GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- A military judge Thursday refused a defense request for delay and confirmed alleged al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed's June 5 court date at the military commissions, along with four other alleged 9/11 co-conspirators.

In doing so, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann accepted the Pentagon prosecutor's request to go forward with the prosecution of five men for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, starting with their first-ever court appearances at a June 5 arraignment.

"The interests of justice in this case will be best served by completion of the initial session and arraignment as previously ordered on 5 June 2008," Kohlmann wrote in a three-page decision.

He said he recognized that "there are many logistic and legal issues that will need to be addressed in this case. It is precisely because of the anticipated complexity of this case, that it is important that the process get underway."

The court date will set into motion a series of pre-trial hearings ahead of the complex capital conspiracy case that accuses five alleged senior al Qaeda leaders here of orchestrating the suicide missions that killed 2,973 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field.

Defense lawyers for Mohammed, who is known in CIA circles as KSM; Ramzi bin al Shibh; Ammar al Baluchi; Waleed Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi had sought delay on grounds they needed time to build death-penalty defense teams.

They also sought more time to forge attorney-client relationships with the five men whom the CIA had secretly held and interrogated overseas for years before their September 2006 transfer to Guantánamo.

Some complained of insufficient secured office space here at Guantánamo to work on the cases, which require that lawyers have Top Secret security clearances.

Prosecutors had opposed any delay.

They said, ''All that stuff has been resolved. Let's go forward,'' said Air Force Maj. Gail Crawford, spokeswoman for the Office of Military Commissions.

That date is likely to precede a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether Guantánamo detainees are entitled to challenge their detention in civilian courts, expected before the high court ends this year's term in late June. That ruling could have some indirect bearing on the commissions, the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War II.

Arraignment is the formal reading of charges, with the accused and their attorneys in court -- in this instance accusing the five men of the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.

It is the first capital case to go before a commission.

By military commissions rules, an accused must go before a war court judge within 30 days of approval and service of charges -- unless the defense seeks and gets a delay.

Bin al Shibh's attorney, Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, said she believed her client was prepared for the first hearing, to be held in a state-of-the-art $12 million, maximum-security, eavesdrop-proof courtroom specially equipped to try five defendants simultaneously.

She would not elaborate, citing restrictions on attorneys' public comments about the former CIA held captives.

But she declared herself disappointed that the judge had not accepted the need for delay, argued in five separate briefs by military defense attorneys assigned by the Pentagon's chief defense counsel to defend the alleged terrorists.

''There are still very valid resource issues that we raised,'' Lachelier said, "and I'm quite frankly dismayed that the judge didn't stop the process.

"Every other case has allowed continuance for arraignment for much less significant reasons -- and here we have five and he won't grant an extension.''

Some 60 U.S. and international journalists are expected to report on the event, the first opportunity to see Mohammed, whom the CIA now confirms it subjected to waterboarding during secret custody.

The Army Reserves attorney for Hawsawi, an alleged Saudi financier of the 9/11 plot, likewise declared himself disappointed.

"Mr. Hawsawi has been held for more than 4 years without a hearing or access to a lawyer,'' said Maj. Jon Jackson. "Now he is being rushed into the courtroom after only two meetings with me, his lead counsel. ''

Hawsawi had yet the second of his two Pentagon attorneys, Jackson said. He also declared the defense lawyers' facilities "completely inadequate for this type of proceeding.''

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