Notepads at the Ready: Guantanamo Court Eases Rules

New hearing, new rules: spiral notebooks and pens are now permitted at the Guantanamo military tribunal trying five prisoners accused of the September 11 attacks.

Authorities at the U.S. base have taken advantage of a three month break in hearings to update the court's draconian security procedures, for example by allowing reporters to take notes with pens and pads of their own choice.

Still in place, though, is a 40-second delay in the piped-in audio of the hearing, which reporters watch from behind a thick glass wall.

Reporters, handpicked by the military, had previously been provided with a pencil or pen by the military on entering the court and been allowed only loose pieces of paper or note pads with no metal spiral fastener.

Cellphones, laptops, cameras and recording devices are all forbidden within the ultra-modern, maximum security courtroom.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed 9/11 mastermind, and his four co-defendants face the death penalty if convicted of the murder of nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001 in the worst ever attack on U.S. soil.

He is among 15 suspects in Guantanamo who have been designated as "high value" prisoners by the U.S. authorities.

A second series of pre-trial hearings into the case opened Monday with the aim of "moving methodically to a judgment day," in the words of chief prosecutor General Mark Martins

"This is a set-up so that hearing can be fruitful."

It is likely to take as long as a year before the trial itself opens.

The subject of Monday's hearing was communications between lawyers and their clients.

On Tuesday, the court will turn to the secret CIA prisons where the five defendants were subjected to harsh interrogations before their transfer to Guantanamo.

The defense argues that these "black" sites, whose locations remain secret, should be preserved because they constitute potential evidence that the five were tortured.