ritter supports bringing Guantanamo Bay's suspected foreign terrorists to a federal lockup in Colorado, Republican lawmakers pushed back at the governor, petitioning him to change his tune.

Led by the GOP's Sen. Ken Kester, of Las Animas, and Rep. Cory Gardner, a Yuma Republican, the legislators gathered signatures on a petition circulated among colleagues in the General Assembly --both Democrats and Republicans--to protest Ritter's willingness to offer Colorado's Supermax prison as a place to house some of the world's most hardened terrorists. 

Kester, whose vast, southeastern Colorado district contains more prisons than any other legislative district in the nation, said he's not only concerned about the dangers to Colorado's public safety the Gitmo detainees would present, but also the economic strains they would put on the beleaguered Department of Corrections.

"I don't really think it would be appropriate to mix these terrorists with the current prison population. They're going to be in our prisons recruiting inmates to kill American servicemen and civilians," Kester said. "Besides, there simply isn't enough room.  We don't have the beds or staffing to accommodate that many new prisoners."

Kester and Gardner also believe the terrorists would create a magnet for other possible terror strikes in our state.

"It makes us a target," Gardner said. "If Gov. Ritter has his way, there will be a pipeline of terrorism from Kabul to Colorado."

On Thursday, President Barack Obama, in one of his first acts as head of state, issued an executive order stating that the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba must be closed within one year.  The Associated Press reported that the Supermax prison in Florence is being considered by the Obama Administration as a possible new home for the Gitmo detainees.

Ritter told 9News KUSA, through a spokesman, that he thinks the Supermax facility was built to handle exactly the kind of inmate it would receive from Gitmo.

"If Supermax is chosen, there's no reason to take a 'not in my backyard' approach," a Ritter spokesman told the Associated Press Thursday.

That response was out of sync with other state and national elected officials, including some of Ritter's own Democrat compatriots. Almost all of them either said it was too early to comment on the development, or, as in the case of Democrat Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, outright rejected the idea of her state accommodating any terrorist suspects.

The Republican lawmakers' petition already had garnered 39 signatures--including those of three Senate Democrats--by midday today. Petition organizers say they will continue the effort when the legislature reconvenes on Monday before presenting the petition to the Governor's Office.