9/11CHIEF: KILLMESO I CAN BE A MARTYR; Suspect taunts Guantanamo trial.

Byline: BY ANTON ANTONOWICZ US CORRESPONDENT

THE mastermind of the 9/11 attacks appeared at a war crimes tribunal yesterday - and taunted America over the death penalty he faces.

Former al-Qaeda No3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed crowed: "Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time. I will, God willing, have this, by you."

And he cockily grinned as he chatted to a member of his legal team at the Guantanamo Bay military hearing.

Mohammed, appearing with four co-accused, also stunned the tribunal as he chanted in Arabic, translating into English: "My shield is Allah most high."

He told US investigators last year that he suggested 9/11 to Osama bin Laden and oversaw it "from A to Z". But yesterday he claimed: "They mistranslated my words and put many words in my mouth." And he ranted: "All of this has been taken under torturing. You know that very well."

He also dismissed the hearing as "an inquisition".

The terror chief, once an engineering student in North Carolina, was seized in his native Pakistan in 2003. He spent three years in a secret CIA jail and was moved to Guantanamo in Cuba in 2006.

The CIA admits subjecting him to simulated drowning - branded torture by human rights groups.

Mohammed, in a long, grey bushy beard, refused a courtappointed defence lawyer.

Also accused are his nephew Ali Abdul Aziz Ali; alleged fundraiser Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi; Walid bin Attash, who lost his leg fighting in Afghanistan; and Ramzi Binalshibh.

Binalshibh, said by the US to have "mental issues" was in leg chains bolted to the floor.

Officials say they appeared willingly. But in 2006 the Supreme Court deemed such hearings unconstitutional.

Prosecutors hope to start a full trial in September. All five are on 2,973 charges of murder, one for each 9/11 death, and face execution if guilty.

CAPTION(S):

ATROCITY New York's Twin Towers under attack on 9/11; CAPTURED Mohammed is seized in 2003