The man widely regarded as the first victim of 9/11 would be “incensed” by the political rancor and conspiracy theories that still surround the terrorist attacks, his closest friend says.
Danny Lewin, the American-Israeli technology entrepreneur and billionaire, is believed to have drawn on his Israel Defense Forces commando training in a desperate attempt to confront the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11. Moments later, he was fatally slashed in the throat before the plane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Danny called it like it is — rather than the tragedy unifying the country, it’s now all about being divisive,” said Marco Greenberg, Lewin’s childhood friend. “He’d be very disappointed, but not surprised, to see how truth has been turned on its head.”
Born in Denver, Lewin moved with his family to Israel at age 14 and quickly distinguished himself through both intellect and physical drive. He won the “Mr. Teenage Israel” bodybuilding competition, rose to become a military commander in one of the IDF’s most elite counterterrorism units, and later excelled as a student at the prestigious Technion university.
By Sept. 11, 2001, Lewin was just 31 and had already become a billionaire after co-founding Akamai Technologies, a groundbreaking high-tech company that helped make the internet faster and more efficient.
At the time, Lewin was living in Brookline, Mass., with his wife and two young sons, ages 8 and 5. Greenberg, now CEO of the public relations agency Thunder11, described the decorated former commando as the “smartest guy in the room at MIT,” where Lewin was pursuing a Ph.D.
On the morning of Sept. 11, Lewin boarded an early flight from Logan Airport, bound for Los Angeles on a business trip.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Lewin was seated in business class in 9B, directly behind lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. Because he had “served four years as an officer in the Israeli military,” the report said, Lewin “may have made an attempt to stop the hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting behind him.” The report identified his likely killer as Satam al Suqami, a 25-year-old Saudi hijacker.
Reports of Lewin struggling with four terrorists provided some solace to his inner circle.
“He fought back with his own bare hands,” Greenberg said defiantly of his friend, a “trained killer, armed with only a blackberry and laptop.” The 5-foot-9 ex-commando weighed “180 pounds of rock steel.”
He is believed to have been killed some 20 minutes before the plane struck the WTC, according to Greenberg. “They surrounded him – his throat was slashed and dead before they hit the tower.”
He friend says Lewin would be sickened to see that 25 years after the deadliest attack on American soil the unthinkable tragedy has been recast to vilify the US and prop up terrorist ideology.
Lewin would rail against the memory of 9/11 tragically morphing into an ideological issue that’s led to the next generation idolizing arch terrorist Osama bin Laden while blaming the US for bringing it onto itself, said Greenberg, 62.
“Danny would be incensed not just over the political divisiveness today,” said the pal, “but of how it’s been sanitized.” Watered-down language, like the “events of 9/11,” outrage Greenberg. “It’s not a TV miniseries – it was a vicious and shocking attack on civilians.
The “hero commando” was considered to have “transformed the internet,” according to a book about the rising star.
Lewin would have gone on “to be a household name if he lived,” claimed Greenberg. “Along the lines of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergei Brin.
“I always said to Danny, ‘You’re either going to be the next Bill Gates or you’re going to be the next prime minister of Israel – or both,” mused Greenberg.
Greenberg wants people to know of his friend’s heroism. “It’s using his story to inspire others to take risks in life.”
To see the truth about 9/11 and origins of terror twisted would have shaken Lewin to his core.
“Danny was not PC, but he was so respectful of other humans of every creed and religion,” said Greenberg. “But he would call it like it is – he would make a sharp distinction between Islam and radical Islam.
“He knows that’s the malignant ideology that murdered him.”
