9/11 'architect' vows to seek martyrdom

Faces death penalty in tribunal

By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES | Friday, June 6, 2008

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, told a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Thursday that he wanted to be executed and become a martyr.

"This is what I wish. I wanted to be a martyr for a long time," Mr. Mohammed told Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, chief military judge for the tribunal, during the death penalty trial for him and four others accused in the attacks using hijacked commercial jetliners that destroyed the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and crashed into the Pentagon.

"I will, God willing, have this by you," he said. "In Allah I take refuge."

Mr. Mohammed told of his death wish after Col. Kohlmann advised him that the charges could result in his execution and after the former top aide to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden rejected legal representation by Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, saying he wore the uniform of his U.S. enemies and pledged allegiance to President Bush.

Defiant, Mr. Mohammed told the court that Mr. Bush "wages systemic war against the Islamic world" and he saw the trial against him and the others as "an inquisition." He rejected all U.S. laws as "evil."

Mr. Mohammed, 43, identified in the Sept. 11 commission report as the "principal architect" of the 2001 suicide strikes by 19 al Qaeda terrorists, has been charged with murder along with his four co-defendants, who also appeared in court.

The U.S. government said he oversaw and coordinated the Sept. 11 attacks after proposing their operational concept to bin Laden as early as 1996, and later obtained approval and funding for the mission. He is accused of training the hijackers, including those who piloted the aircraft.

On Feb. 11, the Defense Department charged Mr. Mohammed and the others under the military commission system, as established under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. He already had been charged with killing 2,973 people, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism and plane hijacking; as well as attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.

The U.S. government is seeking the death penalty, which would require the unanimous agreement of the commission judges. The Pentagon has insisted that Mr. Mohammed and the others will receive a fair trial, with rights "virtually identical" to U.S. military service personnel.

But Mr. Mohammed told the tribunal that he and the others were tortured after their capture.