The Blog

Nose Job

9:03 PM, Jun 6, 2008 • By JAIME SNEIDER
Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

It's not just the real Mohammed who is image conscious. On trial for his life, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed took time from his defense to quarrel with a court-artist's depiction of his nose:

During that process, the sketch was shown to Mohammed's defense team, and the accused terrorist took a moment to sit back and look it over.

Defense Department spokesman Cdr. Jeffrey Gordon says Mohammed felt his nose was drawn too wide, especially at the base.

"He said he wanted his nose to look like the FBI photo," Gordon says, referring to the picture distributed of Mohammed after his capture.

Gordon says the artist was not ordered to change the picture, but was given more time to properly depict Mohammed's appearance at the hearing.

"It shows the lengths we go to take their desires into consideration," Gordon said.

OB-BO736_ksmtwi_20080605221201.jpg

Poor Mohammed is probably still sore over the photo of him at the time of capture. As an aside, the artist in question moonlights as a children's book illustrator and has not drawn any of the far more flattering caricatures of WEEKLY STANDARD contributors.

More by Jaime Sneider