NYDailyNews

Bin Laden as Time Man of Year?

Osama Bin Laden is on the short list of contenders for Time magazine's Person of the Year award.

Time managing editor Jim Kelly says the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks is among a half-dozen candidates for the distinction. "It would be fair to assume the man who most of the world thinks was behind the Sept. 11 tragedy would be a candidate," Kelly told the Sacramento Bee.

Devoting the annual cover to the world's most notorious terrorist could be controversial — but there are precedents: Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also won the title.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

Answers

I really didn't think there was any other choice. It is supposed to be the person who did the most to shape the previous year's events. Unless you don't think OBL was the mastermind, then he would be the one.

However, there are also precedents for non-people. So, maybe it could be the picture of the second plane crashing into ATC or a blow up of the anthrax bacterium or spore? But those would really just be excuses not to be OBL on the cover.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

How about the guy that made "Let's Roll" famous?

Anybody but OBL.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

But "Person of the Year" was never intended to be a pillar of the community.

And it shouldn't be Bush, because whoever is behind 9/11 had a lot to do with making Bush who he is today.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

But think of the propaganda value for militant Arabs. I agree this man and the al Qaeda network have caused a drastic change in America but I think Giuliani is a good candidate for directing much of that change, also Bush, also, and maybe this is the answer, the American people. The people have come together so solidly and so splendidly--maybe we deserve the honor, dammit!

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

All fine people, but in a reactive capacity. Even if something bigger happens between now and the end of the year, to me it was still 9/11 that started it. The only "hope" would be if they found that Saddam or the Russian Mafia played a bigger role than OBL. I assume that Time will include an article about how it arrived at its decision, and that might be even more interesting than the decision itself.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

I agree with OG, because of the propaganda value for the militant Arabs. If it wasn't for that, he'd be an alright choice in the same way Hitler was.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

I agree with the dilemma, that's why I'd like to be a fly on the wall of the committee meetings on this one.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001