Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - The alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, said Thursday at a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that he hopes to get the death penalty so that he can be martyred. "This is what I want," he said, before adding he wished to be a "martyr."
His comments came after the presiding judge, Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann, warned him against refusing counsel because the charges of organizing the attacks carry the death penalty.
Mohammed rejected the US-appointed lawyers he and his alleged four al-Qaeda co-defendants have received as their trial began at this remote US naval installation in Cuba.