Daniel Lewin, an Israeli citizen and former IDF officer, was the first victim of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, killed aboard an airplane as tried to fight the hijackers.
Daniel served for four years in the Israel Defense Forces as an officer in Sayeret Matkal, the elite IDF combat unit. He left the army after achieving the rank of captain, graduated from the Technion in Haifa, and then received a scholarship to begin graduate studies toward a Doctor of Philosophy at MIT. While at MIT, he helped come up with the innovative algorithms to enable web site to handle heavy traffic. Web sites were crashing when they had heavy traffic and he discovered how to distribute the traffic among many servers. He co-founded Akamai Techonologies which had clients such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Apple.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Daniel was sitting in business class seat 9b on American Airlines flight 11 on his way to a business meeting in Los Angeles. The hijackers never could have imagined that they would be faced with an elite Israeli soldier as they tried to take over the plane. FAA, FBI, and 9/11 Commission reports indicate that Daniel sprung into action to try to stop Mohamed Atta from getting into the cockpit. Daniel would not have noticed Satam al-Suqami who appears to have been sitting behind him. The reports suggest that al Suqami killed Daniel by stabbing him in the throat.
Daniel Lewin has been officially identified as the first victim of the 9/11 attacks. He is survived by his wife, Anne, and his two sons Eitan and Itamar who were five and eight years old when their father was killed. On this day when we remember all the victims of the attacks, let us all remember Daniel Levin, an elite Israeli soldier who was killed while heroically trying to stop the attacks from coming into fruition.
Author: Dov Lipman, Reporter for United with Israel Originally published on September 11, 2012.
Dov Lipman is currently a member of the Israeli Knesset.
The following video captures Daniel’s story:
Daniel Lewin, a 31 year old Israeli-American, was murdered aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on the morning of September 11th, 2001, while
Up until now and in relation to the U.S. standard of the Ministry of Justice (NIJ Standard) protection shields have been divided into two main groups; one group falls under the category of ‘Soft Armor’ while the other falls under the category of ‘Hard Armor’ whilst each category has several sub categories; levels of protection, in relation to various weapons.
For example, in the ‘Soft Armor’ category you will find protection levels II- IIIA which represents protection against bullets projected from firearms like the .375” Magnum, 9mm and .44” Magnum with muzzle velocity of 352 m/s to 448 m/s; the top of this category will protect against most pistols and SMG’s. In the ‘Hard Armor’ category you will find protection levels III- IV which represents protection against bullets projected from 7.62mm and 5.56mm calibre firearms with muzzle velocity of 710m/s to 955m/s; this kind of fire will come from an assault rifle or a light machine gun. Now, to stop 7.62mm assault rifle projectiles, defence forces use ceramic plates which have the down-side of them being considerably heavy which leads to a lack of flexibility. This in turn makes it more difficult to move in the field and sometimes negates the purpose of the user being more protected.
To stop handgun bullets Red Eagle use protective plates and elastic components made of special fabrics, such as high density Polyethylene and Aramid fibre which are fairly light and flexible components allowing more comfort and maneuverability for the wearer. In light of the ever increasing demand of numerous defence and police forces around the world for lightweight and flexible (non-ceramic) Bullet Proof Vests offering intermediate levels of protection that can stop a 7.62x25mm Tokarev round with a muzzle velocity of up to 520m/s (that’s very common in eastern-block pistols and SMG’s) Red Eagle brought their expertise and abilities to bear on the problem and succeeded after a long development process to meet these and additional requirements thus defining a new level of protection which is higher than IIIA, which is the highest of the soft armor levels but still lower than III . The ability to offer such protection in a flexible lightweight vest is a huge achievement by Red Eagle. According to test results presented by Red Eagle, this special and lightweight ballistic panel is able to protect against the following specific threats:
7.62x25mm SC and FMJ at 520 m/s from 5 metres
9x19mm Luger SJ,SC and FMJ at 375 m/s from 5 metres
S1/G blade at 24 Joules (Anti-stab)
SC = Steel Core FMJ = Full Metal Jacket SJ = Steel Jacket
He’s turning it over in his hand to deliver his first downward stabbing strike
Knife in right hand (it’s pink?) - about to stab downwards
First contact
After he is punched in the face he clears his opponents guard and resumes stabbing. Alright kids, from this position you want to hit either the neck or the inner thigh. Either one will work. Here’s where homie fails to do that. This is where you absolutely need to end the fight as quickly and as violently as possible. And as the dirtbag turns to run, that’s when you snap him up by the neck and choke him out.
I don’t give a fuck what anyone says, the second this idiot jumps the counter he’s already in the guys personal bubble and his idiot friends are attacking the store too. The clerk has decided to employ lethal action. Once that decision is made you have to go all the way. And once you’ve stabbed someone their adrenaline is shooting through the roof - they’re much more of a threat after the first stab. You can clearly see the guy start to swing back after the first three stabs. The first time he throws a punch it’s game time. You have to close the distance and stab him as deeply and as frequently as possible because your life depends on it. Failure to end the fight RIGHT THEN could mean he makes it to a gun and kills you, or one of his shithead friends does. If you have to defend yourself do it wholeheartedly, do it so you can go home to your loved ones.
Obviously an experienced couchborne commando like myself can Monday morning quarterback this scenario all day. The guy did a pretty good job and in the end he survived tho. Much respect.
Started to type a couple of things by way of commentary but it is pointless. Lots of good and effective ways to use a knife. Good for him for finding a way that worked for him.
I did like the fact that it was a graphic demonstration of something I have tried to gently explain to number of people, in that if you are apt to get into close contact, a medium to smaller knife is perfectly sufficient. Preferable in the event that you wish to use surprise to your advantage.
@cherokeefrank I imagine you will have seen the video by now. Got any commentary? My primary one is that he did not remotely hesitate and that this was the biggest factor in his winning equation, far more than technique. Thoughts?
Does anyone know if this guy lived or died? You never know, ive known people to live with multiple wounds like that, its not hard to assume he died either though.
can we all just take a minute to pay respects for this poor exhausted dude whose first reaction is not running or calling for help, it’s just “bro! *sigh* okay.”
The fight is done when you can no longer fight or the threat is ended.
As a combat Veteran, as a unarmed self-defense instructor for more than a decade, and as someone who has been forced by a criminal to defend myself and my family I can armchair this to death.
BUT...
As the outside observer, Mr. Nguyen did everything in his power to keep things from escalating. For those who have never been in LV (Las Vegas) someone walking the streets wearing a mask, some outlandish costume, of just looking fucking weird is an everyday event, and was well before CoVID. I can only assume that's why Mr. Nguyen was so nonchalant about it in the beginning. There were more clues than the masks that this was a robbery in the video but again why armchair this to bits.
Mr. Nguyen, tried to maintain control of the situation as best as he could, he could only address one attacker at a time and the closes threat is the one you have to handle without an " at range weapon". Were his knife strikes in vital areas, not really, but that doesn't mean the accumulation of the strikes would not be debilitating or fatal. That 17 year old kid did not expect to face resistance, and when the resistance started stabbing him, the kid assumed he was dead. Let this be a learning moment not only for the 17yo but for other would be robbers, you never know who you are fucking with and what they are willing to do to protect themselves and others.
I salute you Mr. Nguyen.
Mapat's R&D Division in Mashhabat and Rafael have successfully completed a groundbreaking series of experiments in the laser interception system. The system has successfully intercepted unmanned aerial vehicles, shrapnel, rockets and anti-tank missiles in various scenarios. This is a first-rate breakthrough of integrating laser technology into the country's defense system.
Top Quality Bullet Proof lightweight Soft Ballistic Vest & Clothing Brand Affordable Military-Grade Premium Protection Developed & Manufactured In Israel
GoPro Camera with Night Vision Capture video in zero-light environments IR illumination – invisible to the human eye Minimal impact on size and weight ...