UCLA professor condemns campus event featuring lawyer for 9/11 terrorist

Judea Pearl, a 90-year-old professor at UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering, expressed deep shame over his university’s decision to host a two-day symposium marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He accused UCLA Law School of “weaponizing” the solemn dates to amplify hateful ideologies, pointing to the inclusion of Melanie T. Partow, a civil-rights lawyer who defends Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the terrorist who ordered his son Daniel Pearl’s beheading in 2002.

The symposium, titled “25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security,” also lists Yale professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, who has called post-9/11 counterterrorism a “racist gravy train.” Survivors and first-responders, including FDNY lieutenant Jim McCaffrey, condemned the event as a finger-pointing at victims. The controversy comes amid ongoing lawsuits alleging UCLA’s failure to address antisemitism on campus.