NYC Councilwoman says Mamdani is sending a message to Osama bin Laden: ‘We conquered New York’

BS BULLETIN:

NYC Councilwoman Vickie Paladino accused Mayor Zohran Mamdani of sending a symbolic “message to Osama bin Laden” with his actions surrounding the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Behind the verbal face-plant is a serious and growing controversy over Mamdani’s 9/11 plans, including his decision to give a ceremonial pen to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an al-Qaeda operative.

New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino has been hammering Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his handling of the approaching 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Then she got a little carried away.

Appearing Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” Paladino argued that Mamdani’s recent actions surrounding 9/11 carried a disturbing symbolic message.

Paladino pointed in particular to Mamdani’s decision to hand one of the ceremonial pens used to sign two 9/11-related executive orders to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.

Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative who was imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay after pleading guilty to terrorism charges stemming from the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker. Al-Darbi’s sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the 9/11 hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.

Paladino told Laura Ingraham that she believed the pen gesture was deliberate symbolism and part of a broader message.

“It’s a message to Osama bin Laden that, look, ‘We conquered New York,’” Paladino said.

Osama bin Laden has been dead for more than 15 years. U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaeda leader during the 2011 raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Paladino’s mangled delivery shouldn’t obscure the much more serious dispute behind it.

As The Daily BS reported Tuesday, a coalition of 9/11 relatives, first responders and elected officials is urging Mamdani not to attend Friday’s Ground Zero ceremony.

A petition calling for him to stay away has now attracted more than 100,000 signatures. Paladino joined that effort Tuesday at City Hall, declaring that she wasn’t merely asking Mamdani to skip the ceremony.

“I am demanding he not show his face at that sacred ground,” she said. “He does not belong there.”

Critics have pointed not only to Kassem but to Mamdani’s associations with figures including left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who has drawn condemnation for previous comments about the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mamdani has rejected calls to stay away and says he intends to participate in Friday’s commemorations.