Washington ? President Barack Obama said Friday he would reform and restart the military tribunals he once reviled for Guantanamo Bay detainees, jeopardizing his timetable for closing the prison by January and dismaying many supporters who suggested he was going back on campaign promises.

Now, after the detainees are given stronger legal protections — a ban on evidence obtained under cruel duress, for example — the trials of 13 defendants in nine cases will be restarted no sooner than September. Five of the 13 are charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The rest of the 241 Guantanamo detainees will either be released, transferred to other countries, tried in civilian U.S. federal courts or, potentially, held indefinitely as prisoners of war with full Geneva Conventions rights.

“This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,” Obama said, announcing his decision to renew the tribunals in a three-paragraph White House statement. The administration said he was not embracing the Bush-era system because it would be so significantly changed.

However, his action was almost instantly denounced by a host of liberal-leaning groups that championed his presidential campaign last year.

“In one swift move, Obama both backtracks on a major campaign promise to change the way the United States fights terrorism and undermines the nation’s core respect for the rule of law,” said Amnesty International executive director Larry Cox.

“There is no such thing as ‘due process light,'” said American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony D. Romero.

“As a constitutional lawyer, Obama must know that he can put lipstick on this pig — but it will always be a pig,” said Zachary Katznelson, legal director of Reprieve, a London-based legal action charity that represents 33 Guantanamo detainees.

Obama’s announcement was greeted more warmly on Capitol Hill, where he will need broad support to quickly push through tribunal changes. The White House hopes to do so before mid-September, when a new 120-day freeze the president put on the cases Friday runs out.

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the changes “essential in order to address the serious deficiencies in existing procedures.” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said the announcement was an “encouraging development.”

“By taking this action, President Obama has reinforced that we are at war, and that the laws of war should apply to these prisoners,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.