GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- An alleged al Qaeda fighter accused of training the Sept. 11 hijackers sought access to classified evidence Thursday, reassuring the war court here that, once convicted, he'll take U.S. secrets to his grave.

''If I am going to receive the death sentence, this evidence will go with me,'' declared Waleed bin Attash, a one-legged Yemeni captive accused of running an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

After execution, he said, the secrets ``will be better protected than in the hands of the FBI and CIA.''

Bin Attash made the remarks at a hearing before Judge Ralph Kohlmann, a Marine colonel, who will preside at the war crimes trial of five Guantánamo captives accused of conspiring in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

At least four of the men want to defend themselves. Kohlmann has been warning them that, even as their own lawyers, they can't see or challenge classified evidence until their trial.

Among the case details the Pentagon prosecutor has declared classified are how the accused terrorists were captured, and where, how they were interrogated in secret CIA overseas detention, and by whom -- and what foreign countries helped U.S. agents.

Earlier, the judge rescheduled another hearing for Ramzi bin al Shibh, also of Yemen, after the alleged co-conspirator refused to come out of his Camp 7 cell -- a special secret lockup for so-called high-value detainees.

Kohlmann has ordered a military medical board to determine whether bin al Shibh is sane enough to stand trial with the other men. The prison camps have him on psychotropic drugs.

Bin Attash, for his part, alternated between English and Arabic and smiled broadly beneath a white-knitted skullcap as he declared his joy over attacks on U.S. targets.

''Any attack I undertook against America, or ever participated in, or helped with, I'm proud about it,'' he said, beaming. ``I'm happy about it.''

Kohlmann stopped him before he could elaborate.

Instead, the judge repeatedly asked the Yemeni known to the CIA as ''Khallad,'' a supposed nom de guerre, whether he had freely decided to defend himself. Bin Attash said he rejected his military lawyers, but sought to keep Washington criminal defense attorney Edward MacMahon as a legal consultant.

MacMahon's work is being funded by the American Civil Liberties Union. After the 9/11 attacks, he was one of several attorneys who defended Zacarias Moussaoui, one of several U.S. captives who the United States alleged was meant to be the 20th hijacker.

Much of the session was taken with verbal jousting between Kohlmann and bin Attash over the detainee's lack of access to classified evidence likely to come up at trial. Only the Pentagon-appointed defense attorneys and U.S. civilian lawyers who acquire special security clearances can see the secret evidence before trial.

Bin Attash refused his Pentagon attorneys -- Navy Reserves Lt. Cmdr. James Hatcher and Air Force Capt. Christina Jimenez -- then told the judge he saw self-representation as an Islamic obligation.

''I'd like to explain this to you, Your Honor. This will help you in future trials with my brothers,'' he said, sitting in a white prison camp uniform. ``We believe in the Koran. God is the defender of all faith. . . . I want my relationship to be directly with God.''

Kohlmann: ``So, do you feel you are able to adequately represent yourself?''

Bin Attash replied, ``Yes, God willing.''

Kohlmann ordered the military lawyers to serve as ''standby counsel,'' in case he later rules that bin Attash is no longer competent to defend himself.

Meantime, the judge told the detainee that, if he wants documents translated into Arabic or to meet with other accused, he should file a legal motion with the war court.

''Work with your consultants,'' Kohlmann said. ``You're going to have to do it the way the lawyers do it.''

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