As the United States marks 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans across the country are gathering to honor the nearly 3,000 people who perished and reflect on the day that forever changed the nation. In New York City, leaders like Vice President JD Vance and past presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush were seen mingling with other leaders ahead of the memorial ceremony at the World Trade Center. One moment quickly went viral on social media after Bush and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shook hands-but Bush did not appear too friendly with the socialist Muslim mayor. Mamdani has faced criticism several times this week as the country prepares for 9/11.
Video and reporting from the event showed Mamdani handing the pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and quietly asking her to pass it along. Tisch then handed the ceremonial pen to Mamdani’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, a longtime attorney who previously represented Guantánamo Bay detainee Ahmed al-Darbi. Al-Darbi pleaded guilty before a military commission to terrorism-related charges stemming from the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg off Yemen.
Controversial Pen Handoff Details
His family also had a direct connection to the September 11 attacks through his brother-in-law Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon. Kassem’s legal representation of al-Darbi was part of a broader career focused on national-security, civil-rights and Guantánamo Bay cases. CUNY School of Law records confirm that Kassem and his students worked on al-Darbi’s case while Kassem directed the school’s immigrant-rights clinic, and that he has represented numerous detainees held at Guantánamo.
Mamdani is under fire after a symbolic 9/11 pen was handed to a former al Qaeda defense lawyer. Kassem now serves as chief counsel to Mamdani and was listed by the mayor at Friday’s ceremony among senior administration officials involved in the event. City Hall told the New York Post that Kassem attended because his office helped draft both executive orders as part of his responsibilities as chief counsel.
The symbolism of giving him the signing pen nevertheless drew immediate criticism from relatives of 9/11 victims and Republican members of the New York City Council. Dennis Warchola, whose firefighter brother Michael died in the North Tower, questioned why someone with Kassem’s legal history would be singled out during a ceremony commemorating the attacks. Council Member Joann Ariola described the move as
