New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash after a ceremonial pen used to sign a 9/11 remembrance order ended up in the hands of a top aide who once represented an al-Qaida operative.
Mamdani gathered administration officials at City Hall on Friday to sign two executive orders ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, according to the New York Post. One order officially designates the date as a citywide Day of Remembrance and Service, while the second bolsters the city’s emergency preparedness and continuity planning, according to VINnews.
According to the Post, Mamdani handed the ceremonial pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and quietly asked her to “pass this.” Tisch then passed the pen along to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem, who had entered the press conference near its conclusion, before Tisch became the first official to exit the room.
The move drew sharp criticism once it became known that Kassem previously served as defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty to war-crimes charges connected to al-Qaida maritime plots, including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, according to Fox News. Al-Darbi was held at Guantánamo Bay. His sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that struck the Pentagon and killed 184 people.
Families who lost loved ones on September 11 did not hold back. Dennis Warchola, whose firefighter brother died in the North Tower, questioned how anyone could defend someone tied to such violence. “How can you defend a guy like that who wants to do Americans or any innocent person harm?” he told the Post.
Joyce Cohen Day, whose mother died in the South Tower, told the Washington Times she believed the gesture was deliberate, saying Mamdani handed the pen “to an al Qaeda lawyer.”
The criticism wasn’t limited to victims’ families. Democratic New York state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger called the moment “sick,” per the Washington Times. Republican City Council Member Vicki Paladino of Queens went further, saying Kassem “doesn’t even belong in this country, much less in our government,” according to the Post.
Mamdani’s office pushed back on the outrage, telling the Post that Kassem was present because he and his legal team had drafted both executive orders as part of his official duties as chief counsel.
The controversy comes just days after separate reporting that many 9/11 families expressed discomfort with Mamdani’s planned attendance at an official memorial ceremony marking the anniversary, underscoring ongoing tension between the mayor’s office and victims’ relatives as the city approaches the milestone anniversary of the attacks.
As of now, Mamdani has not personally addressed the criticism over the pen exchange, and City Hall has not indicated whether any changes will be made to how future ceremonial signings are handled.
