There appears to be broad, bipartisan agreement that prisoners the United States is holding at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should not be brought here, with “here” in this case being any part of whatever state the speaker calls home. That sentiment, however, reveals a lack of concern for the reality of the situation.

Officials from the Department of Defense have reportedly been looking at various sites, including some in Colorado, as alternatives for holding prisoners now kept at Guantanamo. There are 114 prisoners now at the Cuban base, 54 of whom have been cleared for release. What to do with the remaining 60 is the question.

The Obama administration has been rightly trying to close the Guantanamo prison for years. With its prisoners held without the rights accorded criminals in the U.S. or the status of prisoners of war under international law, it is unbecoming a country that honors the rule of law.

But if Guantanamo is closed, those prisoners will have to go somewhere. The obvious choice would be a maximum-security prison in the United States, perhaps including one in Colorado.

That possibility has the state’s federal representatives aghast. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., has said they should not be brought here. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said, “Any plan to move terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to Colorado is unacceptable.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., got in the best licks, saying “That this reckless and irresponsible idea is being considered at all by officials in the Obama Administration shows a careless disregard for the safety and security of Coloradans.”

One would think the plan was to buy the terrorists lift tickets at Purgatory or let them tour Mesa Verde.

The reality, of course, is that anyone brought from Guantanamo to Colorado would most likely see no more of the state than he could while being transported to the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo. Part of the Florence Federal Correction Complex, the facility is an Administrative-Maximum U.S. Penitentiary, usually abbreviated ADX. And it is about the last place on Earth anyone would want to be.

According to information from Amnesty International, cells in the ADX are a little more than 87 square feet in area – less than 9 feet by 10 feet – and contain “a fixed bunk, desk and a stool, as well as a shower and a toilet.” Most prisoners are kept in their cells 23 hours per day and, except for when they are being restrained or escorted by guards, have no human contact – in some cases for years.

Still, while they would likely never see each other, any prisoners brought in from Guantanamo would be in good company. And that is where the congressional outrage is so misplaced. Terrorists in Colorado? They are already here.

Ramzi Yousef, the architect of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, is in the Florence ADX. So is Zacaria Moussaoui, the al-Qaida operative who has sometimes been called the 20th Sept. 11 hijacker. So is Terry Nichols, the guy who helped Timothy McVeigh bomb the Oklahoma City courthouse. (McVeigh was executed.) Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is there too. So are John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, and Eric Rudolph, Atlanta’s Olympic Park bomber, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who bombed the Boston Marathon. Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik, is there, along with a world-class collection of gangsters and murderers.

Colorado already has a Syrian city’s worth of terrorists in Florence, and has for some time. The Guantanamo guys would fit right in.