President Obama sent his plan to close the Guantanamo prison to Capitol Hill, where it was met with immediate condemnation. (Jason Aldag,Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post) 
 
 President Obama sent his plan to close the Guantanamo prison to Capitol Hill, where it was met with immediate condemnation. (Jason Aldag,Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post) 
 
 President Obama urged lawmakers on Tuesday to help him close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, making his case for a White House plan to shutter a detention facility he said symbolizes excesses that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 
 
 “This is about closing a chapter in our history,” said Obama, flanked by Vice President Biden and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, in remarks at the White House. “It reflects the lessons that we’ve learned since 9/11, lessons that need to guide our nation going forward.” 
 
 [Read: Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo] 
 
 Obama’s blueprint, which added some detail to earlier White House plans to move as many as 60 prisoners to the United States for trial or continued detention, was met with immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill. 
 
 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the few senior Republicans who has expressed openness to closing the detention center, said the nine-page plan failed to address basic questions. In a statement, McCain said Obama had “missed a major chance” to build support for closing the prison before he steps down in January. 
 
 
 
 
 
 “What we received today is a vague menu of options, not a credible plan for closing Guantanamo, let alone a coherent policy to deal with future terrorist detainees,” he said. 
 
 The instant rejection makes it unlikely the plan will advance in the Republican-controlled Congress, meaning Obama must use executive action and further incense his opponents if he intends to achieve one of his core national security goals. 
 
 At the heart of the debate is whether the U.S. government can securely house or try on American soil any of the 91 prisoners remaining at the prison. 
 
 [Saudi inmate repatriated as protesters mark Guantanamo milestone] 
 
 Whether Obama can make good on his long-standing promise to close Guantanamo will also shape his legacy and provide an important measure of how far he was able to go in distinguishing his presidency from that of George W. Bush, who opened the prison in 2002 and filled it with nearly 800 suspected militants. 
 
 Obama argued Tuesday that Guantanamo remains a rallying call for terrorists. 
 
 “I don’t want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is,” Obama said. “If, as a nation, we don’t deal with this now, when will we deal with it?” 
 
 President Obama outlines a plan for closing the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Reuters) 
 
 To allow the closure plan to move forward, lawmakers would have to alter current laws that prohibit the administration from spending any money on bringing detainees to the United States or even making plans for doing so. 
 
 Since he took office in 2009, Obama has resettled overseas 147 Guantanamo prisoners who were deemed to pose a minimal security risk. Of the 91 remaining at the prison, 35 have been cleared for transfer to other nations. Ten more are in some stage of a slow-moving military trial process. 
 
 Previewing the closure blueprint Tuesday morning, senior Obama aides said that 30 to 60 detainees are expected to be brought to U.S. facilities if the plan is approved. In the document, the administration said it had reviewed 13 potential facilities in the United States that might be used to house detainees, but it did not name them. 
 
 If brought to the United States, some of those detainees would continue through military commissions; others might face trial in civilian courts. Early in the Obama administration, officials planned to bring a number of Guantanamo prisoners to stand trial in federal court but backed down amid political objections. 
 
 [Guantanamo population to fall below 100 for first time in 14 years] 
 
 In instances where prosecutors lack evidence or see potential evidence as problematic, other detainees, deemed too dangerous to release, would probably be detained indefinitely without trial. 
 
 Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Guantanamo has been a “blight” on the United States’ reputation worldwide. “It is well beyond time to shut it down,” she said in a statement. “But transferring some detainees to the U.S. for continued detention is not a solution. Most detainees at Guantanamo have been held there for nearly 14 years without charge or trial in clear violation of international law.” 
 
 White House officials have also tried to make a fiscal case for closing the prison. 
 
 According to the plan, it would cost between $290 million and $475 million to prepare a facility in the United States and transfer detainees there. But officials estimated that within three to five years, the lower annual costs of a U.S. facility with fewer detainees would “generate at least $335 million in net savings over 10 years and up to $1.7 billion in net savings over 20 years.” 
 
 [Afghan courts said these ex-U.S. detainees should be freed. Why weren’t they?] 
 
 It costs almost $450 million a year to operate the prison at Guantanamo. 
 
 Officials conceded that their budgetary estimates were rough, saying the lack of precision was a result of the congressional prohibition on planning for the prison’s closure. 
 
 The Obama administration must also grapple with objections from critics who argue that Guantanamo detainees are too dangerous to release. 
 
 According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, six detainees released since Obama took office were confirmed as of July to have returned to militant activity. 
 
 Each suspected case has made the White House’s argument harder to make. On Tuesday, Spanish authorities said they had arrested a former Guantanamo inmate who they believe was involved in recruiting fighters for the Islamic State. 
 
 “President Obama’s determination to move some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists to U.S. soil is inexplicable and unacceptable,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 
 
 Obama declined to address whether he will try to close the prison even if Congress opposes his plan. For months, the president’s top advisers have hinted that the White House may try to take executive action on Guantanamo, essentially going around Congress. 
 
 While military leaders have signaled that they do not currently believe they have the authority to take steps to close the prison, the White House or the Justice Department could issue a new interpretation of existing law and instruct the Pentagon to do so. 
 
 A former senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss administration deliberations, said that ordering officials to defy Congress would require “the mother of all [Justice Department] opinions.” 
 
 The blueprint did receive support from some lawmakers, including Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who urged fellow lawmakers to consider it. 
 
 “Let’s be clear,” Reed said in a statement. “Closing GITMO does not mean releasing anyone, setting bad guys free, or doing anything other than putting them in a highly secure prison and on trial under the right military tribunal system or legal process.” 
 
 Obama’s announcement immediately became fodder for the presidential campaign trail. On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called for expanding Guantanamo, not closing it. 
 
 Speaking at a rally in Nevada, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) promised that, if he is elected, future captured militants will not be granted a federal court hearing. “They are going to Guantanamo, and we are going to find out everything they know,” he said. 
 
 Republican presidential candidates have already promised that if elected, they would overturn any executive action Obama has taken. 
 
 Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Former Guantanamo prisoner demands Obama close a facility meant to ‘destroy’ people 
 
 Use of psychologists at Guantanamo Bay prison reduced with general’s order ||||| In this Feb. 6, 2016 photo, a detainee cell in Camp 6 is seen inside the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Running out of time and options to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Feb. 6, 2016 photo, a detainee cell in Camp 6 is seen inside the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Running out of time and options to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, the... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is running out of time and options to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, so officials are scrambling to release as many prisoners as possible and considering novel legal strategies that include allowing some men to strike plea deals by video-teleconference. 
 
 Another option would be to send others to foreign countries to be prosecuted. But it still looks to be too late to close the prison before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, denying him the chance to fulfill a campaign pledge. 
 
 There's the difficulty in transferring prisoners from the U.S. base in Cuba, questions about the legality of plea deals and solid opposition in Congress to anything that might help Obama achieve that promise. 
 
 "The clock has struck midnight and the American people have won," said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who has said he would oppose any effort to move detainees to prison facilities in his state. "The president needs to admit that." 
 
 Later this month, lawmakers are on track to extend a ban on moving detainees to U.S. soil. That would leave the president with no way to make the January 2017 deadline, barring an unexpected reversal in Congress or a politically explosive executive order. 
 
 The White House increasingly is pointing to a parallel strategy: trying to shrink the number of detainees in hopes of persuading lawmakers that Guantanamo is too expensive to sustain as a prison. 
 
 Of the 80 remaining detainees, 30 have been cleared for an overseas transfer. Most will leave starting in late June and continuing into July, according to a U.S. official. Those prisoners will go to a number of countries, including at least one in Europe, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the administration had not authorized public release of the information. 
 
 Seven additional detainees are facing trial by military commission, including five charged with planning and supporting the Sept. 11 attacks. Three others have been convicted. But commission proceedings have gone on at a glacial pace. In April, the Pentagon put forward fresh proposals for Guantanamo, but none has been incorporated into defense legislation moving through Congress. 
 
 The remaining 40 were either at one time considered for prosecution or held as indefinite "law of war detainees" until the end of hostilities in the fight against terrorism that began after the 2001 attacks. The United States started using Guantanamo for suspects in January 2002; at its peak, the facility held about 680 prisoners. 
 
 U.S. officials have chipped away at those numbers through the Periodic Review Board, a multiagency task force that conducts parole-style hearings for men once deemed too dangerous to release. 
 
 The board did not hold a hearing until November 2013, but recently it has picked up its pace, holding more than 20 so far this year. Outcomes are leaning heavily in prisoners' favor. If the government keeps up its current pace of about two per week, it wouldn't complete hearings, much less arrange for transfers, until December. 
 
 The U.S. also is working with other governments to prosecute some detainees overseas, the official said. These could be prisoners accused of conduct outside the U.S. involving offenses against citizens of other countries. It would otherwise be difficult or impossible to prosecute these men in an American court. 
 
 One possible example would be Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, a 42-year-old Kenyan accused of involvement in plots in Mombasa in November 2002: an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel, in which 13 people died, and an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner. 
 
 The official declined to identify any specific cases but said there could be five to 10 in all. 
 
 The defense bill up for debate in the Senate soon includes a provision that would allow detainees to enter guilty pleas — via video teleconference — in federal civilian courts. If a judge accepts the plea, the detainee would be sentenced and transferred to serve that sentence in a foreign prison. 
 
 In conversations with advocates, White House officials have said the Justice Department has reservations about such guilty plea proposals. Chief among the concerns is whether the judge could accept the guilty pleas as entered by the defendant knowingly and voluntarily — a bedrock principle of the American criminal justice system — while there is no mechanism in place to stand trial. The prisoner's only other choice is continued, indefinite detention. 
 
 The White House has not taken a position, but suggested it is receptive to the idea. The president believes it is "important that we have available to us a variety of tools at our disposal," National Security Council spokesman Myles Caggins said in a statement, which also noted that federal courts have an "outstanding record" of handling terrorism cases. 
 
 Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who has represented many Guantanamo prisoners over the years, including three still held, said the ability to strike a plea deal in federal court would benefit relatively few detainees. He said the renewed administration interest in closing the prison is hard to take seriously now. 
 
 "Those efforts and that kind of resolve should have been shown over the course of the eight years of the Obama administration and not in its final moments," said Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
– President Obama is considering overriding a congressional ban on bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the US in an effort to close the Cuban prison, the Wall Street Journal reports. Lawmakers are strongly against the move, which "would ignite a political firestorm, even if it's the best resolution for the Guantanamo problem," a law professor explains. You might recall that a previous use of executive power could soon see the president sued. But White House officials say Obama is "unwavering in his commitment" to move Gitmo's 149 inmates and close the prison's doors, something the president apparently sees as key to his legacy. What will Obama do? Well, he has two options, the Journal points out. One: He vetoes the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes the ban on transferring detainees to the US, after the midterm elections. Two: He signs the bill but argues the ban infringes on his powers as commander in chief. While officials won't say to which US facilities the prisoners would shift—the Journal reports Charleston's military brig seems likely—Obama will likely lessen the blow by moving some of the 79 detainees cleared for transfer to places outside the US; Estonia, for example, has already agreed to accept one prisoner, and other European countries are willing. That isn't likely to please many, however. The most recent Gallup poll on the issue finds 66% of Americans want Guantanamo to stay open.