Updated at: 0737 PST, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US Congress on Tuesday gave President Barack Obama the green light to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to US soil for trial, in a boost to his efforts to close the notorious facility. The legislation, part of a 42.7-billion-dollar bill to fund the US Department of Homeland Security in 2010, cleared the Senate 79-19 after sailing through the House of Representatives last week. Obama vowed on his second day in office to shutter the facility, a magnet for global criticism of US tactics in the "war on terrorism," by January 22, though White House aides say they face an uphill fight to keep that promise. Of the roughly 220 people still held at the controversial prison camp, which then-president George W. Bush opened in January 2002, about 80 are waiting to be released and a further 60 are expected to be prosecuted. The legislation forbids the release of detainees at the US naval base in Cuba onto US soil -- including...
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