House-Senate panel offers plan for Gitmo detainees

[October 08, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Obama's troubled plan to close the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has cleared a key obstacle in Congress.

Congressional negotiators unveiled a compromise Wednesday that would continue allowing Guantanamo Bay prisoners to be transferred to United States to face trial.

Under the plan, detainees could not be released into the U.S. and could not serve sentences in U.S. prisons.

The move sets up a clash with Republicans and a potentially difficult vote for dozens of House Democrats. Only last week the House approved a GOP plan to block any transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees into the U.S.

Obama's order to close the Guantanamo Bay facility by mid-January has vexed his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill.

[Associated Press]

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