The Obama administration, responding to restrictions imposed by Congress, issued guidelines late Tuesday on when the FBI can take custody of newly arrested terrorism detainees.

It's clear the federal government intends to squeeze as much flexibility as it can from the restrictions included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 aimed at giving the military control of those detainees.

What to do with captured terrorists has divided Congress. The issue came to a flash point after the arrest of Umar Abdulmutallab, the so-called “Underwear Bomber,” who attempted to detonate explosives on a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam.

Some Republicans called to have Abdulmutallab tried before a military commission and declared an enemy combatant. Some Democrats pushed for him to be tried in civilian court, where he eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

The new law requires that the United States military take custody of non-U.S. citizens closely linked to al-Qaida who have helped plan or carry out an attack against the U.S. or one of its coalition partners. But under the regulations issued late Tuesday, that won't happen instantly.

"A rigid, inflexible requirement to place suspected terrorists into military custody would undermine the national security interests of the United States," says the policy directive issued by the White House.

Under the new procedures, a federal agent who suspects that a terrorist might fall under the rules must notify the U.S. attorney general. The suspect could be transferred to military custody only with the approval of the attorney general, chairman of the joint chiefs, director of national intelligence, and the secretaries of the State, Defense, and Homeland Security departments.

Even then, the suspect might be transferred back to civilian custody to be put on trial, the rules say.

The law also gives the president authority to waive the military custody requirement for individuals or entire categories of cases. President Obama has issued waivers in advance for certain situations, including times when "placing a foreign country's nationals or residents in military custody will impede counterterrorism cooperation," or when a foreign government refuses to extradite a suspect to the U.S. if that would mean placing the suspect in military custody.

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DETROIT -- Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound international flight with and underwear bomb on Christmas Day 2009 on behalf of al-Qaida, was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday.

The hearing before federal Judge Nancy Edmunds was an open platform for Abdulmutallab and passengers and crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 who wanted to speak.

Abdulmutallab, 25, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, pleaded guilty in October and admitted he was on a suicide mission for al-Qaida when he tried to detonate explosive chemicals hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

In his court statement Thursday, according to NBC station WDIV of Detroit, Abdulmutallab praised Allah and ranted that his life and the life of Muslims has changed. He said al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and other terrorists the government says were killed are alive.

He called his sentencing hearing a day of victory and claimed U.S. attorneys on his case intentionally misquoted him and mishandled his case "to achieve their Hebrew goals." He said the Jews need to be "ripped out of Palestine … the capital of the Muslim world."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathleen Corken played an FBI video to demonstrate the destructive force of explosives similar to those Abdulmutallab carried. A brief but intense flame was seen in slow motion when the explosives were detonated in an outdoor field on a sheet of aluminum sitting on two wooden sawhorses.

Edmunds, in sentencing Abdulmutallab to multiple life sentences, said, “The defendant has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission,” The Detroit Free Press reported. “To the contrary, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission.”

As Edmunds said the sentence was "just punishment" for what he had done, Abdulmutallab sat quietly with his hands folded under his chin and did not show any reaction.

Inside the courtroom: Updates from NBC station WDIV

The government said Abdulmutallab first performed a ritual in the airplane lavatory — brushing his teeth and perfuming himself — and returned to his seat. The device didn't work as planned, but still produced flame, smoke and panic in the cabin.

In a defiant speech as he pleaded guilty in October, Abdulmutallab said he was carrying a "blessed weapon" to avenge Muslims who have been killed or poorly treated around the world. He admitted he was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and leading al-Qaida figure in Yemen who was killed by a U.S. drone strike last fall.

"The Quran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them ... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Abdulmutallab said.

Anthony Chambers, an attorney appointed to assist Abdulmutallab, had urged Edmunds to declare that a mandatory life sentence is unconstitutional, claiming it is a cruel punishment in a case where no one but Abdulmutallab was physically hurt. His groin was badly burned.

The government said that is not the threshold.

"Unsuccessful terrorist attacks still engender fear in the broader public, which, after all, is one of their main objectives," prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. "In addition, the enormous cost of the augmented security measures adopted as a direct result of defendant's unsuccessful terrorist attack are borne by the American public at large in both increased cost, inconvenience and wasted time at airports."

Among  four passengers and a crew member who testified, WDIV reported, was Kurt Haskell, a lawyer who was traveling with his wife, Lori. Haskell, reiterating charges in his blog, said the government conspired with Abdulmutallab to carry a defective bomb onto the plane to give the government a reason to install full-body scanners at airports.

The Associated Press reported that passenger Shama Chopra, 56, of Montreal, also plans to speak in court. She ran unsuccessfully for the Canadian Parliament in 2011, a race she couldn't have imagined joining years ago.

"I don't have to feel weak," Chopra said Wednesday. "I don't have to be scared of anything. God has given me a second chance to live."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ABC News via Getty Images

This handout government image provided by ABC news shows the underwear with the explosive worn by alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in his failed attempt to down a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit on Dec. 28, 2009.

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AP file

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has admitted trying to detonate an explosive device on a Dec. 25, 2009, flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Al-Qaida leader Anwar al-Awlaki personally directed and approved the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner that a Nigerian man tried to carry out on Christmas 2009, according to new details released by federal prosecutors on Friday.

Awlaki was a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the militant group's affiliate in Yemen, before he was killed in a drone strike last year. Awlaki directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to carry out a strike aboard an American airliner over U.S. soil, prosecutors say.

"Awlaki's last instructions to him were to wait until the airplane was over the United States and then to take the plane down," according to court papers. Awlaki left it up to Abdulmutallab to pick the flight and date, the papers said.

Abdulmutallab, 25, is due to be sentenced Thursday in Detroit and faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges he tried to down a Northwest Airlines jumbo jet with 289 people aboard on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The bomb, hidden in his underwear, failed to fully detonate and he was subdued. The incident led U.S. security officials to quickly bolster airport security, deploying full-body scanners to try to detect explosives hidden in clothing.

In urging the federal court to impose a life sentence on Abdulmutallab, federal prosecutors Friday revealed new details about his contact in Yemen with Awlaki.

“This removes any doubt that Anwar al-Awlaki was directing this operation from soup to nuts,” a White House official said Friday, according to NBC News,  Some civil libertarians have said the U.S. lacked legal authority to kill Awlaki, who was a U.S. citizen.

“Congress has clearly granted the authority to target U.S. citizens who take up arms against the United States,” the official said. 

Among the details, according to prosecutors:

Abdulmutallab followed Awlaki's online teachings for several years and went to Yemen in 2009 hoping to arrange a meeting. He visited mosques and asked people he met if they knew how he could meet Awlaki, eventually finding someone who offered to help.

He received a text message from Awlaki and the two later talked by phone. After sending a long message about why he wanted to engage in jihad, Abdulmutallab was cleared to meet Awlaki and was driven through the desert to Awlaki's house, where he stayed for three days, discussing martyrdom. 

He was then driven to another house, where he met Ibrahim al-Asiri, the bomb maker for al-Qaida in Yemen. They talked about a plan for the terrorism mission, and Abdulmutallab was trained in al-Qaida camp.

Al-Asiri made the underwear bomb, delivered it to Abdulmutallab, and told him how to detonate it -- by pushing the plunger of a syringe that would mix two chemicals, starting a fire, and setting off the main explosive charge.

Abdulmutallab recorded a five-minute martyrdom video and left Yemen, with the authority to choose the flight and date to attack. 

In October, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty days after his trial began, saying he commited the crime because he wanted to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims by the United States.

In a sentencing memorandum filed in federal court in Detroit, prosecutors urged a judge to sentence Abdulmutallab to the maximum of life in a U.S. prison.

Obama administration officials said the information about Abdulmutallab’s activities in Yemen were obtained from his interrogation by an FBI agent.

“This demonstrates that it’s not necessary to charge terrorists as enemy combatants and put them before military tribunals in order to gain valuable intelligence,” a White House official said Friday.

NBC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pete Williams and Reuters contributed to this story.

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