WH Lauds House Vote Allowing Gitmo Detainees To US For Trial

The Obama White House hailed a House vote Thursday to defeat a GOP-led effort to block the transfer of any Guantanamo Bay detainee to US soil - even for prosecution.

"This was the most important legislative vote out there and it gives us a sense of victory," said a  senior administration official close to White House deliberations on closing the detention facility.

"It give us the fundamental ability to close down Guantanamo," the official said. "And on the political side of it at least we've stabilized and we' re dealing with the hysteria we dealt with this spring."

But the White House was not so celebratory as to release a formal statement praising the House vote. Another top White House aide said it's too early to draw attention to Guantanamo policy because variables dealing with security, detention and trial of suspected terrorists remain unsettled.

"We don't want to be spiking the football on the 20 yard line," the aide said. "We still have a ways to go."

The House voted 224-193 to allow detainees to moved to the US for trial. The vote came on a amendment to the $42.8 billion Homeland Security spending bill. That overall bill passed 307-114 and now moves to the Senate, where swift passage is expected. Obama could sign the bill as early as next week.

Read the Homeland Security spending bill's precise language on Guantanamo detainees on page 5 of 5 here.

An Obama executive order closing Guantanamo by Jan. 22, 2010 remains in place, but senior officials readily concede the detention facility will remain open for after that deadline passes - due in part to what officials call unexpected security and legal complexities.

"Every department has equities in this decision," the official said. "It's one of the most challenging things we're doing."

The "hysteria" the official referred to deals with early bipartisan calls from lawmakers to leave Guantanamo open and not bring detainees to the US under any circumstances. Generally, Republicans still push this policy. But Democrats have recently moved behind Obama's push to shutter Guantanamo.

In fact, a non-binding vote to that effect on Oct. 1 temporarily scuttled the Homeland Security spending bill. In that vote, 88 Democrats broke ranks and sided with Republicans who pushed the measure to derail Obama's attempt to close Guantanamo. Today, 63 Democrats switched sides, clearing the way for the Homeland Security spending bill.

"Support from the leadership turned it around," the White House official said. "That and the realization on our side that we know what we are doing. They know there are national security advantages to closing Guantanamo."

Obama will soon have the legal ability to move detainees to the US. But that alone does not solve two enormous problems: where to house detainees and how to prosecute them.

A senior official said there's no timetable on deciding where the detainees will be imprisoned.

"It's not that far off," the official said. "Any site is going to need some measure of work to it before it's ready. Security is paramount. We are not going to pick a site because it's going to be faster for it to be made ready.We're not going to do anything to unduly rush it to meet this deadline."

The official said the White House is considering no more than two facilities to house detainees. Either facility will be a Super Max prison, built to house the highest risk criminals. Some high-level Al Qaeda operatives are already imprisoned in Super Max facilities.

"It's the hardest step," the official said, describing the decision on where to house detainees in the US. "It's the final piece of this."

The White House is also close to finalizing - within the "next couple of weeks," the aide said - its classification for detainees that will be transferred to the third countries, be tried in the US in military commissions or civilian courts and those who will be detained indefinitely without trial.

"We are very confident in our ability to do that, " the official said, adding that officials from the White House,  Justice Department,  State Department and Defense Department meet weekly on the Guantanamo issue.

Obama last chaired a meeting on Guantanamo at the White House in early September, the official said.