PORTLAND -- Five Portland-area terror suspects pleaded innocent Tuesday to money laundering and firearms charges related to an alleged conspiracy to travel to Afghanistan to join the al-Qaida and the Taliban in the fall of 2001.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. district judge hearing the case suggested he will dismiss motions from defense attorneys to try the suspects separately.

Judge Robert E. Jones cited a 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruling from 2002 saying even complex trials with many defendants can be fair if a judge properly instructs the jury.

Jones also rejected one specific request for a separate trial by October Lewis, the only woman charged in the case and the only defendant not accused of traveling overseas. She had asked to go to trial before the other defendants.

"The ends of justice outweigh the interest of the defendant," for a speedy trial because of the complexity of the case, Jones said.

Attorneys for the so-called Portland Seven had said spillover evidence from some members of the alleged plot would prejudice the jury.

Only in extreme circumstances, however, will a judge split up a conspiracy trial because jurors might get confused over the evidence, said New York attorney Stanley Cohen, who has successfully defended Muslims on terrorism charges.

"If you have 15 gangsters sitting in a court, all named Tony, then you get a separate trial," otherwise you get turned down, he quipped.

Prosecutors added additional firearms and money laundering counts to charges filed last October for conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to contribute services to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Defendants Patrice Ford, Jeffrey Battle, brothers Ahmed and Muhammad Bilal, and October Lewis pleaded innocent to all additional charges Tuesday.

Maher "Mike" Hawash, 39, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent arrested last month as a material witness and later charged on the three original conspiracy charges, sat beside the other suspects for the first time Tuesday. Hawash had already pleaded innocent to all charges.

A seventh suspect, Jordanian Habis al Saoub, remains at large.

The 14th floor room in the Mark O. Hatfield courthouse was closely guarded Tuesday. The defendants shuffled into the courtroom chained at the ankles, watched by U.S. Marshals in suits, who remained in the court through the hearing.

In other developments, Whitney Boise, attorney for Ford, asked prosecutors to confirm that the FBI is not surreptitiously recording meetings between defense attorneys, or meetings between attorneys and their clients in jail.

U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder said he could confirm that the government was not making such recordings.