September 11, 2001 has been history for more than 20 years. And yet no one who experienced it will ever forget this day. “Bin Laden – The Face of Terror” is the name of the documentary that the German-French broadcaster Arte is dedicating to the criminal. The word “hero” is used far too often.
There are days nobody forgets. September 11, 2001 was such a day. Where were you? I was in the editorial office of the news magazine FOCUS, with the art director, just developing layouts for the next issue. A television was playing silently in the background. Eventually there were the planes, the impact on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 110 stories high. It looked like a feature film. And yet: It was news, special broadcasts.
It became the terror of the day, of the year, the nightmare of the world. All the pages of the news magazine, planned, designed, written, had become redundant. A special edition was created in record time. That was my 9/11. For more than 3000 people, September 11th was the last day of their lives. For Osama bin Laden, 9/11 will have been a happy day, a day of triumph.
“Bin Laden – The Face of Terror” is the name of the documentary with which the German-French broadcaster Arte takes on the chief terrorist. “My first impression was very positive,” says an acquaintance, “he came from a good family.” A neighbor says of young Osama: “We loved cowboy movies.” And he adds that he and Osama preferred the cowboys , “because they had the guns”. Every day he called his mother, the viewer learns. And: “Osama wasn’t very smart, he repeated everything, that was his weakness.”
At 26 he goes to Afghanistan, to the front. “At that age,” says a comrade, “one dreams of fighting.” It all sounds as if the young man Osama had dreamed of a career as a footballer. That he didn’t score goals, but destroyed people? As a young man, one is allowed to have dreams…
I can only say it personally: it infuriates me when bin Laden’s companions smile friendly into the camera and talk about their time. I don’t need to know that he supposedly had “guts” and wasn’t afraid of getting hit by bullets. It’s hard for me to bear when the word “hero” is mentioned. I don’t want to know what made him a terrorist. These stories remind me of court cases in which, in the course of the trial, more and more understanding for the perpetrator is awakened, his difficult childhood is examined and his career is made transparent – and at the same time the victims are more and more forgotten.
My back then is not the back then of a moderately gifted but above-average wealthy man who lost his father early and then chose a preacher as his father. My back then are the innocent, desperate people of New York, falling from burning towers and falling to their deaths. My back then are the firefighters who got buried under the rubble of collapsing towers trying to save people. A killer is a killer. A terrorist is a terrorist. I don’t want to understand Osama bin Laden. He doesn’t deserve understanding. If there is a hell: he is in good hands there. And certainly not on public television.
