The commando scientist billionaire who died fighting terrorists

https://www.philipithomas.com/life-of-danny-lewin/

by philip1209 • 12 years ago

61 49 12 years ago

philipithomas.com

fatman• 12 years ago

That's an awful lot of detail from a event with no surviving witnesses.

fear91• 12 years ago

Some of the passengers were in contact with the ground:

"According to flight attendants Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong, who contacted American Airlines during the hijacking, the hijackers had stabbed flight attendants Karen Martin and Barbara Arestegui and slashed the throat of passenger Daniel Lewin.Lewin, an American-Israeli Internet entrepreneur, had served as an officer in the elite Sayeret Matkal special operations unit of the Israel Defense Forces. Lewin was seated in 9B, and Suqami was directly behind him in 10B. The 9/11 Commission suggested that Suqami may have stabbed and killed Lewin after he attempted to stop the hijacking. Lewin was believed to be the first fatality in the 9/11 attacks."

tofof• 12 years ago

"Evidence suggests.." -- yes, please, cite some.

kumarski• 12 years ago

Daniel Lewin seems like a badass.

DominikR6• 12 years ago

"There, he participated in classified anti-terrorism missions such as assassinations and kidnappings."

And that's a hero?

Edit: I didn't mean to attack that person, he achieved a lot, and I read about him before. (though I didn't read anything about assassinations)

It was just a snap reaction because the article seems to glorify assassinations and kidnappings, which I am opposed to. I directed this question to the community to see if there are really people here who believe that assassinations are great and worthy of putting on your CV.

At least the guy who wrote the article seems to believe it.

davidwihl4• 12 years ago

Would you say that the Navy Seals who risked their lives and captured Bin Laden are not also heroes?

ForHackernews2• 12 years ago

Captured? I thought they killed him and dumped his body out of an airplane.

DominikR6• 12 years ago

Yes of course, as long as their mission was not to outright assassinate him no matter what.

Assassinations and Kidnappings are just crimes to me, I can't believe we are even having this discussion.

coldtea5• 12 years ago

Well, not that much. A mission of men armed to the teath, invading some BS hideaway in the middle of nowhere, with helicopters, ultra-modern technology and support from their base.

Not exactly A-level hero stuff.

knowaveragejoe6• 12 years ago

Pretty sure the "hero" bit is referring to the part where he reportedly died fighting the 9/11 hijackers. Careful you don't fall off that high horse though.

DominikR6• 12 years ago

I didn't criticize that part or any other part of his life, I'm just shocked that this aspect (assassinations and kidnappings) is presented like it's a great thing he did.

gavanwoolery• 12 years ago

Putting your life on the line to kill or capture someone who is responsible for the unwarranted deaths of many (i.e. a terrorist) would be heroic, in my book. :) Peaceful negotiations are not always an option.

maratd• 12 years ago

And that's a hero?

Yeah, it is.

Shinkei2• 12 years ago

We really don't know what specific missions someone was involved in during their time in a special forces unit, but I tend to think negatively of Israel's kidnappings after this eggregious example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

Imagine if we had done this to Snowden? Would those special forces men necessarily be heros for following orders?

coldtea5• 12 years ago

Well, if that's a hero to some people, they've been watching too many Hollywood movies.

An assassination is an assassination. That in modern western states we have managed to open the Overton Window so wide open that people consider that (and torture) as heroism, is a despicable sign of the times.

insuffi2• 12 years ago

Be careful all of you criticizing DominikR don't fall of your high horse.

We all know that government authorized assassinations and kidnappings are always directed towards terrorists, and not to achieve geopolitical goals. /s

I'm not saying this is the case here; I'm saying serving in elite forces and battling "terrorism" doesn't instantly mean "hero".

knowaveragejoe6• 12 years ago

Which is totally relevant to this particular case.

boondogle• 12 years ago

I doubt YCombinator is a political forum. But, because of this thread, I'll at least bring some light to the topic.

First some data: Israel was unfortunately at war and it's foes were explicitly targeting civilians in Israel and Danny is said to have participated in killing (aka assassinating) the militants that targeted the civilians. In defense of Israel's foes, they've justified targeting civilians because they feel like they aren't powerful enough to defeat Israel head on and many countries including the Allies in WWII in Dresden and Hiroshima have targeted civilians.

Then the analysis: Should people in the army ever be called heroes? I don't know. Is it good that armies have defended countries? I think it's good that WWII ended with the allies winning. I'm not sure about Vietnam, although I think intentions were good. I'm not so sure the war in Libya did anything for anyone even though Europe achieved its objectives.

Personally, I think someone is a hero when they make sites load faster or when they explain the world to people.

I definitely think he's an incredible hero for standing up to the hijackers and building Akamai.

DominikR6• 12 years ago

I absolutely agree with you, and I didn't try to start a discussion about which side is good or evil in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

It's just the use of language in this article that is insulting to me. Not because I want to judge Danny, but because such wording more generally creates acceptance in the public for assassinations. Just like the TV show 24 that glorified torture.

I don't want that one day our societies accept assassinations, kidnappings and torture as something that is positive or good.

te_platt• 12 years ago

"Evidence suggests..."

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm See the section on flight 11. Not conclusive but indicative.

andrewtbham• 12 years ago

"Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin, Betty Ong and Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, tell us most of what we know about how the hijacking happened."

"As this was happening, passenger Daniel Lewin, who was seated in the row just behind Atta and Omari, was stabbed by one of the hijackers-probably Satam al Suqami, who was seated directly behind Lewin. Lewin had served four years as an officer in the Israeli military. He may have made an attempt to stop the hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting behind him.27"

so where is footnote 27?

davidwihl4• 12 years ago

"27. AAL transcript, telephone call from Nydia Gonzalez to Craig Marquis, Sept. 11, 2001; Obituary, "Daniel Lewin," Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2001, p. B7"

Therefore an eyewitness, primary source from the time of the event.

batmansbelt• 12 years ago

Sounds like a good book. Anyone have a link to an epub?

davidwihl4• 12 years ago

I know a number of people who provided primary material to Molly Raskin. In general, they feel the reporting was balanced and accurate.

To harp on whether he was precisely the first victim or not is trivializing the event, the man and the impact both had.

ugk• 12 years ago

I can always count on HN to reduce a fairly interesting story down to pedantic bickering.

dang• 12 years ago

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=danny+lewin#!/story/forever/0/dann...

nether• 12 years ago

This is the submitter's second attempt at submitting this. Can he be penalized for resubmitting a story that was killed?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6867864

The commando scientist billionaire who died fighting terrorists

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