CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The public and news media won't be allowed in the courtroom when Israeli intelligence agents testify about a man accused of laundering money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve rejected requests by the Chicago Tribune and a coalition of civil rights, Arab-American and other groups to keep the hearings open, ruling that agents' testimony presented special concerns.

Federal prosecutors have "an overriding interest in maintaining the agents' sensitive testimony, including testimony regarding intelligence gathering methods and counterintelligence measures, as classified," St. Eve said in her ruling.

She said all other witnesses, including Israeli police officers, will testify in open court during the March 3 hearing.

The case involves Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah, 51, who is charged in a racketeering indictment with laundering money that Hamas allegedly used to finance terrorism in Israel.

Salah confessed to transporting money for Hamas after he was arrested in Israel in 1993, but he says he was tortured into giving that confession.

The Israeli intelligence agents are being called to testify about Salah's interrogation in an effort to determine whether the confession can be used at Salah's trial.

In closing the hearing, St. Eve cited a need "to protect the national security of Israel and the relationship between Israel and the United States of sharing national security information."

She agreed to release transcripts of the agents' testimony after federal prosecutors remove classified national security information. Prosecutors, citing the federal Classified Information Procedures Act as authorization for the security measures, also want the agents to testify under aliases and in "light disguise."

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald declined to comment on the ruling.