The Freedom Tower

All the world was his stage as the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and co-defendants went on trial today.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, appearing for the first time since his capture five years ago, said he would welcome becoming ‘martyr’ after a judge warned Thursday that he faces the death penalty for his confessed role as mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Wearing thick glasses and occasionally fussing with his turban or stroking his bushy grey beard, Mohammed seemed noticeably thinner than the image of a slovenly man with dishevelled hair, an unshaven face and a T-shirt that the US showed to the world after his capture in Pakistan.

Mohammed chanted verses from the Quran, rejected his attorneys and told Judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, that he wants to represent himself at the war crimes trial.

The judge warned that he faces execution if convicted of organizing the attacks on America. But the former No. 3 leader of al-Qaeda was insistent.

“Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time,” Mohammed declared. “I will, God willing, have this, by you.”

Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators each face death if convicted of war crimes including murder, conspiracy, attacking civilians and terrorism by hijacking planes to attack US landmarks.

The murder charges involve the deaths of 2,973 people at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania where passengers forced down their plane.

Their arraignment begins the highest-profile test yet of the military’s tribunal system, which faces an uncertain future.

The Supreme Court is to rule this month on the rights of Guantanamo prisoners, potentially delaying or halting the proceedings.