Supermax in Florence likely to be new home

Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Zacarias Moussaoui's new home behind bars is expected to be Supermax in Florence, the federal Bureau of Prisons' highest security lockup.

Officially called the United States Penitentiary - Administrative Maximum, the 484-bed facility has become the main prison for those captured in the nation's war on terror.

Nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," the $60 million facility opened in 1994.

Moussaoui will undergo an evaluation to determine his security classification and placement in the prison system, bureau spokesman Mike Truman said. That evaluation could take several weeks.

The bureau has 12 high-security penitentiaries across the country, including one next door to Supermax in Florence.

But it has only one Supermax, reserved for inmates considered the most dangerous and disruptive.

In recent years, most of those convicted in high-profile terrorism crimes have been sent to Supermax. Among them are Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, convicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, and Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, a Pakistani engineer and self-described mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Krista Rear, spokeswoman for the Administrative Maximum facility known as ADMAX, said that there was virtually no chance that Moussaoui would ever come in contact with the other al-Qaida operatives that are among 401 inmates confined at the prison.

High-risk inmates are held in solitary confinement in their cells 23 hours a day, with an hour out for solo exercise.

"As far as physically running into someone or having direct contact, that doesn't happen here," Rear said. "Our inmates do not have physical contact with each other."

Cells are equipped with showers, and meals are delivered to inmates in their cells to restrict interaction. Each cell also is equipped for 24- hour video and audio surveillance.

Not every high-profile U.S. prisoner is housed at Supermax.

Deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is serving his sentence in a medium-security prison in Miami, Truman said.

Residing at Supermax

• Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber"

• Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center

• Eric Rudolph, the abortion-clinic bomber

• Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber

• Terry Nichols, who assisted in staging the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building

• Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Egyptian sheik convicted in a plot to blow up New York City landmarks

• Wadih El-Hage, convicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa