
The commando scientist billionaire who died fighting terrorists - philip1209
https://www.philipithomas.com/life-of-danny-lewin/
======
DominikR
"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.

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

~~~
DominikR
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.

~~~
happyscrappy
They would have loved to take Bin Laden alive, it would be the ultimate
humiliation for him.

~~~
DominikR
I'm not disputing that they tried to capture him alive.

------
te_platt
"Evidence suggests..."

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

~~~
andrewtbham
"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?

~~~
davidwihl
"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.

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

~~~
fear91
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."

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

------
davidwihl
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.

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

------
dang
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=danny+lewin#!/story/forever/0/dann...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=danny+lewin#!/story/forever/0/danny%20lewin)

------
nether
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6867864)

------
kumarski
Daniel Lewin seems like a badass.

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

