Alleged underwear bomber shows up for jury selection in foul mood: Man charged in airline attack complains in court.

The 24-year-old Nigerian student who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 showed up for jury selection today in a foul mood.

“Osama’s alive,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab shouted as he entered a courtroom in Detroit this morning. “I’m forced to wear prison clothes.”

Abdulmutallab, wearing khaki prison pants, a white t-shirt and black skull cap, refused to stand when U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, who was another room with prospective jurors, asked him to stand with others in her courtroom several floors away.

While Edmunds briefed jurors about the allegations against him Abdulmutallab hollered “jihad” and stared at the ceiling when she told jurors about the alleged plot to blow up the plane with a bomb in his underware.

During most of the 25-minute jury instruction, Abdulmutallab sat at the defense table with his standby lawyer, Anthony Chambers, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped under his chin. At one point, he put his foot on the defense table.

Federal marshals stood over him while he misbehaved. The prospective jurors could observe his antics on a two-way closed circuit television monitor.

During her presentation to jurors, Edmunds said: “We are not trying to find people for this jury who have never heard of this case… We are looking for people who… are fair, objective and impartial.”

The trial is to get underway Oct. 11 and take about two weeks. Edmunds planned to address a second batch of prospective jurors at 1 p.m. today. All told, 250 prospective jurors will show up for court today.

After instructing the jury and leaving them to fill out a questionnaire, Edmunds planned to return to her courtroom to hear Abdulmutallab – who is representing himself ­– argue for his release, claiming he’s being unlawfully detailed by the U.S. government, and that he’s been subjected to excessive force while being held at the federal prison in Milan.

In court documents filed last month, Abdulmutallab asked the court to release him from prison, arguing that "all Muslims should only be ruled by the law of the Quran."

But Edmunds denied his request.

After all the questionnaires all filled out, jury selection will resume Oct. 4. Notified prospective jurors will report in small groups for individual questioning, known as voir dire. This is when the defense and prosecution question each individual, looking for possible biases or red flags, and pick the actual jury.

The trial is expected to run Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It will be open to the public with limited seating.

Au­thor­ities have said that Abdulmutallab is an al-Qaida op­erative who trained in Yemen for the sui­cide mis­sion, which was foiled when a pas­sen­ger subdued Abdulmutallab. He is fac­ing nu­mer­ous crim­inal charges, including con­spir­acy to commit terror­ism, and faces life in prison if convicted.

In September, Abdulmutallab fired his govern­ment-ap­pointed lawyers and suggested that he wanted to plead guilty to some charges. He has said noth­ing about a plea since.

Chambers has said that a plea is unlikely.

"We will challenge everything," Chambers said earlier this year, noting his client "has a full understanding of his situation."

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