Judea Pearl, a UCLA professor and the father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, has publicly denounced his university for hosting the lawyer of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind who was convicted of beheading his son. Pearl stated he was "ashamed of my university" for what he called "weaponizing" the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
UCLA Law School scheduled Melanie T. Partow, one of Mohammed's defense attorneys, to speak at a two-day symposium titled, “25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security.” The event took place on Thursday and Friday. Partow is part of the defense team for Mohammed, who is facing charges in a U.S. military tribunal for allegedly aiding those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed in a 2007 Pentagon transcript that he personally decapitated Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002. Daniel Pearl had traveled to the region for what he believed was an interview with an Islamic scholar. A video of the murder was released, in which Daniel Pearl identified himself as being from California and of Jewish heritage.
Judea Pearl, a professor at UCLA’s Samueli School of Engineering, expressed his dismay in comments to The Post, stating, “Colleagues inform me that, sadly, UCLA Law School is guilty of such practice: Weaponizing the painful days of 9/11 and 10/7 to promote hateful ideologies.” He added, “Having lost a son to such an ideology, I stand ashamed of my university.”
Partow, described as a civil rights and international human rights litigator, also clerked at the International Criminal Court and has recently been in the news for seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She represents Mohammed as a civilian attorney in the Guantanamo Bay detainee defense pool. Her panel at the UCLA event was scheduled to focus on “Torture, Rendition, and Detention: The Erosion of the Rights Regime post 9/11,” examining increased counterterrorism authority in the U.S. and other nations following the attacks. The legal case against Mohammed remains in the pretrial phase.
The inclusion of Partow in the symposium drew criticism from others, including FDNY Lieutenant Jim McCaffrey, who responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11. McCaffrey told The Post, “It’s absolutely absurd. They’re pointing fingers at the victims. We’re the bad guys for being attacked. It’s mind-boggling. What’s going on in academia?”
The event also featured Yale professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, who has previously referred to counterterrorism as a “racist gravy train.” The symposium's timing and programming come as UCLA has faced lawsuits from the Trump administration concerning allegations of failing to address antisemitism on campus and protect Jewish students and Israeli employees.
Judea Pearl last month recounted his son's final moments, noting Daniel Pearl's statement about his great-grandfather's connection to Brockton, Massachusetts, as a declaration of Jewish identity and pride. "It was surprising to me in the last minutes of his life, under the threat of being killed, he hung on to that," the elder Pearl said.