NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military judge on Thursday ordered the government to dismantle a monitoring system that let outside censors halt the public broadcast of hearings for Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.

The closed-circuit broadcast feed was cut for a few minutes during a pretrial hearing at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base on Monday for the self-described mastermind of attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four co-defendants.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Watching the U.S. military tribunal hearings for the men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks can be gut-wrenching for the victims’ families, some of whom are still receiving their relatives’ newly identified remains thanks to improved DNA testing unavailable a decade ago.

Some family visitors have said they are galled to see American lawyers, including some U.S. military lawyers paid with their tax money, fighting vigorously in court to safeguard the rights of what one called “these monsters.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – A U.S. military judge on Thursday ordered the government to immediately dismantle the monitoring system that let outside censors halt the public broadcast of hearings for the Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.

“It is the judge that controls the courtroom,” said the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl. “This is the last time … any other third party will be permitted to unilaterally decide that the broadcast should be suspended.”

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Lawyers defending the Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks on Tuesday sought permission to spend 48 hours in the top-secret prison where the alleged al Qaeda conspirators have awaited trial for more than six years.

“You want to sleep with your client?” Army tribunal judge Colonel James Pohl asked one of the lawyers during a hearing, provoking snickers in the courtroom at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – The sound was abruptly cut in the Guantanamo war crimes court on Monday, prompting the angry judge to question whether someone outside the room was censoring pretrial hearings for five men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

In all hearings for the alleged al Qaeda operatives who were previously held in secret CIA prisons, a court security officer seated near the judge controls a button that muffles the audio feed to spectators when secret information is disclosed. A red light flashes and observers hear nothing but static.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Lawyers for five alleged conspirators who attacked America on September 11 and say they were tortured in secret CIA prisons have asked a U.S. military judge to order that the prisons be preserved as evidence.

The issue is one of more than two dozen on the docket for a week of pretrial hearings that began on Monday in the war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) – Lawyers for five alleged 9/11 conspirators who claim they were tortured in secret CIA prisons have asked a U.S. military judge to order that the prisons be preserved as evidence.

The issue is one of more than two dozen on the docket for a week of pretrial hearings set to begin on Monday in the war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday overturned the Guantanamo war crimes conviction of an al Qaeda videographer, a ruling likely to lead to dismissal of conspiracy charges in the pending trial of five men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw out the conviction of Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza al Bahlul, ruling that the charges of which he was convicted – conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and soliciting murder – were not internationally recognized as war crimes when the acts were committed.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday overturned the Guantanamo war crimes conviction of an al Qaeda videographer, a ruling likely to lead to dismissal of conspiracy charges in the pending trial of five men accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw out the conviction of Yemeni prisoner Ali Hamza al Bahlul, ruling that the charges of which he was convicted – conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and soliciting murder – were not internationally recognized as war crimes when the acts were committed.

By Jane Sutton

(Reuters) – A Pentagon decision to lift a ban on women in front-line combat roles will remove an obstacle that stymied women’s careers but had little meaning on modern battlefields with no clear front lines, U.S. military women said on Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to formally announce on Thursday that he will lift the policy that excluded women from units whose main job is to engage in combat, U.S. defense officials said.