UCLA's 9/11 Insult to Prof. Judea Pearl

 

Father of jihadist-slain Wall St. Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Prof. Judea Pearl a globally renowned pioneer in artificial-intelligence, has invested 56-years on the U.C.L.A. campus

UCLA School of Law marked the 25th anniversary of September 11 with a two-day symposium, “25 Years After 9/11: Reimagining Freedom, Justice, and Security,” on September 10–11. The sponsors were five law-school centers: Critical Race Studies, International & Comparative Law, the Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, the Promise Institute for Human Rights, and the Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law & Policy. 

Melanie T. Partow, a defense attorney for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, spoke Friday morning on the panel “Torture, Rendition, and Detention: The Erosion of the Rights Regime post 9/11.” She did not respond to the Los Angeles Times.¹

Partow is one of the defense lawyers for Mohammed, a terrorist who boasted about beheading Daniel Pearl.

Mohammed is the accused architect of the September 11 attacks. In a 2007 Pentagon transcript he said he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002.² Daniel Pearl’s father, Professor Judea Pearl, has been at UCLA for 56 years.³ He founded and hosts the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture on that campus. Next month that lecture is scheduled to feature Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.¹

Pearl told the New York Post he was ashamed of his university. He accused the law school of “weaponizing the painful days of 9/11 and 10/7 to promote hateful ideologies.”⁴ He later told the Los Angeles Times: “To my esteemed colleagues at these five centers: Please find different dates to engage us with your political sophistry.”¹ He also said a September 11 event “should be used to commemorate the victims of that attack: Innocent Americans.”⁵

The program gave the dead fifteen minutes on Friday morning. Lunch got an hour.⁶ The panels addressed torture, detention, surveillance, immigration enforcement, “White Christian nationalism,” and “the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Other speakers included Hussam Ayloush of CAIR-California, who after October 7 said “Israel should be attacked”; Yale’s Aslı Ü. Bâli, who called counterterrorism a “racist gravy train”; and Amna Akbar, who called the alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson a “spectacular act of protest.”⁷ No panel listed 9/11 families, first responders, or prosecutors.

A UCLA Law spokesman had said the school has a “longstanding commitment to academic freedom,” that program events do not speak for the school, and that it “does not withdraw invitations because a speaker or viewpoint is sensitive or controversial.”⁸

On Friday, September 11, Chancellor Julio Frenk issued a campus statement. He said Judea Pearl is “a deeply valued member of the UCLA community,” called Daniel Pearl’s murder “an act of unspeakable evil,” and said: “Nothing about this event at the UCLA School of Law, which we do not endorse, changes or qualifies those commitments.” He added: “Academic freedom does not require us to be neutral about antisemitism or terrorism.” He said he understood why Pearl and others were “deeply hurt.”⁹ He did not cancel the symposium. He did not remove Partow. She spoke that morning.¹

Organizers answered Frenk. Law professors Ahilan Arulanantham and LaToya Baldwin Clark said they were “enormously proud of the symposium we organized, and UCLA should be too.” They said critics who did not attend missed memorials, including Arulanantham’s account of being in Manhattan on September 11 and Jasleen Kohli’s account that her mother nearly boarded a hijacked flight. 

Law professor Aaron Littman said he was “profoundly disappointed in our chancellor, as a member of the UCLA law faculty and a Jew,” and that treating the invitation of a defense lawyer as an endorsement of the client’s deeds “is a threat to democracy.” 

Law professor Seana Shiffrin called the program “academically serious” and said a torture-and-rendition panel is stronger with counsel who has handled those cases. She did not attend Partow’s panel.¹

A defense lawyer may speak on campus any week of the year. Guantánamo counsel is a lawful job. September 11 is not an ordinary programming date. UCLA put Mohammed’s lawyer on that date, at Pearl’s university, while Pearl’s own lecture in his son’s name remains on the calendar. Frenk said the university does not endorse the event. The five centers held it anyway. Pearl asked them to pick different dates. They did not.

---

Notes

¹ Jaweed Kaleem, “UCLA chancellor rebukes law school event featuring attorney of alleged 9/11 ‘mastermind,’” Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2026. Link

² Pentagon transcript of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, released 2007, quoted in Ross O’Keefe, New York Post, September 10, 2026, and in Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2026.

³ “At 90, UCLA’s Judea Pearl is still asking the big questions,” UCLA Newsroom, September 11, 2026. Link

⁴ Ross O’Keefe, “UCLA professor blasts university for hosting lawyer tied to son’s murderer,” New York Post, September 10, 2026. Link

⁵ Ross O’Keefe, “UCLA chancellor condemns controversial 9/11 campus event,” New York Post, September 11, 2026. Link

⁶ UCLA School of Law, “25 Years After 9/11 Symposium” program, September 10–11, 2026. Link

⁷ Aaron Sibarium, “‘Israel Should Be Attacked’: UCLA To Host 9/11 Symposium Featuring Terror Apologists,” Washington Free Beacon, September 8, 2026. Link

⁸ UCLA Law spokesman, quoted in Sibarium, Washington Free Beacon, September 8, 2026.

⁹ Chancellor Julio Frenk, “Comment regarding media coverage on Sept. 10,” UCLA Newsroom, September 11, 2026. Link

```

Cal State L.A. students block ticket-holders from Ben Shapiro extending "diversity" to political viewpoints- with officials' complicity

Leftist-students and faculty protestors prevented school and community members from entering a public lecture by author, Ben Shapiro, at Calif State Univ at Los Angeles on Thursday, February 25th. 

Organized by club Y.A.F. (Young America's Foundation/ Young Americans for Freedom) Mr. Shapiro's speech was cancelled by College President William Covino, but then begrudgingly permitted at the last minute. Students, accompanied by faculty, assaulted individuals who came to attend the lecture, and protested so violently that the police locked themselves in the auditorium, leaving people on the waiting line to the whims of the aggressive mob. 

Campus police declined to get involved and control the mob to protect attendees from harrassment and assault at both the front and rear entrances.

College's actions validate author, Ben Shapiro's premise about liberal intolerance silencing diverse viewpoints

In this 7-minute story, we show what took place among the protestors and attendees outside the locked-out lecture. Mr. Shapiro is the author of (among several books),"Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans." Inadvertently, the protesters confirmed his premise.

Ticket-holder, John Minter, attempts to inquire why one of the protesters assaulted him in the theater lobby- and on camera, he confronts both Mr. Minter and the cameraman. When we approached the group of police gathered down the stairs, they refuse to intercede between the aggressors and the attendees that the students harrassed. Amy Lutz of Young America Foundation explains her understanding that the police's directions came from the college President's office.

Cognitive disorientation of the West- Prof. Richard Landes

Prof. Richard Landes of Boston University discusses the context for his presentation at the Assoc for Israel Studies in June, 2013 at UCLA.



Prof. Richard Landes presents "Paradigm, Anomalies, Constriction of Western Intelligentsia"

An 'industry of lies' delegitimizes Israel - an existential threat

A hypocritical, delegitimizing movement seeking to defeat Zionism and whitewashing Islamist Palestinian-ism has overtaken the media and academia, asserts Israeli sociologist, Ben-Dror Yemini.

Israel, having lost the battle for the moral high-ground of its legitimacy against a pro-Palestinian, history rewriting, disinformation campaign, must prioritize resources to recoup its losses in the psych-ops war - which by capturing the worldview of most media and academia - has infiltrated most popular understanding.

Yemini contends that an "industry of lies" (including the media, academia, and the U.N.) seeks to excommunicate and depose Jewish rule of Israel, in similar fashion to apartheid South Africa. This is an existential challenge more threatening than Hamas, Yemini cautions in his call for action (exclusive to DemoCast at the Herzliya Policy Conference in Israel.)



Seven Existential Threats by Michael B. Oren Commentary Magazine, May 2009

Rarely in modern history have nations faced genuine existential threats. Wars are waged to change regimes, alter borders, acquire resources, and impose ideologies, but almost never to eliminate another state and its people. This was certainly the case during World War II, in which the Allies sought to achieve the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan and to oust their odious leaders, but never to destroy the German and Japanese states or to annihilate their populations. In the infrequent cases in which modern states were threatened with their survival, the experience proved to be traumatic in the extreme. Military coups, popular uprisings, and civil strife are typical by-products of a state’s encounter with even a single existential threat.

The State of Israel copes not only with one but with at least seven existential threats on a daily basis. These threats are extraordinary not only for their number but also for their diversity. In addition to external military dangers from hostile regimes and organizations, the Jewish State is endangered by domestic opposition, demographic trends, and the erosion of core values. Indeed, it is difficult if not impossible to find an example of another state in the modern epic that has faced such a multiplicity and variety of concurrent existential threats.

# 3 - Delegitimization

Since the mid-1970s, Israel’s enemies have waged an increasingly successful campaign of delegitimizing Israel in world forums, intellectual and academic circles, and the press. The campaign has sought to depict Israel as a racist, colonialist state that proffers extraordinary rights to its Jewish citizens and denies fundamental freedoms to the Arabs. These accusations have found their way into standard textbooks on the Middle East and have become part of the daily discourse at the United Nations and other influential international organizations. Most recently, Israel has been depicted as an apartheid state, effectively comparing the Jewish State to South Africa under its former white supremacist regime. Many of Israel’s counterterrorism efforts are branded as war crimes, and Israeli generals are indicted by foreign courts.

Though the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza clearly contributed to the tarnishing of Israel’s image, increasingly the delegitimization campaign focuses not on Israel’s policy in the territories but on its essence as the Jewish national state.

Such calumny was, in the past, dismissed as harmless rhetoric. But as the delegitimization of Israel gained prominence, the basis was laid for international measures to isolate Israel and punish it with sanctions similar to those that brought down the South African regime. The academic campaigns to boycott Israeli universities and intellectuals are adumbrations of the type of strictures that could destroy Israel economically and deny it the ability to defend itself against the existential threats posed by terrorism and Iran.

"How free is the University" symposium exposes leftist prejudice endemic throughout academia

"How Free is the University" symposium at University of Southern California. American Freedom Alliance's team (headed by Avi Davis) organized prominent experts and academics to address a growing antipathy toward anything or anyone in Western academic institutions not subscribing to a liberal political-worldview. This includes faculty, administration, and students, all of which were represented at the symposium, including Middle East Forum Dr. Daniel Pipes, The Investigative Project's Steven Emerson, radio personalities Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, MEMRI Executive Director, Yigal Carmon; ZOA's attorney in UCI anti-Semitism case, Susan Tuchman, Campus Watch's Cinnamon Stillwell, and Freedom Center's, David Horowitz.


(Click arrow on frame Menu to accelerate through 78-picture slideshow).
First picture: Dr. Daniel Pipes, Dennis Prager, Dr. Yigal Carmon.
Panels: Adam Kissel, Thor Halvorssen, Anne Neal, Dennis Prager, Moderator: Larry Greenfield.
Peter Wood, E. Christian Kopff, Rick Sander, Patrick Deneen
Moderator: Leila Beckwith.
Ed Morgan, Sharon Browne, Kenneth Marcus. Moderator: Hugh Hewitt.
Reut Cohen, Jonathan Willbanks, Chris Kulawick, Jonathan Movroydid Moderator: Alex McCobin.
Afternoon Keynote Address: Can a University Be Bought? Hugh Hewitt, Anne Neal; Steven Emerson
Foreign Funding and Foreign Influence: Hugh Hewitt, Rachel Fish, David Jones; Daniel Pipes.
Anne Neal, Peter Wood, Sharon Browne, Patrick Deneen, John Carroll: Adam Kissel.
Cinnamon Stillwell, David Horowitz, Kenneth Marcus, Leila Beckwith; Daniel Pipes.
Ed Morgan, Rachel Fish; Matt Grossman, Susan Tuchman, Steve Emerson; Roberta Seid. Alex McCobin, Matt Schrader, Jonathan Gelbart, Reut Cohen, Chris Kulawick.