A third-trimester pregnant prosecutor, Navy Lt. Rachel Trest, offered the government's side for delay in the case of Afghan Mohammed Kamin, 30, by closed-circuit feed from suburban Washington.

But her argument was inaudible at the media center designed years ago to simultaneously broadcast both trials to journalists.

Soon after technicians repaired that problem, the transmission of a second trial broke because of an electrical overload. That feed was fixed in the media center, but then broke between Guantánamo and the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, causing the judge to order a recess.

A court tip sheet to media predicted that Kamin defense lawyer Rich Federico, also a Navy lieutenant, would ask for guidance on how much trial preparation could take place during the White House-mandated interregnum.

Instead, Federico urged dismissal by turning a senior Obama administration attorney's testimony before Congress against the case. Last week, he noted, Justice Department national security lawyer David Kris told a Senate committee that the current legal analysis was that a military commissions conviction over a charge of ''providing material support for terror'' would not be appeal-proof.

It is a crime in federal courts, and the only charge Kamin faces at the war court.

But Justice Department lawyers were at odds with Defense Department lawyers over whether to subject detainees to trial for that violation, which was legislated as a war crime in the 2006 Military Commissions Act.

Kamin allegedly got al Qaeda training after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban and capture Osama bin Laden -- and then deployed missiles and mines against coalition forces that never exploded. He was sent to Guantánamo as an enemy combatant in September 2004.

Kamin's judge, Air Force Col. Thomas Cumbie, did not rule on the spot and agreed with the defense lawyer that the rules of court were still evolving. ``I'm not saying in any way that you ambushed me. Things change.''

At the simultaneous hearing for Qosi, Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul, the judge, said she would rule in writing on the government lawyers' bid for delay and defense attorneys' bid for a speedy trial.

That hearing tested military commission technology, too, by having Qosi's Sudanese lawyer consultant, Ahmed el Mofti, monitor the session by video from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.

Both Qosi and Kamin face maximum life prison sentences if convicted of their current charges by a military commission.

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