GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, told the Pentagon’s war-crimes court Thursday that he wants to be put to death.
Mohammed also told the judge hearing the death-penalty case of five alleged architects of the terrorist strikes that he regarded the military proceedings against them as “an inquisition, not a trial,” and that he rejected all U.S. laws as “evil.”
Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, chief military judge for the tribunal, told Mohammed that the charges against him could result in a death sentence, to which the bearded defendant replied, “This is what I wish. I wanted to be a martyr for a long time.”
Mohammed rejected representation by Navy Capt. Prescott Prince, saying he wore the uniform of his American enemies and had pledged allegiance to President Bush, “who wages systemic war against the Islamic world.”
Alternating chanted Koran verses with stated English translations, Mohammed told the high-security courtroom that he would represent himself at a trial the prosecution proposes to start in September.
He also disputed the judge’s assurances that the lawyers were provided for his benefit, saying that “after five years of torturing . . . you transfer us to Inquisition Land in Guantanamo.”
Kohlmann rejected appeals from the defendants’ military and civilian lawyers to postpone the arraignment until they had more time to persuade the men that they should accept professional counsel.
Kohlmann also repeatedly interrupted capital trial lawyers David Nevin and Thomas Durkin and told them to sit down, an action Mohammed said showed the trials were designed to convict them.
Kohlmann ordered the military attorneys to remain on the defendants’ cases, in case the men change their mind. He declined to make that designation for the civilian attorneys, which means they will not be allowed to meet with the prisoners. Kohlmann said depriving the defendants of the services of the civilian attorneys would be an added inducement to their accepting military representation.
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the tribunal for ramming through the arraignments before the defendants could adequately consult with attorneys the ACLU had provided.
Under questioning as to his need for a translator, Mohammed replied that his English was “not bad” but said he wanted the help of a linguist because he had been mistranslated during his hearing last year.
“They were putting many words in my mouth,” Mohammed said of the English transcript of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal in March 2007, in which he reportedly confessed to masterminding the Sept. 11 plot and personally beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
