An Army judge who is defying a White House request to freeze the Pentagon's war court ruled Thursday that he would decide at next week's hearing at Guantánamo whether the military's security measures impaired a captive's ability to defend himself.

Accused al Qaeda plotter Abd al Rahim Nashiri's arraignment is slated for Monday at the remote Navy base. He faces capital terror charges alleging he conspired in the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.

Prosecution officials have invited the families of some of the dead sailors to watch the proceedings -- which could be derailed if Defense Secretary Robert Gates or another Pentagon official withdraws the charges.

Media members were also told Thursday to be ready to travel to the base Saturday from Washington, D.C.

The prospect of the hearing is setting up a tug-of-war over whether the Pentagon will honor President Barack Obama's Jan. 22 Executive Order instructing Gates to stop the military commissions for 120 days.

Meantime, defense attorneys had asked the judge, Army Col. James Pohl to intervene in the circumstances by which Nashiri would be taken from his Guantánamo prison camp to the war court. The two are several miles apart at the U.S. Navy base.

The CIA has confirmed that it waterboarded Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, to extract information during several years of secret custody before his transfer to Guantánamo in September 2006. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he considers waterboarding to be torture.

So Nashiri's defense attorneys had asked the judge for a cease-and-desist order in ``the practice of covering the eyes and ears of the accused whenever [he] is transported from his cell.''

Defense lawyers argued in a motion filed Jan. 9 that the treatment causes psychological harm as ``a re-infliction of . . . tortuous treatment.''

Prosecutors countered that the judge had no authority to interfere in the prison camps' treatment of the accused.

Pohl said in his two-page ruling dated Thursday that the judge ``does have the authority to address detainee security issues if they impact on the accused's ability to prepare his defense.''

The judge added that, once Nashiri was brought to the war court Monday, for his first-ever hearing, Pohl would consider delaying it if the defense ``believes the transportation of the accused has impaired his ability to participate in the proceedings.''

Pohl had earlier refused to stop the Nashiri arraignment, ruling: ``The public interest in a speedy trial will be harmed by the delay in the arraignment.''

Since then, the Office of Military Commissions has been contacting family members of the sailors killed in the suicide bombing, off the coast of Aden, Yemen, and inviting five representatives to watch Monday's proceedings.

In parallel, Obama has invited al Qaeda victims to the White House's Roosevelt Room on Friday afternoon to discuss his decision to empty Guantánamo of detainees.

Some military families oppose moving the captives to lockups in the United States. Others don't like Obama's effort to freeze the war court to give Holder 120 days to decide the best way to prosecute accused terrorists.

''I'm going to listen,'' said retired Navy Cmdr. KirkLippold, commander of the Cole when it was struck by al Qaeda suicide bombers off Yemen in October 2000.

He was critical of the uncertainty about next week's pretrial hearing, and the future of Guantánamo's trial process.

''The families have already been through enough,'' he said. ``Don't put the families through even more of this agony.''

Lippold is a senior military fellow at Military Families United, which claims a 60,000 membership and has been circulating a pledge for members of Congress to sign and renounce relocating Guantánamo prisoners to their districts.

Retired New York Fire Chief Jim Riches, whose son was killed at the World Trade Center, said he and 13 other parents, spouses and siblings of al Qaeda victims would also be meeting the president.

Riches last month traveled to Guantánamo to watch a war court hearing of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators -- and declared himself satisfied with the military commissions that President George W. Bush set up.

''My concern is these guys killed my son and I'd like to see justice served on them,'' Riches told The Miami Herald on Thursday. ``I'd like to see Guantánamo stay open, but my main concern is that we get the justice we deserve.''

He also described the 15 families meeting Obama as spanning the political spectrum, including ``the very liberal that are against torture and everything else.''

The chief said the issue was inclusion, and that victim families wanted a say in what kind of prosecutions the government would pursue.

''It shows that he's reaching out to the people,'' he said. ``At least we'll get to voice our opinion.''

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