THE US President, Barack Obama, is planning to take back the initiative in the debate unleashed by his order to shut Guantanamo Bay, which has been criticised by both opponents and supporters.
The move comes amid reports that the US Government will bring a top al-Qaeda suspect held at Guantanamo to trial in New York.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, would be the first former detainee at Guantanamo, the US naval base where 240 terrorist suspects are held, to face trial in a civilian court in the United States.
Mr Obama was due to make a major national security speech overnight as the former vice president Dick Cheney delivered his own address, leading Republican charges that Mr Obama's national security policies leave America vulnerable to terrorists.
The President chose the National Archives, which houses the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, to argue that his effort to reframe the legal front in the battle against terrorism honours US values. The speech comes just a day after his plan to close the "war on terror" camp in Cuba suffered a rebuke in the Senate, and after a tough FBI warning not to bring detainees to US soil.
Mr Obama's Democratic allies joined Republican critics in a lopsided vote that stripped $US80 million ($103 million) he requested to shut the facility. Still, the White House insisted Mr Obama would work with Congress to honour his vow to shut Guantanamo by January, a year after taking office.
Obama aides describe the heavily fortified encampment as a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and other extremist groups and a stain on the US image abroad. But working out how to close the facility, and bring its inmates to justice, or send them to third countries, is proving a headache.
Mr Obama is under pressure to decide the fate of the detainees, many of whom have not been charged. Some may be impossible to try - as their evidence may be inadmissible due to interrogation methods branded as torture - but may also be judged too dangerous to release.
While under attack from Republicans, Mr Obama will also hope to lance the fury of his own supporters. Many were dismayed by his decision to reconstitute Bush-era military tribunals.
