UCLA’s event honoring the September 11, 2001, terror attack features a defense attorney representing mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, sparking backlash.
The event, called “25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security,” includes a panel of speakers such as attorney Melanie T. Partow and Yale professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, among others. Partow was the defense attorney for Mohammed, and Bâli is an activist who called counterterrorism a “racist gravy train.”
According to the event’s website, the post-9/11 world led to developments that “transformed domestic and international law” and reshaped “the lives of people both in the U.S. and abroad who were targeted by racialized national security policies, immigration enforcement, policing, and war.”
“Twenty-five years later, the post-9/11 legal order raises urgent questions about how ‘security’ has been mobilized to justify state violence, exclusion, surveillance, and the erosion of freedom,” the site adds. “At stake are fundamental questions about the future of the rule of law, human rights, and democratic life in an era defined by securitization and permanent emergency.”
Jim McCaffrey, an FDNY lieutenant during the attacks, told The California Post that the event is “absolutely absurd.”
“They’re pointing fingers at the victims. We’re the bad guys for being attacked,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling. What’s going on in academia?”
The accused terrorist behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, considered the “mastermind” behind them by reports, is set to stand trial in 2028. According to a ruling from Lt. Col. Michael Schram, the trial is set for June 5, 2028. Prosecutors requested a January 2027 trial date.
