Sounds like a plan.

The accused al Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks stood in a U.S. military court on Thursday, sang a chant of praise to Allah and said he would welcome the death penalty.

“This is what I wish, to be martyred,” Pakistani captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the highest-ranking al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody, told the Guantanamo war crimes court…

As the judge tried to question him about whether he was satisfied with the U.S. military lawyer appointed to defend him, Mohammed stood and began to sing in Arabic, cheerfully pausing to translate his own words into English.

“My shield is Allah most high,” he said, adding that his religion forbade him from accepting a lawyer from the United States and that he wanted to act as his own attorney.

He criticized the United States for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, waging what he called “a crusader war,” and enacting illegal laws including those authorizing same-sex marriages.

A silly thing to say given how eager his target audience will be to assimilate his ravings into the “root causes” handbook; Osama’s always had a better grasp of these things, which I guess is why he’s the leader. Here’s a useful rule of thumb to help you decide, in bien pensant fashion, what does and doesn’t constitute a jihadist propaganda victory as the process goes forward. Executing this pig as he so richly deserves is a jihadist propaganda victory because it grants him the martyrdom he seeks, even though we happily run that same risk every time we fire a Predator missile at a safe house in the Pakistani tribal areas. Giving this pig a forum as plum as a trial in which to rant, curse the United States, sing hosannas to Allah, and hold forth on Israel and whatever else is on his mind is not a jihadist propaganda victory because, well, that’s just justice. Truth be told, I kind of like the idea of him showing off how zombified he is: The true worry would be if he tried to play it sane, with all the defense-counsel trimmings, as a ploy to suggest that his ilk are more reasonable and coherent in their grievances than they’ve been given credit for. Instead, it sounds like he’s ready to share his inner Islamic fanatic with the world. All’s well that ends well, and this one should.

LGF has an artist’s sketch of him decked out in his fine new duds for court, so run along and admire.

Update: He’s obviously taking this very seriously.

Accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed objected that a courtroom sketch artist had made his nose look too wide on Thursday and sent her back to revise the drawing.

“He didn’t like the nose,” artist Janet Hamlin said.

Mohammed asked Hamlin to obtain a copy of a photo taken shortly after his 2003 capture in Pakistan and redraw the nose to look as it did in that picture, the artist said…

“It’s a defence attorney issue,” said Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. “It’s remarkable the lengths we go to to take their desires into considerations.”

Can you blame him? All this is to him is a stage, paid for with your tax dollars. He might as well look his best.