New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew criticism Friday after the ceremonial pen he used to sign an executive order commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks was handed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, an attorney who previously represented an al-Qaeda operative. The episode came one week before the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
City officials had assembled at City Hall as Mamdani signed two executive orders related to Sept. 11. One formally designates the date each year as a citywide Day of Remembrance and Service, while the other updates New York City’s policies for maintaining essential government operations during emergencies and other major disruptions.
After completing the signing, Mamdani handed the ceremonial pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and quietly asked, “Can you pass this?”
Tisch then passed the pen to Kassem, Mamdani’s chief counsel, who had entered the press conference shortly before its conclusion. Video of the event showed Kassem smiling as he received the pen. Tisch was the first official to leave the press conference, with Kassem departing shortly afterward.
“It was calculated,” retired detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Michael Alazar told The Post.
“It happened during a ceremony meant to be about the victims, and no one else. 9/11 families didn’t come to City Hall to watch Mamdani spotlight someone whose work intersects with the very ideology that took their loved ones. Commissioner Jessica Tisch was reduced to a prop rather than acknowledging her role as the leader of the NYPD.”
Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative who was held at Guantánamo Bay, a fact that prompted critics to question the decision to give him the pen used during the 9/11 ceremony.
“It’s bulls–t,” slammed Dennis Warchola, whose brother Michael, a firefighter with Ladder 5, was killed in the North Tower.
“How can you defend a guy like that who wants to do Americans or any innocent person harm?”
City Council Member Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, also condemned the episode, calling it “breathtakingly tone-deaf and disrespectful.”
“The families who lost loved ones on 9/11 have every right to be outraged. On the 25th anniversary, City Hall should be honoring their sacrifice with dignity, not forcing those families to endure yet another insult.”
Al-Darbi was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay after admitting involvement in the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg off Yemen, an attack carried out as part of an al-Qaeda effort targeting maritime commerce. Al-Darbi’s sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Kassem, 48, founded a legal clinic at the City University of New York that provides free legal representation. He also represented Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University who was detained by federal immigration authorities.
Kassem had not been present for most of Friday’s press conference, entering roughly 15 minutes after it began. After receiving the pen, he left shortly after Tisch.
The ceremony itself was centered on two measures Mamdani said were intended to preserve the memory of Sept. 11 and strengthen New York’s preparedness for future emergencies. The first order establishes Sept. 11 as an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service honoring victims, first responders, survivors and their families. The second creates an updated framework for ensuring essential city services can continue during emergencies.
“Ramzi Kassem said he was inspired by 9/11 — not to join the fight against terrorism, but to defend the terrorists themselves. He doesn’t even belong in this country, much less in our government,” seethed Council Member Vicki Paladino (R-Queens).
“His participation in anything related to 9/11 is an insult to every New Yorker who survived that day, and indeed all Americans. But I suspect that’s the point.”
Former Democratic political consultant David Sivella also criticized the episode publicly.
“Was it deliberate on your part to give your Muslim base a hint that this is all BS to pacify other New Yorkers?” former Democratic political consultant David Sivella blasted on X.
