GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The second round of pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 terrorism case sputtered to a close on Thursday with the judge ordering the government to remove censorship equipment from the courtroom at the us base in Cuba but little progress on some fundamental legal issues that must be resolved before the long-stalled case can go to trial.

Army Colonel James Pohl ordered an undisclosed government agency to disconnect equipment it used to unilaterally cut the courtroom sound system to prevent the release of classified information to spectators. His abrupt order came toward the close of a four-day hearing devoted largely to procedural matters.