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.

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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

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A.I. pioneer, Dr. Judea Pearl, presents Daniel Pearl Journalism Award to Maria Ressa, at L.A. Press Club's Awards

Maria Ressa received the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism at the 68th Southern California Journalism Awards (late June 2026), presented by the Los Angeles Press Club and Judea Pearl (Daniel Pearl’s father).  It recognizes journalists showing exceptional courage and commitment to truth, and Ressa is the first Filipino recipient. 

Dr. Judea Pearl presented the award and delivered prepared remarks.

 Dr. Judea Pearl and Maria Ressa the 68th Annual Southern California
Journalism Awards Gala held at The Biltmore Los Angeles in Los Angeles
Sunday, ​June 28, 2026. (Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa USA)
Courtesy: AsianJournal.com 

He opened by expressing profound honor in presenting the 24th LA Press Club Daniel Pearl Award to Maria Ressa, describing her as synonymous with courage and the aspiration to protect press freedom.

He quoted her Nobel Prize lecture warning that “Data is no longer just information… it has been weaponized like plutonium. By allowing algorithms to structurally alter human behavior for profit, society has granted geopolitical powers and authoritarian leaders an open window to destroy democratic institutions from the inside out.” As a computer scientist specializing in AI and machine learning, Pearl said he felt partly responsible for creating this “digital plutonium,” but as a philosopher of science he believes AI tools can also help people understand and resist becoming complicit in its spread.

(Video courtesy: Los Angeles Press Club)

On a personal note, Dr. Pearl stated that over the past three years his heart and mind had been deeply occupied with Israel, “a nation clinging to life as she struggles to withstand not only physical threats, but a sustained, libelous assault on her moral standing, led by outlets like Al Jazeera and echoed even by our reputable Reuters and the Associated Press.” He then extended Ressa’s warning: “This dangerous plutonium is now used not just by authoritarian leaders, like Duterte and Putin, but by ideological forces like Iran, Qatar, and China who aim to re-engineer our perception of reality. They manipulate journalists to erode public trust in journalism, ultimately undermining both our democratic institutions and our shared humanistic values. Therefore, and urgently, we must seriously heed Maria’s warning and watch our steps carefully whenever we feel the temptation to echo this plutonium of disinformation, especially when it lures us to dehumanize my brothers and sisters in Israel.” He closed by thanking Ressa for honoring his son Daniel by accepting the award and for continuing to inspire with her courage, wisdom, and character. Maria Ressa’s acceptance speech focused on her personal connection to Daniel Pearl’s story, the evolving threats to journalism, and a call to action: Ms. Ressa explained why the award mattered: as CNN’s lead investigative reporter before Rappler and the Nobel, she “chased terrorists for a living.” Her first book, *Seeds of Terror*, tracked al-Qaeda networks linking Southeast Asia (including planning in Manila in 1994) to what became the 9/11 attacks. In November 2001 she was in New Delhi tracking Omar Sheikh; he offered her an interview in Karachi. Her CNN features editor deemed it too dangerous and denied the budget, so she did not go. Weeks later, Omar Sheikh lured Daniel Pearl to a meeting in Karachi, handed him to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (whom Ressa had been chasing and who later confessed to masterminding 9/11), and Pearl was murdered. She said she has lived with that proximity every day since: the same network, the same city; her editor protected her, while no one made that decision for Pearl, who paid for the truth with his life. She described journalism as going to places no one else will go, asking questions no one else will ask, and carrying the truth back. Pearl’s killers filmed the murder to terrify others into silence—but it did not work. Courage spreads just as fear does. She praised Judea Pearl and his family for turning the worst thing that can happen to a family into a light for others. The threat has changed shape: from a camera and a knife to technology that floods the world with lies, turns truth-tellers into criminals, and operates at a scale Pearl’s killers could never have imagined. “The line now travels faster than the fact… And that is how democracy dies. Not with one blow, but… death by a thousand cuts.” Her call: “We hold the line. We don’t duck. We don’t hide.” She recounted her own 11 arrest warrants and criminal charges under Duterte (she still needed Philippine Supreme Court permission to travel to the event), the long fight to win most of those cases, and the irony that Duterte was later arrested under an ICC warrant for crimes against humanity and is awaiting trial in The Hague—while some of Rappler’s work forms part of the evidence against him. She warned of the “Philippine-ization of America” and described the current moment as an “Information Armageddon” (the battle is ongoing, not over). She closed by posing the question Pearl answered with his life—the same question she has posed to Filipinos and now to Americans: “What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?”

Investigative report finds Daniel Pearl was killed by confessed al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who won't be charged

Investigative report faults
 Pearl murder investigation;
says many culprits still free

- by The Associated Press  American journalists and students find that the men charged with Pearl's murder did not commit the crime;  Pakistan used perjured testimony. 

The four men imprisoned for killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were not present during his beheading but were convicted of murder because Pakistani authorities knowingly relied on perjured testimony and ignored other leads, says a report released Thursday.

The results of the Pearl Project, an investigation carried out by a team of American journalists and students and spanning more than three years, raise troubling questions about Pakistan's dysfunctional criminal justice system and underscore the limits US officials face in relying on Pakistani authorities.

The four men convicted in the killing did help kidnap the American journalist, according to the investigation. But it says forensic evidence known as "vein-matching" bolsters the confession of al-Qaida No. 3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, to having killed Pearl.

The report says at least 14 of 27 people involved in abducting and murdered Pearl in 2002 are thought to remain free. And the four who have been convicted could be released if their appeal is ever heard because of false and contradictory evidence used in their trial.

Pearl, 38, was abducted from this southern port city on Jan. 23, 2002, while researching a story on Islamist militancy after the Sept. 11 attacks. On Feb. 21, 2002, a video of Pearl's killing was delivered to U.S. officials in Pakistan. His remains were found in a shallow grave on Karachi's outskirts three months later.

Within months of Pearl's disappearance, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani heritage, and three accomplices were caught, charged, and convicted of murder and kidnapping. Sheikh, called the kidnapping's mastermind, was sentenced to death in July 2002. The three others were given life terms, which in Pakistan usually means 25 years.

Since then, the men's appeals have gone nowhere in the courts, despite dozens of hearings. Both the defense and the prosecution blame each other for stalling tactics. And there is constant speculation that Sheikh is being protected, possibly by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Defense attorney Rai Basheer said the prosecution knows it would lose on appeal and is delaying the process, but prosecutor Raja Qureshi dismissed those claims.

"I challenge the defense to come and attend the case properly and consistently, and they will themselves know whose case is weak," Qureshi told The Associated Press.

The Pearl Project's findings appear to strengthen the defense's hand.

For instance, it finds significant discrepancies between Pakistani police reports and later court testimonies, including that of a taxi driver whose account was considered crucial to the conviction.

Authorities apparently cajoled the driver to change his earlier story and, while testifying, place Sheikh with Pearl near the restaurant where the journalist was picked up by his abductors, the report says. But Sheikh is believed to have left Karachi before other men he had recruited carried out the kidnapping.

At the same time they were building their case against Sheikh and the three others, investigators did not pursue leads provided by another suspect in custody. That man, Fazal Karim, allegedly was one of the guards holding Pearl hostage and was there during his slaying. Karim also led investigators to Pearl's grave.

But his account differed from the taxi driver's, thus threatening the prosecution's case against the four on trial. US officials pushed the Pakistanis to restart the trial to include all the evidence, but the prosecutor argued that doing so would give the defense a huge advantage. So Karim's account didn't make it to court, and he was later set free.

The murder case against the four convicts also appears weakened by Mohammed's suspected role.

The al-Qaida No. 3 claimed after his capture that he beheaded Pearl. Mohammed is being held at the Guantanamo Bay US military prison, and the confession is believed to have come during interrogation that included waterboarding.

But the Pearl Project reports that US investigators also used a technique called "vein-matching" to compare a photo of Mohammed's hand with a photo of a hand shown on the video of Pearl's killing, and that it's a fit.

Vein-matching is not considered as reliable as methods such as fingerprinting, but the CIA and FBI do use it at times to identify suspects, the report says. It involves "extracting the information of the vascular structure of a hand or finger and converting it into a mathematical quantity."

One of the more gruesome findings of the report is that the videotaping of Pearl's beheading was initially bungled, and that the killing had to be re-enacted. Mohammed had already slashed Pearl's neck when the cameraman had to restart the taping. The second time, Mohammed fully severed the head.

Two of Mohammed's nephews may have been present during the killing, according to the report, which cites U.S. and Pakistani officials. One nephew, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is also at Guantanamo and is believed to have been the al-Qaida facilitator in Karachi for Richard Reid, the shoebomber who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001. Pearl was trying to research the Reid case and track down his facilitator when he was kidnapped.

The report notes that neither Mohammed nor the detained nephew is likely to be charged in Pearl's killing because that could complicate cases against them over the Sept. 11 attacks. The other nephew's whereabouts are unknown.

How exactly al-Qaida became involved in the Pearl plot remains a mystery. The report cites Mohammed's interviews with FBI agents, in which he said he was directed to Pearl by another al-Qaida leader,Saif al-Adel. It also says that Pearl's murder was "the first known operation in which Pakistani militants collaborated with al-Qaida."

In Pakistan, all parts of the justice system — police, prosecuting agencies, defense lawyers and judges — are riddled with corruption and ineptitude. The conviction rate hovers between 5 and 10 percent, according to a report in December by the International Crisis Group. That report also noted that outsiders, including spy agencies, use intimidation to compromise the justice system.

Conspiracy theories have flourished in Pakistan about the relationship Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, had with Sheikh.

As Pakistani officials were searching for him in 2002, Sheikh turned himself in to a former ISI official, Ejaz Shah, at the urging of his father and his uncle.

Yet it wasn't until a week later, on February 12, that US officials learned that police had him, the report says. US authorities told the Pearl Project that they have no idea what happened with Sheikh during those seven "lost days."

"Whether Sheikh sought refuge in Shah's custody because there was a family connection and would, therefore, provide a soft landing into the legal system, or whether it was because Sheikh had a long history with the ISI is still unresolved," the Pearl Project's report states.

The Pearl Project's sponsors include Georgetown University and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a program at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. The lead writer of the report was journalist Asra Q. Nomani, with whom Pearl and his wife were staying in Karachi when he was kidnapped. 

At 8th annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, parents enable Christopher Hitchens to confront anti-Semitism

Daniel Pearl's father, Judea Pearl gave these remarks introducing Christopher Hitchens - 8th Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, Wednesday, March 3, UCLA

"Thank you, Kal, Rabbi Seidler-Feller, our distinguished speaker, President of Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, Friends of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, colleagues, students, ladies and gentlemen.

Fifteen years ago, this city sent one of its sons as an emissary of goodwill to the Middle East and South East Asia.

Eight years and 10 days ago, on February 21 2002, the world was shocked to witness the brutal murder of that emissary, our son Danny -- a writer, a musician, and a champion of humanity.

Today we came to pay tribute to Danny's legacy by listening to one of the greatest minds of our generation, Christopher Hitchens, who has graciously agreed to deliver the Eighth Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture and to discuss a key element in the hatred that took Danny's life.

In the past eight years our family has played down the antisemitic component of Danny's tragedy, and we have had good reasons for doing so.

First, we felt that the intensity of the cosmic shock that emanated from Danny's murder, and its universal significance as a warning call for the entire human race would somehow get attenuated, or diverted, if associated with parochial issues such as antisemitism.



Second, we felt that Danny's legacy has such an enormous potential to mobilize people toward
positive action and positive self awareness that it would be counter productive to dwell on the negative, deranged mindset behind the ideology of his murderers.

Finally,we felt that the choreographers of that ideology do not deserve the benefits of a hereditary disease such as classical anti-semitism.

The choreographers of modern day anti-semitism are not victims of a poisonous culture -- as was the case with Richard Wagner -- nor are they victims of alcoholic weakness -- as is the case with Mel Gibson. Their plan to dehumanize Israel out of existence is cold and calculated and we felt that the distinct immoral and dangerous character of this plan would be obscured, or diverted, if framed in terms of classical antisemitism.

More recently, however, we came to recognize that, if we want to be true to our mission of rolling back the tsunami of hate that is currently sweeping our planet, we must first map its undercurrents, analyze its anatomy, and understand its circuitry in full scientific details.

We are happy therefore that Christopher has chosen to address this subject in his lecture.

Thank you Councilman Garcetti for offering to introduce the speaker. Thank you Christopher for honoring Daniel with your lecture tonight, and thank you all for being with us today and honoring a legacy that mirrors everything that this university, this city and this community stands for."

Christopher Hitchens delivers 8th Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture: "Antisemitism is the common enemy of humanity, and has to be fought against tenaciously - most especially in its current, most virulent form of Islamic jihad"

Christopher Hitchens decries anti-Semitism in lecture at UCLA  
by Cynthia Lee March 04, 2010 in UCLA Newsroom

Christopher Hitchens appeared Wednesday, March 3rd, before a packed audience at UCLA to portray anti-Semitism as "the godfather of (all other forms of) racism" and "the gateway to tyranny and fascism and war."

Alternating between black humor, biting sarcasm and insightful analysis, Hitchens assumed the podium at Korn Convocation Hall to deliver the eighth annual Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA to an audience of more than 400 people, including Pearl's father, Prof. Judea Pearl, an emeritus professor of computer science at UCLA and president of a foundation formed to continue his son's mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through journalism and music.

Daniel Pearl, a prominent Wall Street Journal reporter and the paper's South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. ...

Before Hitchens began his remarks, Judea Pearl explained that in the initial years following his son's death, the family had not wanted to dwell on the "negative, deranged mindset behind the ideology of his murderers," but instead had concentrated on the positive aspects of Daniel's legacy.

"But recently, we came to recognize that if we want to be true to our mission of rolling back the tsunami of hatred that is currently sweeping our planet, we must first map its undercurrents, analyze its anatomy and understand its circuitry in full scientific detail," Prof. Pearl said.

Prof. Pearl's Op/Ed at the time of last year's memorial was published in the Wall Street Journal:

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the murder of our son, former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. My wife Ruth and I wonder: Would Danny have believed that today's world emerged after his tragedy? ...

The media have played a major role in handing terrorism this victory of acceptability. Qatari-based Al Jazeera television, for example, is still providing Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi hours of free air time each week to spew his hateful interpretation of the Koran, authorize suicide bombing, and call for jihad against Jews and Americans.

Then came the August 2008 birthday of Samir Kuntar, the unrepentant killer who, in 1979, smashed the head of a four-year-old Israeli girl with his rifle after killing her father before her eyes. Al Jazeera elevated Kuntar to heroic heights with orchestras, fireworks and sword dances, presenting him to 50 million viewers as Arab society's role model. No mainstream Western media outlet dared to expose Al Jazeera efforts to warp its young viewers into the likes of Kuntar. Al Jazeera's management continues to receive royal treatment in all major press clubs. ...

Danny's picture is hanging just in front of me, his warm smile as reassuring as ever. But I find it hard to look him straight in the eyes and say: "You did not die in vain."

Media bears responsibility for society (and vice versa) says father, Judea, on Daniel Pearl's 6th yahrtzeit

In this anniversary OpEd in the Wall St. Journal, Judea Pearl calls the press to uphold the standard of dignity that Danny died maintaining.

Who serves today as the moral compass of society, and, like the ancient prophets, risks his or her life by exposing corruption, institutional injustice, terrorism and fanaticism? The journalist.

The shocking element in Danny's murder was that he was killed, not for what he wrote or planned to write, but for what he represented -- America, modernity, openness, pluralism, curiosity, dialogue, fairness, objectivity, freedom of inquiry, truth and respect for all people. In short, each and every one of us was targeted in Karachi in January of 2002.

This new twist of killing journalists for what they represent has changed the course of journalism as well as the rest of society.

It was through Danny's face that people came to grasp the depth of cruelty and inhumanity into which this planet of ours has been allowed to sink in the past two decades. His murder proved that 9/11 was not an isolated event, and helped resurrect the age-old ideas of right and wrong, good and evil. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl in January 2002.

And unarmed journalists in regions of conflict became many times more vulnerable. They are no longer perceived as neutral, information-gathering agents, but rather as representing political or ideological entities. The press and media has indeed become more polarized and agenda-driven. Journalists today are pressured to serve the ideologies of those who pay their salaries or those who supply them with sources of information. CNN's admission, in 2003, that it concealed information about the Iraqi regime in order to keep its office in Baghdad is a perfect example of this pressure. In the recent Gaza chaos, Western news agencies have willingly reported Hamas propaganda stunts as truth.

One of the things that saddens me most is that the press and media have had an active, perhaps even major role in fermenting hate and inhumanity. It was not religious fanaticism alone.

This was first brought to my attention by the Pakistani Consul General who came to offer condolences at our home in California. When we spoke about the anti-Semitic element in Danny's murder she said: "What can you expect of these people who never saw a Jew in their lives and who have been exposed, day and night, to televised images of Israeli soldiers targeting and killing Palestinian children."

At the time, it was not clear whether she was trying to exonerate Pakistan from responsibility for Danny's murder, or to pass on the responsibility to European and Arab media for their persistent de-humanization of Jews, Americans and Israelis. The answer was unveiled in 2004, when a friend told me that photos of Muhammad Al Dura were used as background in the video tape of Danny's murder.

The Pakistani Consul was right. The media cannot be totally exonerated from responsibility for Daniel's murder, as well as for the "tsunami of hate" that has swept the world and continues to rise.

Surely they have an obligation to expose villainy and excess. This is what journalism is all about. But in a world infected with fanatics who run around with lit matches, journalists cannot simply pour gasoline into the street and pretend they bear no responsibility for the inevitable explosion.

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