Alleged 9/11 Mastermind Wants Death
Five years after his capture, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed appears before a judge at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, telling him he wants the death penalty. "I wish, to be a martyr," Mohammed says. He is being arraigned on charges that he planned the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Four other alleged co-conspirators also face the death penalty if convicted. Wearing thick gl***es and occasionally fussing with his turban or stroking his bushy gray beard, Mohammed seemed noticeably thinner in his first appearance since his capture in Pakistan in 2003. 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 U.S. landmarks. The murder charges involve the deaths of 2,973 people at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania where p***engers forced down their plane.
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