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Illinois prison tapped for Gitmo detainees

CHICAGO, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- An underused state prison in Illinois will be home to dozens of terror suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military facility, federal officials said.

The Obama administration was to announce Tuesday the 1,600-bed Thomson Correctional Center, about 150 miles northwest of Chicago, will be acquired and upgraded, The Washington Post reported. President Obama made the move despite objections of Illinois Republicans, who said they fear the transfer of prisoners could make the state a target for terrorists.

The acquisition of the Thomson penal facility helps Obama fulfill a pledge he made shortly after his inauguration to close the Guantanamo Bay facility.

The Thomson prison could house 35 to 90 of the Guantanamo detainees, one source familiar with the discussions told Tribune Newspapers. The official said the maximum security prison, which houses about 44 minimum security inmates, would house federal inmates as well as "a limited number of detainees" from Guantanamo Bay.

"Closing the detention center at Guantanamo is essential to protecting our national security and helping our troops by removing a deadly recruiting tool from the hands of al-Qaida," the official said.

Administration officials estimated about 3,800 jobs could be created.

A Dec. 22 hearing on the Thomson prison is scheduled before the bipartisan state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, which will make an advisory recommendation that Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn can accept or reject on whether to close the prison, which never was used to its capacity.

U.S., China at impasse over verification

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- How to monitor and verify climate change treaty compliance led to a U.S.-Chinese standoff during the climate change summit in Denmark, negotiators said.

China, which announced a target for reducing the rate of growth of its greenhouse gas emission, has rejected any kind of international monitoring while the United States says the lack of stringent verification of China's actions could be a deal-breaker, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The stalemate occurred Monday as the U.N.-sponsored climate change gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark, moved into its second and final week.

"I think there's no doubt that China, when it says 40 (percent) to 45 percent reduction in energy intensity, is serious about that," Ed Miliband, the British secretary of state for energy and climate change, told the Times.

The more challenging quest was finding a way that China can prove it is reducing its emissions by the amount it claims, Miliband said.

He Yafei, the Chinese vice foreign minister, said China's laws would guarantee compliance, calling the issue "a matter of principle."

Todd Stern, the lead U.S. negotiator at the conference, said Monday overall progress was made to reach an agreement.

"In any big and complicated negotiation, and this may be the biggest and most complicated ever, it never goes smoothly," he said. "It never goes as planned. There's always bumps."

U.S. President Obama and other world leaders said they hoped to strike an interim agreement while in Copenhagen, but a binding international pact likely won't be completed until next year.

Report: Drone strikes could widen

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Some U.S. officials want to extend CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas to Quetta, where Taliban leaders are suspected of hiding, officials said.

The proposal is seen as a way to convince the Pakistani government to go on its own after Taliban leaders, including Mullah Mohammad Omar based in Quetta, the Los Angeles Times reported. Taliban leaders in Quetta are suspected of directing their fighters against the U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Quetta, a city of 850,000, is the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province and there is concern among other officials in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama about extending the drone strikes in such a large city, the report said. But those who support the proposal say the threat of such strikes is essential for the success of Obama's war strategy, the report said.

"What the Pakistanis have to do is tell the Taliban that there is too much pressure from the U.S.; we can't allow you to have sanctuary inside Pakistan anymore," a senior U.S. official involved in war planning told the newspaper.

Pakistani officials say the fallout from attacking Quetta would be severe.

CIA drone strikes have focused on border trail areas and have been conducted with the consent of the Pakistani government, the report said.

U.S. officials have told Pakistan about the urgency of dismantling the Taliban Quetta Shura because of the July 2011 date set for the start of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the report said.

A senior Pakistani official told the newspaper U.S. claims about Quetta have been exaggerated.

"We keep hearing that there is a shadow government in Quetta, but we have never been given actionable intelligence," he said.

Israel: Christmas pilgrims to have access

JERUSALEM, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The Israeli Army has assured Christian pilgrims they will have free access to Jesus' birthplace in Bethlehem during the Christmas holidays.

Lt.-Col. Eyad Sirhan, commander of the Israeli Defense Force's Civil Administration Bethlehem Coordination and Liaison Office, met with a wide range of Christian leaders Monday and told them the Army would do everything in its power to provide freedom of movement for the more than 65,000 Christians expected to visit the West Bank town on Christmas Eve, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The newspaper said Sirhan met in Jerusalem with priests, archbishops and friars from the Latin Catholic, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan, Lutheran, Anglican, Syrian Orthodox, Ethiopian and Armenian Christian sects, some of which date back to the Byzantine era.

The commander reportedly said Israeli soldiers have been admonished to treat Christian pilgrims and leaders with respect at security checkpoints.

"The IDF is responsible for security for the processions from Jerusalem until they reach Bethlehem, which is located in Area A," the Post quoted Sirhan as saying. "From that point on the Palestinian Authority will be responsible for security. We are not coordinating with (the Palestinian militant group) Hamas."

Techs recover 22 million Bush e-mails

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Computer techs recovered about 22 million e-mails former U.S. President George Bush said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the missives said.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it could be years before most of the e-mails, dating from 2003 to 2005, are made public, CNN reported Tuesday.

"The e-mails themselves are not what we're getting," Sloan said.

Documents on how the Bush administration e-mails were handled as well as subsequent information on how White House e-mails now are archived will be released under terms of a settlement reached with President Obama's administration, which inherited the 2007 lawsuit filed by CREW and National Security Archive, CNN said. But the National Archives must sort out which documents are covered by the Freedom of Information Act and which ones are protected by the Presidential Records Act, meaning they could be withheld for five to 10 years after the Bush administration left, Sloan said.

The e-mail flap dates back to the 2006 firings of several federal prosecutors. When congressional committees demanded the administration provide documents related to the firings, the White House said millions of e-mails could have been lost. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive sued, arguing the Bush administration violated federal laws requiring presidential records to be preserved.