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House Backs Detainee Transfers

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to allow detainees being held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba to be transferred to the United States, but only to stand trial.

Passage of the measure, attached to a $42.8 billion appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, was a step forward for President Obama’s efforts to close the Guantánamo prison. The measure now goes to the Senate.

The detainee-transfer provision was resisted by Republicans, who contend that bringing the suspects to trial in the United States would pose a security risk and confer American legal protections on those who do not deserve them. Republicans tried to snip the provision from the overall bill, but the effort failed by 224 to 193, with 25 Democrats joining 168 Republicans on the losing side.

Soon afterward, the larger bill was approved in an anticlimactic 307-to-114 roll call.

Even if the Senate approves the measure, a more difficult question remains: what to do with those detainees who cannot be put on trial but are deemed too dangerous to transfer or let go.

Mr. Obama has set a deadline of Jan. 22 to close the prison, which houses suspects captured in American military operations after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The prison has become a focus of controversy, with critics saying that holding people there indefinitely without charges is contrary to American precepts.

The White House said last month that “significant progress” was being made toward closing the prison, but at the same time seemed to acknowledge that meeting the Jan. 22 deadline would be difficult, or even impossible.

The cases of the approximately 240 detainees who were at Guantánamo Bay when Mr. Obama took office have been reviewed by a joint military-civilian committee, including prosecutors. Of those 240, about 90 have been approved for transfer to other countries; some 17 of the 90 have already been moved.

About 40 other detainees, including 5 men charged before a military tribunal with complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks, have been referred for prosecution in either military or civilian courts.

That leaves about 100 remaining detainees. The administration hopes to relocate some to countries abroad and put others on trial. But as many as several dozen may be held indefinitely without trial, as the authorities have deemed them too dangerous to transfer but, because of problems with evidence, unable to be prosecuted.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 17 of the National edition with the headline: House Allows Guantánamo To Transfer Some to U.S.. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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