New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism over a symbolic moment during a City Hall ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
After signing two executive orders honoring 9/11 victims and strengthening the city’s emergency preparedness, Mamdani directed that the ceremonial pen used for the signing be passed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.
Kassem is a longtime left-wing civil-rights and national-security attorney who previously represented Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative detained at Guantánamo Bay detainee who pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to terrorism-related offenses connected to the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg off Yemen.
Video of the Sept. 4 ceremony showed Mamdani handing the pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and asking that it be passed along. Tisch then handed it to Kassem.
The moment was first highlighted by the New York Post and later drew criticism from some 9/11 family members and Republican city officials.
The controversy came during a ceremony intended to formally designate Sept. 11 as a citywide “Day of Remembrance and Service.”
Mamdani is under fire after a symbolic 9/11 pen was handed to a former al Qaeda defense lawyer.
After signing an executive order designating 9/11 a citywide day of remembrance, the pen was handed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.
Kassem previously represented a convicted al… pic.twitter.com/AQ0GUXr6Yj
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 7, 2026
Mamdani’s first executive order directs city agencies to honor those killed in the attacks, recognize first responders and survivors, hold commemorative programs and encourage volunteer service each Sept. 11.
The order also calls for citywide moments of silence and recognition of people who later died from illnesses linked to exposure at the World Trade Center site.
A second executive order announced at the ceremony focused on emergency preparedness, creating a new interagency Continuity and Mission Assurance Team intended to improve the city’s ability to maintain essential services during terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other major emergencies.
Mamdani said the orders were meant to ensure that “Never Forget” was reflected not only through remembrance but also through action designed to protect future generations of New Yorkers.
The controversy instead centered on Kassem receiving the signing pen.
Kassem became Mamdani’s chief counsel when the mayor took office in January. Before joining City Hall, he was a clinical professor at the City University of New York School of Law and founded the school’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility clinic, known as CLEAR.
His legal work has focused extensively on civil liberties, national security and clients caught up in counterterrorism investigations. He has also argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and previously served as a senior policy adviser in the Biden administration.
Among Kassem’s former clients was al-Darbi. Military commission records show Kassem represented al-Darbi during proceedings at Guantánamo Bay. A 2013 pretrial agreement explicitly identified Kassem as one of al-Darbi’s defense lawyers.
Al-Darbi pleaded guilty in February 2014 to offenses stemming from terrorist plots against commercial shipping, including the bombing of the MV Limburg. The Defense Department later said al-Darbi admitted involvement in conspiracy, terrorism, attacking civilian objects, hazarding a vessel and other offenses. The bombing killed one crew member and injured others.
Al-Darbi had also trained at al-Qaeda camps and admitted participating in plans involving attacks on commercial vessels, according to the military prosecution. He was sentenced in 2017 to 13 years in confinement and transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2018 to serve the remainder of his sentence. Al-Darbi also had a family connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. He was the brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.
Those facts fueled criticism of the ceremonial pen handoff. Dennis Warchola, whose firefighter brother Michael Warchola was killed in the North Tower, questioned why Kassem would receive a symbolic item associated with an official 9/11 remembrance ceremony.
Republican New York City Council Member Joann Ariola similarly criticized the decision, describing it as disrespectful to victims and their relatives, according to the New York Post. City Hall defended Kassem’s presence by noting that his office had helped prepare the two executive orders and that he attended in his official capacity as Mamdani’s chief legal adviser.
Kassem’s representation of al-Darbi was performed in his capacity as a defense attorney. Under the American legal system, attorneys routinely represent defendants accused or convicted of serious crimes, and providing legal representation does not establish that a lawyer shares or endorses a client’s conduct, ideology or political views.
The criticism instead focused on the symbolism of giving Kassem the pen used during a ceremony directly connected to the Sept. 11 anniversary. The episode comes as Mamdani faces separate criticism from some relatives of 9/11 victims over his attendance at anniversary events.
A petition urging the mayor not to attend the Ground Zero ceremony has collected more than 100,000 signatures, although the total includes members of the general public and does not represent a verified count of victims’ relatives. Some organizers have cited Mamdani’s political positions and personnel decisions, including Kassem’s appointment, as reasons for their opposition. Mamdani has rejected calls for him to stay away.
